On 27 April 1961, Sierra Leone issued a set of thirteen commemoratives to mark its independence. It followed with the world's first free-form self-adhesive stamps issued on 10 February 1964 to mark the country's participation in the New York World's Fair of 1964–5 and continued to produce such stamps until the tenth anniversary of independence commemorative set that went on sale on 27 April 1971 (Fig. 7).

Figure 7 10 February 1964. Blocks of ten postage and air mail values showing Walsall's imprint and sheet numbers.