I noticed on eBay a sheet of “Christmas” seals that had images of Korean, Pakistani, English, Pilipino and E. African children which I had not seen before. It was issued by the Salvation Army in Batley, England, UK and I was curious why these seals were issued, and what was the history of these types of seals. I wondered if any additional Christmas seals in other years were issued with images of Korean children by this branch of the Salvation Army.
The 1979 Christmas seal issued by the Salvation Army was printed as a multi-colored sheet of 25 seals, with the images arranged so it appears as there is a red Christian cross in the center of the sheet. This unusual arrangement of a full sheet of seals, from left to right, has 5 seals depicting a Korean child, with a white background in a vertical row. The second vertical row has 4 seals with the white background, depicting a Pakistani child, and one seal with an English child with a red background. The seals in with the red background form the image of the cross and one sea red in the second vertical is an arm of the cross. The third or middle vertical row of the Christmas seal sheet has 5 vertical seals with a red background. Only the seals with the red background with the English child form the image of the cross. The fourth vertical row has 4 seals with a white background showing a Pilipino child and has only one of the seals with the red background, with one of the seals depicting an English child. The fifth vertical row of the sheet has 5 seals with the image of an E. African child. (See Fig 1)
