Description

— New stock added —

Bardsey 1980 Royal Visit of the Prince of Wales Set in Sheetlet (4v, U/M)

1980 set from Bardsey, issued to commemorate the royal visit (in 1978) of the Prince of Wales. The set features four stamps (9½p, 12½p, 15p, 20p) in sheetlet format, depicting various island scenes.

U/M / Unmounted Mint / MNH / Mint Never Hinged.

About Bardsey

Bardsey (Ynys Enlli) is an island located two miles off the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, and owned by the Bardsey Island Trust since 1979.

Between 1979 and 1982, the Trust issued local carriage labels for its own postal operation, to supplement the one-day-a-week service provided by the British Post Office, and to help generate funds to support the Trust's work managing the island. At least fifteen well-designed issues were produced over this period, printed by Format International Security Printers Ltd, though the extent to which they performed a genuine postal function is unclear. This excellent article includes further background and illustrations relating to Bardsey's stamps during that period.

Further issues bearing the island's name appeared throughout the 1980s and 1990s, though many of these were just overprints on earlier releases, produced in seemingly small quantities and, as far as we can tell, not sanctioned by the Bardsey Island Trust.

In 2015, an attractive new £1 stamp and £3 miniature sheet inscribed with the Bardsey name appeared, followed by a label depicting Bardsey lighthouse in 2017 and another lighthouse issue in 2024. However, these too are privately produced fantasy issues, rather than a resumption of 'official' Trust-issued Bardsey stamps.

For more about Bardsey's postal history, read our own blog post here.