Since 1973, when the Isle of Man Post Office authority became independent, it has been designing and issuing its own unique stamps.

Having covered so many stamp releases over the years, we wanted to find what the process is like for designing these special stamps, which have become sought after by collectors worldwide.

Maxine Cannon, general manager at Isle of Man Stamps & Coins, has just marked 40 years in her job at the post office.

We first wanted to know how the post office came up with the ideas for its stamps, which over the years have depicted a wide range of historical events and figures, often with a connection to the island.

Maxine explained that they take input from any number of local societies and organisations, which are then added to a ’future issue’ list to be worked through.

This could be the RNLI getting in contact for an anniversary or the Post Office looking further afield, to events like upcoming Euro 2020 football tournament - particularly with the connection coming through Manx-born Kieran Tierney who will play for Scotland.

She stressed that the post office does still have to be ’commercially minded’ and create a product which will accrue value for collectors.

It is also working with the British Olympic Association on a set of stamps to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the modern Olympics this year, looking at the Games’ history and highlighting Manx competitors such as Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh.

’We gather our thoughts [for stamps] from all over the show, and it then goes into a melting pot - we know what our bedrock collectors (many of whom have been collecting since 1973, or order from as far away as California) like - quite a lot of transport, Manx history, aviation and military history.

Maxine also explained that some ideas, even those from the best designers in the world, have simply not translated well onto the format of a 28x42mm (or smaller) stamp.

From drawing board to printworks, the design process for a stamp can take as little as a couple of months.

This was even seen during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the ideas for the ’#carryusthrough’ stamps [which celebrated the Manx community’s response to the pandemic] were first conceived in mid-March last year, and issued on May 4.

On average however, it takes around eight months.

Presentation pack usually run around 15,000 stamps printed, and for general (non-collector) postal use issues around 120,000 stamp books are printed.

The island has also often been first to the mark on certain high-profile stamp ideas, such as being the first in the world to feature Paul McCartney’s personal artwork.

This came about because Sir Paul used to anonymously visit the island - however Maxine said the psychedelic style of his artwork in the collection didn’t particularly please some of the more ’traditional’ collectors.

The Isle of Man Post Office (IoMPO) also persistently lobbied Warner Brothers to become the first to get worldwide rights to produce Harry Potter stamps.

And for the 2012 Olympics, because it was hosted in London it was assumed that the Royal Mail had the exclusive right to issue stamps, but having home nation status, the IoMPO pushed to be able to issue its own set which were ’very well received’.

’We have a very much "reach for the stars" attitude (literally).

’You’d be amazed where our stamps have ended up - they’ve been on the space station, after being brought up by [British] astronaut Tim Peake, but also [American] astronaut Nicole Stott, the wife of Chris Stott from Manx space satellite registration business ManSat.

’They’ve been on the QEII cruise ship when she did her final voyage, and they were on the last flight of Concorde.’

Another unique opportunity came when Professor Stephen Hawking approached the IoMPO and asked if it would consider stamps recognise his life achievements.

This connection also lead to Manx high-school students having the opportunity to attend his funeral at Westminster Abbey.

She added: ’We don’t just look at the stamps in terms of what they can do for the Post Office, we very much think in terms of what this can do for the Isle of Man as a brand [internationally].’

Asked what her favourite stamps are, Maxine said one was the first ever stamp the IoMPO did, a stamp depicting the landing of the Vikings in the island by John Nicholson (pictured inset).

Maxine said that among the most popular with collectors were some of the iconic printing errors, but others that stood out were the millennium stamps which were issued as the only post office to be open at midnight - with three stamps set to be issued in the three minutes during the turn of the century.

Asked what stamps were most widely well received by the wider public, Maxine said ones that came to mind were the Christmas stamps which feature the Snowman from the iconic children’s cartoon.

More recently, she said they had ’rave reviews’ over the stamps which commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Manx National Trust by depicting the Calf of Man.

She said it was great to look back on not only the successes, but also some of the more humorous failures.

For example, when Honda held its 50th anniversary on the island. When the former Post Office head Dot Tilbury was showing commemorative stamp books to top executive on the way back from the airport, they pointed out to her that the Japanese translator employed by the isle of Man Post Office had made a major error in the wording of the characters.

It did not read ’Honda Motorcycles’, but ’Honda Lawnmowers’.

On another occasion, for a set of memorial stamps of Joey Dunlop, his iconic bright yellow helmet had appeared to look fine up until they saw the stamps after they had actually been printed in Ireland, and the helmet looked lime green.

Maxine said she feels as though she has ’the best job in the whole wide world’, but stressed that the stamps and coins team were only one part of the jigsaw, no more important than support personnel like the finance and mail workers, and the staff who work hard to promote the integrity of the IoMPO - without which their stamps would not get royal approval.

Special Manx coin issues are also released through the IoMPO, but are overseen by the Treasury.