Bletchley Park to sell four first day commemorative covers for collectors

Bletchley Park is to release four first day covers celebrating Alan Turing's centenary year.

The £9.99 covers, which it intends to be restricted to just 500 each, will carry a single 1st class Royal Mail "Turing Bombe" stamp cancelled with a unique first day of issue postmark.

This is a facsimile of one of the Bombe's 36 drums marked with the letters of the alphabet.

The first design is by Rebecca Peacock of Firecatcher Design and the theme is Turing's work on the mathematics of patterns. The other three are original paintings by artist Steve Williams who has donated his work to the Bletchley Park Trust.

They depict three buildings at Bletchley Park associated with Alan Turing; the cottage and Hut 8 where he worked and Hut 11 that housed the Turing Bombe machines. The proceeds will go towards supporting Bletchley Park.

The first day covers and special stamps Bletchley Park began issuing in 1994 are now sought after by collectors from around the world with similar stamp and envelope combinations from Bletchley Park Post Office fetching several times their original issue price.