31 July 2025
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We are going to cover all things Peanut and Charlie Brown from the details of the stamp collection to the history of the comic strip.
On 24th July, Royal Mail issued a commemorative set as a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip. Appearing in a set of eight se-tennant pairs, each stamp features a scene from the internationally loved comic strip. Showing iconic moments from Charlie Brown and the gang.
The History of Peanuts
Charles Schulz created the masterpiece in 1950. He published the comic strip 7 days a week for nearly 50 years.
As many as 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries enjoyed the comic. By an estimated 350 million readers, reprints still run in 2,000 newspapers. Proof that Peanuts remains highly popular a quarter of a century after the final original strip appeared in 2000.
After returning from World War 1, Charles Schulz began selling his single panel cartoons, notably the weekly ‘Lil Folks’ series to the local paper. He signed these with his pen name Sparky.
His search for publishers for his cartoons eventually led to the United Feature Syndicate inviting him to New York in 1950. There was an existing comic strip with the name ‘Lil Folks’, so the syndicate decided to call the new strip Peanuts. Schulz never liked this new name but carried on anyway.
Confined for years to the four same-sized panels, but as many more papers signed on it led to longer Sunday episodes in colour from 1952. In the UK, the ‘Peanuts’ dailies first appeared in 1953, being picked up by the Daily Mail in 1971.
Schulz maintained his demanding solo schedule to deliver Peanuts in advance for as long as his health allowed him. But in his last strip, he created a letter to his reader announcing his retirement. He called all the readers his friends and explained that his family does not want Peanuts continued by anyone else.
He summed up the strip as ‘the fullfilment of my childhood ambition.’ In a moving piece of timing, his global audience read his message on the Sunday morning after he passed away on 12 February 2000.
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The Peanuts Stamp set
All 8 stamps feature different scenes, most focusing on Charlie Brown but also heavily including Snoopy Dog. They are all 1st class stamps and can be bought on the Royal Mail website.
The stamps featuring Snoopy include Snoopy lying on top of a red-letter box, Snoopy dressed as a Royal Guard, Charlie Brown holding an umbrella over Snoopy as he eats and Charlie Brown and Snoopy celebrating a birthday with cake. The rest feature Charlie Brown hanging out with his friends playing football, at the beach, dancing to music and sitting under a tree together.
These images will be familiar to people all over the world and are an amazing way to remember the amazing life of Charles Schulz and the sensational Peanuts comic strip.
Learn more about all things commemorative stamps in the latest edition of Stamp inc Coin Collector out next week!