Prestige Booklets

An article by Jeremy Lifsey, author of Stamp Booklets: Magic Carpets To Adventure, about prestige booklets appears on the Philataelic Database Web site. The piece originally appeared in the February 2007 edition of the American Philatelist.

In it Jeremy writes,"Great Britain started printing Prestige Booklets in 1972. The first one was devoted to the life and products of Josiah Wedgwood. In 1969 Great Britain issued a booklet with recipes. It wasn’t called a Prestige Booklet but it sure looks like one."

He goes on to say, "With the introduction of Prestige Booklets much of what was familiar has changed. The text and the pictures in all the Prestige Booklets deal with a single theme. Most of the time, but not always, the stamps and the text complement each other."

"In 2004 the United States issued a Prestige Booklet commemorating the 200th anniversary of the start of the Lewis and Clark expedition. This 32 page booklet contains only two panels of stamps whose face value is $7.40. The booklet sold for $8.95, a premium of $1.55. It is beautifully executed and could serve very well as an educational document for those people who want a short but reasonably detailed text and picture presentation of the expedition, " according to Jeremy.

He points out, "The Postal Service justifies the premium for this booklet because of the extensive artwork, the detail of the research, and the cost of production. It is a philatelic item but clearly the Postal Service is now producing artfully designed small books as well as printing stamps."

Shown above, the first Prestige Booklet issued by Great Britain in 1972. No premium over the face value of the stamps was charged.

To read the entire article, click here.