Warhammer and stamp-collecting collide in Royal Mail’s latest collection

Have you ever worried that your correspondence isn’t grimdark enough? Feared that your pen pal doesn’t understand how much you love Space Marines? Despaired that the birthday card you’re sending your mum includes no reminders of how good the art on the original Rogue Trader rulebook looked? Buddy, let me free you from your torment: Royal Mail is releasing a full set of Warhammer stamps.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the venerable franchise (counting from the first release of the original fantasy wargame, simply dubbed Warhammer, in 1983), the collection features primarily recent art and miniatures from Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. That includes portraits of Space Marine Primarch Roboute Guilliman and Daemon Prince Be’lakor, photography of Stormcast Eternal and Ork miniatures, and more. 

But there’s some classic art in there too, to tickle the nostalgia glands of any long-standing fan—including the aforementioned Rogue Trader artwork (that’s Warhammer 40,000 before it was Warhammer 40,000) and the gorgeous cover piece of the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set from Warhammer Fantasy, featuring dwarves and goblins working out some long-standing grudges. 

They’re up for preorder now, and as well as buying sheets of the stamps, you can also get postcards, framed sets, and something called a “stamp ingot”, which is apparently a metal replica of a stamp. All of which is fairly revealing of the fact that these are primarily collector’s items to be carefully hoarded, rather than being intended for practical use—which makes sense given how long it took me to think of any examples of needing to send a stamped letter in 2023 at the start of this article.