The stamps of Edward VIII

There are only a few stamps of King Edward VIII, thanks to his brief time on the throne, but as Barry Stagg reveals, there are enough errors, varieties, and postal history to occupy a collector for years. Perhaps it’s time for us to revisit this short but engaging chapter of GB stamp history

I’m often asked why I collect King Edward VIII stamps when only four were issued, no postal stationery and a reign that lasted less than twelve months! To answer that I need to step back a little to when I started collecting. Like most young stamp collectors of the time, I collected everything until I realised the impossibility of that endeavour and so soon resorted to pursuing just British stamps. But sometime in the 1980s I found that collecting British stamps was becoming too big a task too; I started to look for more bounded areas for collection. I thought King Edward VIII (which we shall now call KE8) stamps were suitable with only four stamps and a handful of errors to find, plus perhaps some coils and booklets; in