Royal Mail unveils 'interactive' stamps

The six stamps are highly individual

Britain's first "scratch and sniff" stamp is being issued on Tuesday as part of a collection that celebrates 100 years of Nobel Prizes.

It is one of a set of six stamps, all of which include innovative features, representing the individual categories of the Nobel Prizes.

This is the world's first interactive set of stamps

Gavin Macrae, Royal Mail

The 40p stamp in the Medicine prize category is the only one that can be scratched and sniffed, to inhale the aroma of the healing eucalyptus plant.

Gavin Macrae, managing director of Royal Mail stamps and collectables, said: "This is the world's first interactive set of stamps. Never before has a single set used such diverse printing techniques."

Another 'UK stamp first' will be seen in the 65p stamp - the first to include a hologram.

The stamp features the image of a molecule - representing the Physics prize.

Finger prints

Heat from a finger is enough to reveal an electrically charged particle on the 19p stamp, which celebrates the Chemistry prize and shows an illustration of a carbon atom.

The 45p stamp represents the Literature prize and contains the entire text of a TS Eliot poem printed in letters 20 times smaller than a grain of sand.

The 32 line poem needs to be magnified eight times to be viewed by the human eye.

The Peace prize is represented by an embossed image of a dove carrying an olive branch on the 36p stamp.

Penny Black process

And the Royal Mail has come full circle with the 27p stamp which highlights the Economic Science award.

The intaglio printing process, used in 1840 to produce the Penny Black - the world's first postage stamp - is featured on the stamp.

Nobel prizes are presented every year to those who have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.

This year's awards will be announced by the Nobel Foundation in Sweden over four days from 8 October.

But Britain is not the first country to produce scratch and sniff stamps.

The Swiss have produced a chocolate-scented stamp, while Hong Kong has come up with green tea flavoured stamps.