Isaac Newton stamps continued
1987 Russia
Russia commemorated the 350th anniversary
of the Principia with this stamp, part of a set of three honouring
famous scientists. The drawing of Newton is based on Godfrey
Kneller’s 1689 portrait. Attached to the stamp are two
identical labels, the wording on which says: “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, the greatest work of I. Newton. For the first
time a unified system of terrestrial and celestial mechanics
was constructed, which became a basis of classical
physics.”
Stanley Gibbons no. 5802
1993 Germany
This German stamp commemorates
Newton’s 350th birthday. Behind a sketch of Newton is
shown the famous experiment in which he passed rays of light
through a prism to form a spectrum. The equation is the
mathematical expression of Newton’s second law of motion
concerning acceleration produced by a force.
Stanley Gibbons no. 2495
1993 North Korea
A beautiful set, let down slightly by the
colour printing, issued in 1993 to mark the 350th anniversary
of Newton’s birth the preceding year. From left, the
stamps show: 10ch, the familiar 1702 portrait of Newton by Sir
Godfrey Kneller, from the National Portrait Gallery in London;
20ch, the famous apple tree in the garden of his cottage at
Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, overlain with the formula of the law
of gravitation; 30ch, Newton’s reflecting telescope with
a rocket (Russian), stylized satellite and tracking dish; 50ch,
formula of the binomial theorem over a diagram of satellites
orbiting the globe; 70ch, pages from Opticks and the Principia behind
Newton’s monument in Westminster Abbey, London. This
monument shows a reclining figure of Newton resting his right
arm on a pile of books representing his great works. The stamps
were also issued in two souvenir sheets of three stamps, the
10ch value being repeated on each.
Stanley Gibbons nos. N3334–8
2000 Burundi
Newton is here shown performing his famous
experiment of dividing white light into a spectrum by passing
it through a prism, which convinced him that the optical defect
of chromatic aberration could not be overcome and led him to
design and build the first reflecting telescope. Newton’s
reflector is shown on the stamp itself which is inset into this
souvenir sheet from the central African country of Burundi. The
sheet is not listed by Gibbons and thus has no SG number.
