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<div>Hi:</div>
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<div>The Royal Mail has at last revealed details of their plans for a commemorative postage stamp featuring Colossus. I have known of this plan for some time as I was commissioned (in confidence) last year to write a section on Tommy Flowers for the chapter
in the next Royal Mail Year Book about the new stamp series. (A rather brief press release by Royal Mail itself indicates that "<span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); font-family: arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">each of the eight
special stamps depict key inventions created by British inventors over the last century: Colossus, World Wide Web, Catseyes, Fibre Optics, Stainless Steel, Carbon Fibre, DNA Sequencing, i-limb"</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font face="arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> -
see </span></font></span><a href="http://www.royalmail.com/personal/stamps-collectibles-gifts/look-forward-into-2015">http://www.royalmail.com/personal/stamps-collectibles-gifts/look-forward-into-2015</a>.)</div>
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<div>The attached picture and text in fact comes from a scanned copy of the February 2015 British Philatelic Bulletin, rather than directly from the Royal Mail., which I received today. I had not seen the design of the stamp before, so only now - to my annoyance
- do I find that it describes Colossus as “the first electronic digital computer” - my own text takes care to use the phrase “the first programmable electronic digital computer”.</div>
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<div>I have pointed out this problem to the Royal Mail, but have been told that it is too late for it to be corrected - the stamps are to be issued next month. (I have learned that the Royal Mail were given some rather poor advice, so I don’t blame them.)</div>
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<div>However I am nevertheless delighted that Colossus is being commemorated by the Royal Mail, and by the growing public recognition especially here in the UK of Tommy Flowers’ great contribution.</div>
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<div>Cheers</div>
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<div>Brian Randell</div>
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<div><img apple-inline="yes" id="A8916EFE-AB6B-4A5E-92BA-1EA21F481F9E" height="406" width="300" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:658FA3BF-3CAE-483D-AECD-25F48014D3A1"></div>
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