The Tower of Art $1 green, issued in what would later be known as The Year of the Prawn, is one of the most iconic of the Discworld stamps. Here I hope to provide some background to the stamps, and to mention all the collectables deriving from this one issue. It is not an easy task to be definitive (pune intended) on some points because in those early days of 2003-4 the stamps were not expected to be as popular as they soon became; it may well have all stopped after the original seven stamp issue. Few records were kept, and much information comes from memory - notoriously labile or unreliable. However the stamps did continue, and more and more stamps were required. It is generally accepted that there were three print runs of this particular stamp. The term print run here refers to stamp sheet layout and design, than to actual batches of stamp sheets delivered to the Discworld Emporium within each print run; of these there were many, and thus the small variations between the batches provides a dedicated collector with ample opportunities to waste brain cells squinting at their collection.

   “If there is one stamp that sums up just what Discworld Stamps are all about it is the $1 Tower of Art. It is probably the most unusual stamp that has been produced to date; Terry Pratchett himself sketched its design out when the idea of Discworld Postage Stamps was first being discussed. The concept was worked up by Bernard Pearson before being given to Alan Batley; the artist engraver, who gave the design the superb look you see now. If you have good eyesight you can see the falling man and the splash as he hits the river Ankh. The view of the Unseen University in the background is as accurate a depiction you can get, without being there, and of course from the sketch on the back of an envelope came the words in the book, and thus a small piece of gummed paper that is the essence of Discworld.” So said Bernard Pearson a few years ago.

     Left is the original sketch of the Tower, drawn by Bernard from the description supplied by Terry Pratchett (courtesy the History of Discworld Stamps poster). Already it is recognizable for what it would become. This was redrawn by Alan Batley and a border framework with text inscriptions designed by Colin Edwards was added. The frame’s inspiration had to come from somewhere and the best place to look is a classic stamp, possibly the GB 1884 Ten Shilling cobalt blue with its bold design to give character to a high value stamp. Somewhere along the line it was decided that this stamp’s dimensions should emphasize the height of the Tower and a size of 100 mm tall and 20 mm wide was decided upon, leading to quite a degree of stretching of the QV design.

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   (Stanley) put a sheet of slightly damp greeny-grey stamps on the desk. ‘The first dollar stamps, sir!’ he announced.
   ‘My word, Mr. Spools has done a good job here!’ said Moist, staring at the hundreds of little green pictures of the university’s Tower of Art. ‘It even looks worth a dollar!’
   ‘Yes, sir. You hardly notice the little man jumping from the top.’ said Stanley.
   Moist snatched the sheet from the boy’s hand. ‘What, where?’
   ‘You need a magnifying glass, sir. And it’s only on a few of them. In some he’s in the water. Mr. Spools is very sorry, sir. He says it may be some kind of induced magic. You know, sir? Like even a picture of a wizard’s tower might be a bit magical itself.? There’s a few faults on some of the others, too.’ So the Discworld stamp sports were born.

   These sports were present on the final preproduction print runs. Prior to the press day at the Bath Postal Museum a print run for final approval was produced for all the original stamps, as miniature sheets, using the same paper and printing process that would be used for the full sheets that would be perforated at the museum. These and the subsequent batch of sheets were printed by a company based somewhere in East Anglia. The $1 miniature sheet had three stamps; one regular stamp and one each of the two sports.

Continue to the First Issue

For the record, this stamp was released on the 9th of July, and withdrawn from sale in February 2006, when the Year of the Signifying Frog definitives went on sale.