2017-08-09 Wed

The archive of postal history features stamps commemorating Scotland’s victory at the 1978 World Cup and the creation of a devolved Scottish Assembly, following the 1979 referendum. They are held in the new Postal Museum, which is opening in central London. As neither event actually happened, the stamps were never made.

Ally MacLeod's Tartan Army didn’t win football's most coveted trophy and Scottish devolution was shelved for another 20 years. The stamp designs will not be available to the public but they are part of the archive collection. Chris Taft, head of collections at the Postal Museum, told BBC Scotland that the Royal Mail does occasionally produce designs of stamps in the expectation of them happening because obviously, these things take time.

If Scotland had won the World Cup that year, the Royal Mail would have definitely produced a stamp to mark it, and this was produced and designed but unfortunately was never released.

Two stamps marking the football triumph, one at 9p and the other at 11p, were designed in May 1978 by Barry Wilkinson - a month before the tournament began.

However, things weren’t meant to be. All the Scottish football fans knew the Scottish squad consisted of Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness and Joe Jordan, who went to the event in Argentina with high expectations. After an ignominious defeat to Peru and a draw with Iran, Archie Gemmill's famous goal against Holland helped the Scots defeat the eventual World Cup finalists 3-2 and restore some pride. It was too little, too late.

If the stars were on Scotland’s side, the stamps would have been produced and been open to the public a month after the final. However, the designs were locked away in the archive.

The Scottish Assembly stamp designs were commissioned in case Scots voted for devolution from Westminster in 1979. The Thistle was designed by Stuart Rose, and the building image was created by Willie Rodger.

The House of Commons decided that a vote for devolution would be invalid unless at least 40 percent of the eligible electorate voted that way rather than a simple majority.

Scots were in favour of devolution by 51.6% to 48.4%, but only 32.9% of the total electorate had voted for it so it was never carried.

As a result, designs for these stamps were also locked away never to be used. Supporters of devolution had to wait until 1999 for a Scottish Parliament to be convened.