So we come to the end of another year. A strange one in many respects as all the fuss over Machins - whether news or their being invalidated - has died down, Self Service Kiosks dispensing Post and Go stamps have almost disappeared, but the relentless money machine of Royal Mail special issues continues.
Definitives
The provision of King Charles III definitives to Post Office continued as they slowly replaced the Machin series. Queen Elizabeth stamps with datamatrix codes were withdrawn from philatelic sale in the summer, although sales through post offices - and indeed Royal Mail online - continued while stocks remained.
The King adopted the Tudor Crown and in January Royal Mail announced that this would be used in their logo affecting, initially, booklets of 8 stamps and 1st & 2nd class business sheets.
The booklets of 4 were not released at this time and the 1st class x4 was found on eBay. It was made available through Tallents House once they were aware that it had been released to post offices. It seems that Stamps and Collectibles aren't being told; the arrangement seems to be that Post Office stores are calling off ready stocks from the printers, stocks which Royal Mail have ordered but then don't take into their own stocks?
The 2nd & 1st class King Charles III definitives for Scotland were issued as were more insipidly coloured airmail rate stamps.
Subsequently the long awaited 1st class Large business sheet - not issued with the other values in April 2023 - was found in November at a Scottish post office. How ironic that it should be found just a few miles from the place from which we should get supplies in order to produce first day covers if we wished, when the philatelic service knew nothing of it. We're waiting for details of ordering and product code from Tallents House.
The Swap-out system for invalidated stamps continues: early in the year there was a 7-week turnaround time although this later improved. A reader reported just before Christmas that exchanges from batches sent in September and October were still awaited.
Commemorative or Special Stamp products
There were several elements in the designs of the sets marking the 350th anniversary of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Steam Locomotives set which 
coincided with the 200th anniversary of the Stockton to Darlington railway, and the Valour and Victory issue. The latter coincided with the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II (in Europe anyway) with 10x 1st class designs celebrating the courage and dedication of individuals. Just to bulk up the issue and fill the prestige stamp book there was also a miniature sheet honouring Dame Vera Lynn. Whether the two elements should share equal note is perhaps a matter for debate.
On the thematic side, apart from the locomotives, there was garden wildlife, fungi and ducks, and the year finished with an inexplicable Victorian stamps-on-stamps set.
In February Royal Mail announced that special issues would consist of 1st and 2nd class stamps only, although not until after they had issued the ones printed before the decision was made.
A new product, the 'Celebrating Britain Sheet' for Jane Austen (like a Business Customised or Commemorative Sheet) was a late addition to the programme appearing in mid-December.
Errors
There were few errors in stamp products this year: the Royal Observatory prestige stamp book was found with pane 2 duplicated; in the same issue the coin cover was found with only one postmark leaving two stamps uncancelled; and a less noticeable and more specialised error - but error nonetheless - was discovered on the 2024 Christmas stamps with 1st & 2nd class both having the same (2nd class) datamatrix code date and value.
Postage Rates
As has become the norm, selected postage rates changed in both April and October although most basic inland rates remained the same. The basic 1st class Large Letter rate increased from £2.60 to £3.50 in two steps affecting booklets, business sheets and SSKs. The foreign letter airmail rate also increased from £2.80 to £3.40 annoying social letter writers and Postcrossers.
Forgeries and penalties Forgers, having been thwarted by Royal Mail's efforts to combat the use of forged definitives, continued to work with the special stamp issues even going as far back as the self-adhesive 2001 monochrome Cats & Dogs set. Gummed stamps were not spared with forged sheets of the gummed 2022 cats found.
Some of Royal Mail's Revenue Protection Teams continued to have difficulties deciding what should or should not be surcharged. This is despite Mail Centres being provided with posters indicating what should and should not be surcharged. I've explored this more on the Postal History blog on this and in preceding posts which also show non-British stamps which escaped the attentions of the Teams.
A new surcharge label was reported, with a QR code link to the Royal Mail website, where it was revealed that the surcharged stamp remained valid!
Slogan and other postmarks
Readers have recorded 24 slogans this year, with the Christmas one/s still to come as I draft this, which is well up on last year's 20. No national saints' days (only Valentine), none for new stamp issues, but one novelty was the slogan for the state visit of the German president. I don't recall any other heads of nations being honoured in this way.
