Those princes of football, David Beckham and Michael Owen, are to be the first living people, royalty aside, to grace the design of Royal Mail stamps.
In an experiment designed to coincide with the World Cup, they feature on stamps to be issued on May 1 by the Isle of Man.
The portraits are, appropriately, of real men doing what real men do. Becks (22p) slides around on the grass in a white outfit that has just been washed (boys!), while Owen (26p) brushes back his designer hair-do.
Neither stamp can be said to be well designed. They look like snapshots taken from a digital TV screen when no-one was looking, which is, we learned last week, most of the time. Both stamps aim to be populist and might just encourage children to take up stamp-collecting again. Or not.
Stamp expert Peter Jennings said: "I received a tip-off that the Queen had relaxed the old convention regarding living people on stamps.
"I am absolutely delighted. I have campaigned for this for several years. It is now time to scrap the convention altogether and include living people on Royal Mail stamps."
Mr Jennings, a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, continued: "Living people may now be included on stamps sent to the Queen for royal approval, provided they are not instantly recognisable or if they form part of a larger group, like a football team.
"Wisely, politicians or religious figures may not be featured on stamps."
These new arrangements would provide an opportunity for exciting and vibrant new stamp issues from Royal Mail, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and the United Kingdom overseas territories, most of which are handled by the crown agents stamp bureau, he said.
The Royal Mail might have missed a trick here. If it wanted these stamps to be really popular, it would have designed them as tiny holograms, like those postcards showing 1950s bathing beauties who tip a saucy wink when you tilt them. It would be fun to see Beckham and Owen kicking a ball into the net, or just falling over and rolling about, which champion footballers do if an opponent so much as breathes over their new togs.
Since 1964 when Anthony Wedgwood-Benn, as was, directed the Royal Mail to produce colourful, celebratory stamps, it has produced very many entertaining and delightful designs. The issue that depicted Dennis the Menace, among other popular characters laughing, was a deserved success because the stamps were well designed and funny.
If the living celebrity stamp proves to be a success, the list of contenders will be legion. Rather than rounding up the usual suspects - more footballers, TV chefs, rave DJs - perhaps everyone could be famous for 22 pence. Technology could allow everybody to have their mug, or that of their budgie or gerbil, displayed on a stamp. The Queen will continue to look down on these, her golden jubilee subjects, from her top right-hand corner. She might even be as amused as Dennis the Menace was.
