The signing of the Armistice in Allied Commander General Foch's railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne at 5am on Monday 11 Novmeber 1918 brought an end to what was then known as The Great War. The cease fire came into effect six hours later - 'the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month' - when silence fell across the battlefields of northern France and Flanders for the first time in over four years.
The 2018 Great War Centenary Retail Book contains two special Poppy stamps one from the first centenary issue of 2014 and the other from this year together with four Machin Definitives. The book is printed in Gravure and the stamps are self-adhesive - thus the two poppy stamps differ from the main issue where they are gummed and printed in Litho.
The Gold 500 cover carries an image of the Thiepval Memorial in France, which commemorates the 72,337 British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme 1915-1918. This moving image is framed by a 22ct gold-blocked design and the cover bears a London SW1A pictorial handstamp. Numbered limited edtion of 500.
