The first Sto Helit stamp was the five pence issued in the Year of the Signifying Frog. Designed and nicely proportioned by Colin Edwards, it features a bust if Susan Sto Helit drawn by Davis Wyatt (who`s work would also be seen on the Bad Blintz stamps less than two months later).

If you look at the sheet in particular you will see that the background colour (there is no white margin) gradates from a yellowish to an olive shade left to right. This makes the job of perforating more critical than usual, at least on the vertical perforations. Normally, with a uniform white margin to the stamp the perforations can be 0.5mm out without a problem, but on this stamp there would be a lighter or darker band down the edge.

The stamps were printed by Teemer and Spools in sheets of 42. The was a sport on the sheet where the omega on Susan`s pendant is inverted. But apart from one curiosity there seems to no other varieties. This curiosity is a early design test print done with a laser printer on ungummed paper and scissor cut. It is essentially the final design, but noticably paler and lacks the richness of colour. This item was found in a lucky dip bag of loose stamps.

The Omega Sport The trial print

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One of the Mrs Cosmopilite Letters is from a Mr Albert Pringle of Sto Helit, and a 5p Susan stamp is used on the envelope.