As we first told you back on October 7th, the British Royal Mail are producing a special stamp issue focusing on "The Design Classics: Classic Album Covers", which will appear on January 7th, and includes Pink Floyd's The Division Bell amongst the ten sleeves chosen.

With the almost bewildering range of options that you can order (worldwide) from the Royal Mail website, along with a special pair of limited Pink Floyd edition 'First Day Covers' featuring The Division Bell, there's a wide variety of items available to the fan and collector, which we are detailing here to help you with your purchasing decisions...

First, the offerings from the Royal Mail, a number of which will be available through your local Post Office if you are in the UK, but which can be ordered online worldwide, via www.RoyalMail.com/albumcovers:

• Classic Album Covers Stamp Set - the complete set of ten, first-class stamps, featuring all the different album covers. Price: £3.90
• Classic Album Covers Souvenir Sheet - a superb way to collect the new stamps. The sheet reproduces all ten designs as gummed stamps, and they have been arranged in order of album release. The sheet design mimics that of a record cover and is 22.4cm x 18.9cm. Price: £3.90
• Classic Album Covers Souvenir Sheet Cover - a uniquely collectable item, complete with the Souvenir Sheet and an informative filler card. The oversized cover measures 32.4cm x 22.9cm making this perfect to frame and display for all to admire. Price: £5.50
• Classic Album Covers First Day Cover - the First Day Cover displays all ten of the Special Stamps and includes within information about each of the Classic Album Covers by Mojo Editor Phil Alexander. Price for UK addresses: £5.06. Price for non-UK addresses: £4.31
• Classic Album Covers Prestige Stamp Book First Day Cover - displays a unique definitive pane and includes within information about each of the Classic Album Covers by Mojo Editor Phil Alexander. Price: £4.14
• Classic Album Covers Presentation Pack - fully illustrated presentation pack contains all ten Classic Album Art Stamps. Inside Mojo Editor Phil Alexander speaks to long-time Pink Floyd sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson and takes a look at Album Cover design. Price: £4.40
• Classic Album Covers Stamp Cards - a set of ten postcards bearing enlarged images of each of the Special Stamps. Price: £4.00
• Classic Album Covers - Pink Floyd (Strip of 5) - finally, you can buy a vertical strip of 5 (or multiples of 5) of the Special Stamp depicting the album cover from Pink Floyd's Division Bell. Price: £1.95

You can also buy strips of each of the other nine covers in the series, which are A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay; Parklife – Blur; Power Corruption and Lies – New Order; Let It Bleed – The Rolling Stones; London Calling – The Clash; Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield; IV – Led Zeppelin;  Screamadelica – Primal Scream; The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – David Bowie.

There is a technical reason behind the choice of Pink Floyd cover: the Royal Mail couldn't consider 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' as a stamp, because there's too much black ink in the design, and that renders inoperative the phosphor strip that enables automatic stamp sorting. The designs themselves were chosen independently of the respective bands and management teams.

Finally, just to clarify, all the stamps are fully legal to use for posting items within/from the UK.

Special Limited Edition Pink Floyd First Day Covers

We've also been contacted by Russ at Sci-fi Collector Shop, who have created a pair of official, limited edition Pink Floyd First Day Covers.

The one-stamp version [pictured below left, click thumbnail] includes a custom envelope with images from The Division Bell album. It will also sport a Custom franking mark dated 7th January 2010 from Ely, Cambridgeshire, the place where the cover photograph for The Division Bell was taken. On the reverse will be the limited edition number, a photo of the band, and some information about the album.

The ten-stamp version [pictured below right, click thumbnail] is similar to the one-stamp version but includes ten of The Division Bell stamps, all franked with the Custom franking mark.

Both of these are exclusively available from www.ScifiCollectorShop.co.uk, and pre-orders are being taken from now, right up to and including January 7th 2010. The one-stamp version costs £5.99, and the 10-stamp version costs £9.99. They are sent post-free within the UK, and worldwide at cost.

Whichever item or combinations of item you are after, please ensure you order before January 7th to be sure of receipt - this is particularly key for First Day Covers which are issued on the release date only.