Description: This 20p stamp commemorates Dr. Edward Jenner (1749–1823), the English physician whose pioneering work in smallpox vaccination revolutionized medicine. Jenner’s 1796 experiment using cowpox material to immunize against smallpox laid the foundation for modern immunology and the eventual eradication of smallpox worldwide.
The witty design by cartoonist Peter Brookes features a cow, referencing the word “vaccine” (from vacca, Latin for cow), with silhouettes of Jenner and a child “inside” the cow’s markings, symbolizing his groundbreaking inoculation experiment. In the background, a milkmaid carries pails, a nod to the original observation that milkmaids exposed to cowpox were immune to small pox.
Circa: 1999
Condition: Mint single
Notes:
Part of the Royal Mail Millennium Collections Patients Tale.