On the 1st of December 2010, MaltaPost will be celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the first Malta Stamp; the Queen Victoria Half Penny which was first issued for local use in December of 1860. The engraver of the die of the stamp was Jean Ferdinand Joubert de la’ Ferte, and was printed by Thomas de la Rue in UK. Following the introduction of the inland deliveries, the Halfpenny Yellow was introduced and covered the cost of a letter up to ½ oz. in weight. The Halfpenny yellow was used between 1860 and 1885. Due to different issue dates the Halfpenny yellow comes in a variety of shades, watermarks and perforations.

MaltaPost will be holding a number of activities to celebrate this Anniversary. “On the 150th Anniversary of the first Malta Stamp, MaltaPost will be organising an exhibition featuring these unique first Malta stamps together with various postal items that have been used in these last 150 years and a number of artworks by various Maltese artists that were produced for the design of stamps. This exhibition will be held at the Malta National Library and will be open to the general public till beginning of January. Additionally MaltaPost will issue a philatelic commemorative miniature sheet entitled ‘150th Anniversary First Malta Stamp 1st December 1860’ to commemorate this event,” said Mr Joseph Gafà, CEO of MaltaPost at a press conference.

A number of expert talks will be held at the Malta National Library focusing on the Halfpenny Yellow Malta Stamp. The activities include MaltaPost’s participation, for the first time, in the Malta National Book Fair being held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta between the 10th and the 14th November 2010.

On the 10th of November, at the Book Fair, MaltaPost is launching the Postage Stamp Design Competition with the theme of ‘Forests’ open to Form 1 to Form 5 students attending any secondary school in Malta and Gozo. The two winning designs may feature on the 2011 EUROPA stamp issue which will commemorate the International Year of Forests 2011. One of the winning stamps may also represent Malta in the Best EUROPA stamp contest amongst all EUROPA official stamps. The EUROPA stamp best design competition is a yearly online event in which the result is announced during the Plenary Assembly. The best design will be chosen by web viewers and PostEurop members who will vote online for their favourite stamp.

MaltaPost will be meeting all Philatelic Societies in Malta and Gozo at their Head Office to discuss philately and is also announcing a joint project with Malta National Library.

A number of open days will also be held at the MaltaPost Premises. The visits will include tours in a number of deparments including the Central Mail Room. This will give the opportunity to the public to observe the full process behind delivering the mail.

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