Italy has issued nine commemorative stamps of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, bearing a value that ranges between 0.23 cents and 1.70 euros. The stamps depict the pictograms of some sport disciplines and representative elements of the Olympic Winter Games against backgrounds featuring different geometrical patterns.

The most obvious difference other than crisp clear lines under magnification is in the phosphor bands which are more solid on the sheet stamps and labels are attached to the stamps.

The personalised Smilers sheets contain 20 copies of one (same) design, and are also as speculated of the self-adhesive type. The sheets are printed by Walsall's French subsidiary, Cartor, and are collectably quite different from the booklet designs. one will need to order 6 different sheets to obtain copies all varieties.

Smilers stamps are not separately listed at this time in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, although the full sheets are listed at the back of the book.

Other catalogues and some pre-printed albums do (will) recognise these as different stamps. As there is no generic sheet at this time the only way to get these Cartor stamps is from the different Personalised Smilers sheets.           Back to Previous News Page       Next: News Page 02