Building a James Bond stamp collection

Earlier this month, Swiss Post issued a set of stamps marking the 50th anniversary of the Schilthorn/Piz Gloria restaurant. Though not strictly speaking a Bond-related event, the stamps are nevertheless of interest to James Bond fans, depicting as they do the cable car and building that featured prominently in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), and which Eon helped to complete. The restaurant retained the name used in the film – Piz Gloria (Ian Fleming's invention) – which also appears on the stamps.
 

50 years of Schilthorn-Piz Gloria (Swiss Post, 2017)

For any philatelically-minded Bond fan, there is now an impressive array of stamps with which to build a Bond-themed stamp collection. In addition to the Swiss stamps, there are the two sets of stamps issued by the Royal Mail in 2008 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming's birth. One set features various book covers and is available in a bewildering range of presentation packs. Another set depicts the Union Flag and White Ensign in a presentation pack that focuses on the novel of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
 

100th anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming (Royal Mail, 2008)

And if that isn't enough, there is also a stamp, again issued in 2008, that shows Ian Fleming's golden typewriter.
 

Ian Fleming's James Bond (Royal Mail, 2008)

As far as I'm aware, no stamps were issued in the UK to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bond films in 2012, but the event wasn't totally ignored by national postal services. The West African republic of Guinea-Bissau issued a set depicting five of the six James Bond actors (sadly, George Lazenby didn't make the cut).
 

Four of the five Bonds depicted on stamps of Guinea-Bissau (2012)

That wasn't, however, the first time that Sean Connery had appeared on a stamp. In 1999, the Commonwealth of Dominica issued a set of stamps celebrating 'legendary sleuths of the silver screen'. James Bond is depicted in the form of Sean Connery alongside Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Clouseau and others.
 

Legendary sleuths of the silver screen (Dominica, 1999)

But the Bond-themed stamp collection needn't stop there. After acquiring the stamps that reference Bond explicitly, the collector could turn his or her attention to stamps that depict places or things mentioned in Fleming's novels or which appear in the films.

For instance, after picking up the Piz Gloria stamps, the collector could continue with a stamp issued in Italy in 1981 that depicts the Palio di Siena, the famous horse race that features in Quantum of Solace. Then there's a stamp issued in Jamaica in 1956 that depicts the doctor bird, which is described in the short story, 'For Your Eyes Only'. Or how about a stamp that shows Istanbul's Hagia Sophia? This was issued in Turkey in 1963, the same year that Bond was taking a tour of the mosque in From Russia With Love.

The possibilities are almost endless!