Help! Beatles stamps prove global hit

Britain's Royal Mail have released a first-ever series of stamps featuring The Beatles, and immediately forecast they would break global records for sales of a single issue. [Photo: AFP/Royal Mail]

Britain's Royal Mail have released a first-ever series of stamps featuring The Beatles, and immediately forecast they would break global records for sales of a single issue.

Demand for the stamps, particularly from Japan, the United States and Canada, has already put the six-stamp issue on target to become its biggest seller apart from collections related to occasions like royal weddings.

"Judging by the unprecedented response we have already received from collectors and the public, The Beatles is on course to be the best selling issue internationally," the Royal Mail's Julietta Edgar said Tuesday.

"We chose to celebrate a band as exceptional as The Beatles because of their contribution to the world - and that popularity has been demonstrated by the interest this stamp issue has received across the globe," she added.

The new stamps -- which have already smashed a record set by Queen Elizabeth II's 80th Birthday issue last year -- feature iconic Beatles album covers including Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road and Revolver.

In Canada for example demand is so strong that Canada Post is offering the stamps for sale through its own branches - the first time another country's postal service has done that with a Royal Mail issue.