In 2025, the Isle of Man Post Office’s philatelic department released a philatelic collection to commemorate 60 years of the IOM Arts Council.
Established in 1965, the Isle of Man Arts Council is a sponsored body of the Department of Education, Sport and Culture which is funded by lottery taxes, whose mission is to promote and fund artistic and cultural activity on the island, providing sponsorship and advice to schools, groups and art venues.
The series consists of ten images depicting different activities and areas of the IOM Arts Council’s work, such as Wurlitzer organ concerts, performances at the Gaiety Theatre, sculptural works, the restoration of a Victorian carousel, urban art, music, exhibitions, visual art, dance and education.
With these ten photographs, the Isle of Man Post Office released a series of ‘traditional’ stamps, on January 14th 2025, which are available in different formats such as in packs, on covers and sheets. From February 3rd they also produced rolls of 1500 self-adhesive thermal labels for use in variable value stamp machines. On the Isle of Man these stamps are called VVD or VRD (Variable Value / Rate Definitives).
Preprinted stamps vs aCon variable value stamps
Isle of Man Stamps & Coins sells strips of ten self-adhesive stamps preprinted in offset with face values enclosed in a box (see the stamp strips at the end of the article). These strips have the same combination of rates as the ‘traditional’ stamp series; five stamps at the basic domestic rate of £0.90, three at the basic rate to the UK and Channel Islands at £1.00, one with the ‘Large Letter’ domestic rate at £1.90, and the last with the ‘Large Letter’ tariff to the UK and Channel Islands at £2.15 (see the postal tariffs table).
Beneath the face value, these preprinted stamps all have the same first day of issue in Julian calendar or ordinal format (25034 = February 3rd 2025), and the same fictitious code IOM01973 at the bottom edge of the stamp. This code corresponds to the year in which the Isle of Man Post Office Authority became an independent postal administration.
The philatelic service also sells variable value stamps, but in this case printed from its two aCon desktop printers. The face value of these stamps is also contained in a box. The user can select a programmed face value, and the printer includes the actual date of printing (25034 in the image below, right) and the code at the bottom identifies the printer used (IOM1507).
‘Pay&Post’ postal kiosks vs post offices
The ‘Isle of Man Arts Council 60th Anniversary’ series was progressively made available from February 3rd from the nine ‘Pay & Post’ postal kiosks installed in various locations across the island, as well as from the computer systems installed in all post offices and branches.
Both types of equipment use the same rolls of labels and include the same information on the stamps; the face value (without box), the actual printing date and a unique code at the bottom of each stamp, albeit with different printing fonts. The computer systems installed in post offices always guillotines the stamps into singles, regardless of the quantity requested, so consequently it’s not possible to obtain strips of stamps.
The images below show strips of stamps with the four varieties reviewed in this article.
(Click on the images to enlarge)
(English edition rewritten by J. Gareze – May 2025)
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