Smilers sheet

Smilers is the name given to Britain's personalised stamps. Personalised stamp sheets (or P-Stamps) were first issued by Australia Post in the summer of 1999.

Personalized stamp sheets were first issued by the Post Office (subsequently renamed Royal Mail) to coincide with The Stamp Show 2000, Britain's international stamp exhibition held in May 2000 at Earls Court.

The "Smilers" A4-sized stamp sheets contained ten se-tenant "smiles" stamps with a generic label design. Personalised versions of these stamp sheets were made available to the public at special photo-booths throughout the 2000 Stamp Show held in London. The cost for a single sheet of ten stamps and personalised photo labels was £5.95 (£10.00 for two sheets; equivalent to a premium of £4.80 on the cost of twenty stamps). The cost in March 2008 was £13.50 per single sheet of twenty first-class stamps or £12.50 for two or more sheets (a premium of £6.70 over face value).

This service proved popular to visitors attending the show, arguably due to its novelty value, but later attempts to continue the Smilers sheet format with other stamp designs was initially not so popular. This can be attributed to the novelty value having worn off and the premium charged above face value. As a result, the subsequent four or five smilers sheet issues are now scarce. The 2000 Christmas sheets featured designs of a robin in the mouth of a pillar box and Father Christmas holding a Christmas cracker that had first appeared in 1995 and 1997. The 2001 sheets were even less popular when issued, as they featured those same designs again, the only difference being the addition of the word "Smilers" and the name Consignia in place of Post Office on the selvage.

As an alternative to the personalised version, using a photo or image provided by the purchaser, Royal Mail also produce sheets with pre-designed "generic" labels at a much lower premium.

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