Malta Christmas stamps

Christmas stamps designed by Emvin Cremona in 1973

Even though less and less people are sending letters and cards by snail mail nowadays, still the history of philately goes back over 150 years. And Malta prides itself in producing some of the most beautiful sets of stamps, especially between 1957 and 1980 when the predominant artist commissioned to design stamps was Emvin Cremona, one of Malta’s most prolific painters, who was born precisely 100 years ago. Over the past few weeks I’ve been giving several interviews on national TV on his works, and today I highlighted his philatelic contribution, producing 62 sets of stamps with 170 different designs. Today I share with you just three Christmas sets, in what you might call very innovative designs.

This set came out in 1968 and was issued in a trapezoidical shape. The monetary value was still in the British equivalent of pounds, shillings and pence, until Malta turned metric in the 1980s.

This set from 1967 also has a peculiar design as each stamp is in the shape of a rhombus, all three stamps attached and forming a scene of the nativity and but when detached, they could be used as a different denomination.