During the summer of 2009 collectors received some unexpected stamps, either as envelope decoration or in bonus packets. They were imperforate and featured a skull in an ornate framed mirror. A variety of colours were found. Most were inscribed Death of Stamps, but also some had Dearth of Stamps. Overseas collectors may have had that legend in Spanish (La Muerte de Sellos), German (Todt der Stempel) or French (La Morte de Timbres). The range of colours included greens, browns, gold, purple, grey, and a bright cerise. Latterly some perforated examples have been made available in small numbers. No sheets of these have yet appeared, but at least this collector lives in hope!
Collectors had a second chance to grab some of these in the Little Bag of Sticky Bits offered in late 2012.

Nothing more was known about these until the 2009 Halloween issue, which was of a similar design, but featured a redrawn skull peering from the side of the central oval, in an almost holographic effect. It was revealed as a Batley and Edwards Stampsmyth production, with stamps sheets including a mythprint, covers and a single stamp presentation folder.
They are described as stamps issued by the All Hallows Post Office for a no-cost postal service for mail to the Other-Side.

Collectors had a second chance to fill their gaps in the Death of Stamps series in some mixed bags sold in 2019.

There has been a hint that some single Halloween stamps were enhanced by a doodle using a UV marker pen, though no collectors have found one yet. They were possible used on the packaging of the orders.

Intriguingly, in September 2008, a postal label was issued declaring that there were Only 426 Days Until Halloween. Though the skull image bore more of a likeness to the Dead Letter Office issue of that year than to these stamps, it demonstrates that this issue was in the planning stages for well over a year; and possibly the DLO stamp sprang from the original artwork of this.

What to look for with this issue?

• The mythprint
• The presentation folder
• The various Death of Stamps prototypes
• and the especially the foreign language versions
• The 426 days postal label.

It is worth copying what was said about this stamp when it was issued.
The stamps have been professionally perforated. We take a lot of time to get our stamps right and would not want to spoil the end result with poor finishing, but this does contribute to the production cost. The stamps have been printed in the UK and hand perforated in the United States by our very old friends the Olathe Poste on their original 1916 Rosback perforator. The perforations are therefore an old-fashioned imperial specification - 15 holes per inch, not a metric measure, and therefore entirely compatible with the classic vintage styling of the stamps themselves.
Our stamps are not the cheapest, with the tiny quantities we hand-produce we cannot possibly compete with the prices of other, larger, manufacturers - but we believe they represent great value for the limited edition collectables we hope they will become.