Royal Mail release a set of eight special “Peanuts” stamps this week, on Thursday 24th July 2025, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Charles Schulz starting the strip back in 1950.
A whole range of 19 different items is available, including a limited edition Snoopy medal.
Designed entirely by Interabang, the set includes eight beautiful designs featuring Charles M. Schulz’s iconic characters, with some heartwarming British details thrown in.
First published on 2nd October 1950, “Peanuts” became a global phenomenon. At its height, the strip appeared in over 2600 newspapers, first appearing in the Daily Sketch in 1953 here in the UK.
Schulz’s cast of anxious, overthinking, endlessly relatable kids struck a chord with audiences everywhere – and that appeal hasn’t dimmed.
“For generations, Peanuts has brought laughter, comfort, and quiet wisdom,” said David Gold from Royal Mail. “This stamp collection is a heartfelt tribute to Charles M. Schulz’s enduring legacy and the timeless charm of his comic strip.”
Comics connoisseur Paul Gravett was invited to contribute to this project, writing texts for both the Presentation Pack and First Day Cover.
“I like the British elements on these,” he enthuses, “from Snoopy on a red pillar box or in a buzby with Woodstock, to Lucy and Linus building a sandcastle of Windsor Castle, Charlie Brown and Franklin playing football and a birthday tea with Woodstock popping out of a teapot!”
Peanuts in Britain
“While writing and researching my texts for the new Royal Mail stamps commemorating 75 years of ‘Peanuts’, I wanted to find out precisely when and how Charles Schulz’s daily strip, which started in 1950, crossed the Atlantic and arrived in a UK newspaper,” Paul says. “I knew it was in The Daily Sketch and, after, a lot of whizzing through microfilm at the British Library’s brilliant Newsroom, I found the answer.
‘Peanuts’ debuted, without any fanfare, on the back page of The Daily Sketch on Monday February 23rd 1953 and the first was a reprint (with the U.S. date still on it) from January 27th 1951.
“As for the Sunday episodes, British readers had to wait until January 1971 for them to start in The Observer‘s Sunday magazine, in colour!
• Check out the full “Peanuts” stamp range here in the Royal Mail webshop
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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