There have been many stamps issued over the years and there have been many different themes to the stamps, one of the themes that have been featured would be sport. If there is a particular sporting event such as the cricket world cup, football world cup or the Olympics then the postage stamps issued would have pictures of events from the competition. Events from the Olympics would include skiing, ice skating, javelin, events from both track and field. The stamps not only have the events but are often issued with the winners names on the stamps.
After Team GB success in the 2008 Olympics a set of handover stamps were issued which featured both China and England, on these stamps were the Olympic Stadium in China – the National Stadium in Beijing which also gained the name of the ‘Bird’s Nest’ because of its steel architecture that made it look the part of a Bird’s Nest. The London Eye is featured on another of the stamps, this Ferris Wheel was originally opened to depict the turning of the century into the year 2000. The Tower of London is featured on another stamp, which is known to be the former residence of the Royals in the United Kingdom and the last stamp features the Corner Tower which is located in Beijing in what is known as the Forbidden City and is home to the Emperor of China.
All of these stamps will have been bought by collectors of stamps, and will have been picked up by people who have a particular interest in the Olympic Games.
It is not just the Olympic games that gets the collectors interested in buying stamps, the World Cup has always been a talking point as far as sport is concerned, it is a global event that features teams from all over the world, since the world cup was introduced in 1930 there has only actually been seven winners, and one of those winners was England in 1966.
There have been many stamps which have included footballers from that era but the most recent stamps which have been brought out, not only feature England but feature five other countries and players also these countries are England, Argentina, Italy, France, Brazil and Germany, all of the stamps have the countries flag in the corner, and a player from each of the countries whom is thought to have played a major contribution in football in featured on the stamp.
The stamp for England features Geoff Hurst who is known to have scored the one and only hat-trick in a World Cup Final. He was part of the 1966 team who defeated their opponents West Germany 4-2 at Wembley. When his final goal went over the line the famous words were said which are known to this day as ‘they think it’s all over, it is now’.
Germany’s stamp features Franz Beckenbaur who collected the world cup on two occasions, once when he was a player in 1974 and the next time in 1990 when he was manager for the German team. The 1990 World cup brings back memories for many people, and was when Paul Gascoigne became famous for crying when he was given a yellow card which would mean he wouldn’t play in the final of the world cup should England get there. England never did get there as the game went to a semi-final shoot out and left England as country in tears.
Whether the images are of the Olympics, Athletics, Cricketers, Footballers or just winners in general, if they are featured on stamps it makes the post offices job of selling stamps (Briefmarken schätzen) an easier task and buying stamps (Briefmarkenankauf) from a collectors point of view much more interesting.