Falkland Islands stamps, whose designs cover all aspects of the history, wildlife and flora, economy, transport and visitors to the South Atlantic British colony, are perennially popular with collectors. This ‘stamp of approval’ has not grown solely out of sentiments associated with the vicissitudes of the early settlement and three wars (1914-1918, 1939-1945 and 1982), and a fascinating history of postal services. The esteem of collectors has been sustained over many decades by a carefully considered and relevant stamp issue policy, with good design (much of it locally originated), and genuine local usage of the stamps.
The most famous Falklands stamps are probably the 1964 set noting the Battle of the Falkland islands in 1914, and in particular the extremely rare error where the 6d value has the wrong frame. This set of four, noting the engagement between the British and German navies, is usually described as the 6d HMS (the central vignette on the non-error ‘normal’ stamp depicts HMS , with smoke coming out of its stern-most funnel). As only a very small number of copies (in the ‘teens’) are known, the error stamp does not get included in Falklands collections
