The Nobel Stamps of 1981

The stamps have been engraved by Arne Wallhorn after originals by Lennart Forsberg and they have been printed in recess at the Swedish Post Office Stamp Printing Works. Issued in coils.

 

The stamps portray the Nobel Laureates of 1921:

ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879–1955), born in Germany but from 1940 an American citizen, is considered to be one of the great physicists of all time, and he won immense fame with his theory of relativity. Perhaps the most important result of his work is the understanding of the fact that enormous amounts of energy are contained in the nucleus of the atom and that the energy can in part be liberated. Einstein's work was rich and varied, innovative and original, and he made major contributions in many fields, in particular theoretical physics. The stamp motif shows the Philippe Halsman portrait of Einstein from 1947 and the formula describing the mass-energy equivalence. Einstein was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

ANATOLE FRANCE (1844–1924), born in Paris, had a passionate interest in literature even as a very young man. In 1879 he made his debut as a short story writer and in 1881 he won fame with "Le crime de Sylvestre Bonnard." His most famous novel is "La rotisserie de la reine Pédauque", from 1893, a story about 18th century Paris. In his old age he wrote the novel "Les dieux ont soif", which came in 1912. The stamp motif shows France and the estate La Béchellerie in Touraine where he lived the last ten years of his life. Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature.

FREDERICK SODDY (1877–1956) worked in Montreal and London and between 1919 and 1936 he was professor of chemistry at Oxford. Together with other famous scientists he made experimental discoveries, which form the basis for the disintegration theory of radioactive elements. He also did basic research on the existence and nature of isotopes. The stamp motif shows Soddy and the Radcliffe Camera Library in Oxford. Awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

 

© 1981 SWEDEN POST STAMPS