The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1975

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what surely must be man's most important historical achievement.    The scope is broad. For a collection of space stamps certainly doesn't have to begin from the year 1957.    The subject can be broadened to take in, for example, rocketry. In 1971, the British-owned island of Ascension, in the South Atlantic,

brought out a complete set dealing with the evolution of space travel, and kicked off with a 1/2p stamp illustrating an early Chinese rocket from the mid-thirteenth century! The set goes on to depict historical astronomy, and ends up with man's first landing on the Moon and an impression of a space research station of the future.

Cosmonauts and Astronauts have appeared extensively on stamps--and so has the famous dog, Laika, sent up in Sputnik Two in November 1957!    If the idea of collecting space stamps grips you--and perhaps the illustrations on these pages will help--a fine cheap way of starting off is to buy a ready filled packet. All stamp

dealers sell them, and they're made up in all sorts of sizes. You can go on to collect covers, miniature sheets, whole sets when they take your fancy. And, if you've got a hankering for something really unusual you can wait until they've set up a post office on the Moon, and get hold of the first envelopes to make an interplanetary journey!

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