Commemorative (Souvenir and Miniature) Sheets

My underlying philatelic sources (as used on the First First pages) are James Mackay's Guinness Book of Stamps and his later Philatelic Terms Illustrated and Kenneth A. Wood’s 3-volume encyclopaedia of stamps,This is Philately.

I am toying with the term Commemorative Sheets because there is disagreement between the US and UK over the definitions of souvenir sheets and miniature sheets. In the UK the terms are largely interchangeable but 'miniature sheet' tends to predominate. In the US, souvenir sheet means a small sheet with a commemorative component, while miniature sheet means one without a commemorative context.

My working definition is A small sheet of stamps with a commemorative purpose.

    Where small is one to 25 (defined by the US 1926 White Plains sheet). The stamps may be different or of a single type;
    Stamps means one or more postally valid stamps, not just facsimiles;
    Commemorative purpose may refers to the sheet, the stamps themselves, or both.

The jury is still out on whether there must be an inscription or decoration, but wide margins seem to be a prerequisite.

Turning now to identification of the first sheet, Mackay (having dismissed an 1894 Ethiopia sheet as it never went on sale, discussed here), says the first ‘were issued by Luxembourg (1921-3) and Belgium (1924)’. I think this is an error on Mackay’s part and Wood is correct in stating that, ‘The first souvenir sheet is claimed to be a sheet of 10 stamps issued by Luxembourg in 1906 to commemorate the accession of Grand Duke William IV to the throne.’

Afghanistan deserves a mention as many of its early (1920s) stamps were produced in small sheets, but this seems to be a production decision rather than a commemorative one.

Where there is uncertainty, I will explore the details elsewhere (Luxembourg here) and just show the conclusions in the table below.

Page 1 - to 1937

While I intend to research all first sheets to date, I will only look for images up to around 1960 as that is when (as with most philatelic items) things started getting ill-designed, purely profit-motivated and largely uninteresting. I will make an exception for GB's first sheet (1980), although we have become silly in the last few years, issuing far too many sheets and diluting their attraction. First sheets of states formed after 1960 and particularly attractive first sheets from elsewhere may be included. Further notes here.

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page started October 2007