Thanks also to readers who have sent in examples of branch counter date stamps and other postmarks used on incoming letters, and other unusual postal markings. I already have one to write up for January but I am hoping to get more information about it before doing so.
Royal Mail and Post Office operations
Post Office Ltd decided to divest the business of the costly directly managed Crown Offices around the country, manned by their employees, and arranged franchises with several experienced organisations.
Meanwhile Royal Mail seemed to be doing their best to avoid customers using post office branches altogether by further promoting online postage purchase and introducing a certificate of posting on the mobile phone app - which only guaranteed that the parcel was near a postbox, not that it was actually posted.
Further developments lead to modifications to postboxes which had solar panels to activate a larger 'packet' flap much to the annoyance of the many people who yarnbombed the boxes.
Across the country Royal Mail installed various parcel lockers for the collection and posting of parcels, often close to sub-post offices which also had 'their' postboxes converted. Fortunately many postmasters have a loyal band of local customers who insisted that they would continue to use the services inside the branches.
Royal Mail acted with commendable urgency when the United States administration announced that they would require tariffs to be paid before goods were sent to their country. That is to say, instead of customs duty being collected by the US authorities when packages arrived in the mail, they would instead be collected by the sending postal administration. This came about because the US abolished the previously $800 (£600) de minimis limit at which goods became liable to charges.
Regular readers will recall that the US first raised the problem of imports from China in 2015, but then it was related to Terminal Dues - the amount that the Chinese had to pay for delivery within other countries, notably the USA. Whilst that was a valid argument, which led in 2018 to higher postage rates to the US reflecting the higher terminal dues agreed at the UPU, it didn't stop the flow of packages from China, and only marginally increased the cost to the consumer. And there was still no duty charged because of the ridiculously high de minimis limit. (The UK limit was £18).
The new system doesn't affect stamps and philatelic products (which remain at zero%), except for the processing fee charged by Royal Mail (if postage is purchased and labels completed online) of 50p, and by Post Office for items sent at a branch, which is £1.50.
The King Charles cypher appeared on more postboxes, and vehicles, including the large fleet of electric vehicles now being used across the country. A small KC3 box was sent to the British Antarctic Survey station at Rothera.
As Royal Mail were fined yet again for poor delivery performance and postal workers continued to complain about an excess of parcels for the time available to deliver, we had two Royal Mail deliveries on Sunday 14th December, one from Tallents House the other from Amazon.
Post and Go
As I see it there are three possibilities:
a. the new machines will dispense stamps and labels just as the old ones did;
b. the new machines will dispense stamps of a different size, in which case Royal Mail will be involved and these will without doubt bear the head of King Charles;
c. the least palatable option will be that only labels will be printed, or 'stamps' with all the detail including the head printed at the point of delivery as with the (abandoned) Horizon replacement.
Meanwhile the people with their fingers on the P&G pulse and their ears and eyes well and truly open in branches, principally Trevor and Malcolm, have contributed over 150 additions to the annual P&G blog entry providing an important up-to-date history of this dying aspect of British philately. Thank you on behalf of all readers.
The Horizon Scandal
I have not written about this during 2025 because it is still being covered by the BBC and Private Eye, and to a lesser extent by Nick Wallis. Several prominent figures (Sir Alan Bates, Christopher Head) have now settled having fought the derisory offers original made. Lee Castleton, Janet Skinner and one other SPM are taking legal action against Post Office, with Paul Marshall leading.
The first volume of the Public Inquiry's final report has been published: this and more news in the team's year-end newsletter, including work on the Legacy Project working with the Postal Museum to deliver one aspect of the Project to mark the Horizon scandal in history, and record the impact on ordinary people.
Third, unexpected, paragraph! News broke just this week about a 2006 contract between Post Office and Fujitsu. Well, you say, of course there was a contract, and this isn't new because it was mentioned in the Inquiry session with Paul Patterson of Fujitsu, but it has only recently been published on the Inquiry website. And it's the detail that matters: Fujitsu were liable to penalties if it couldn't properly reconcile financial information generated by the Horizon IT system, and it requires Fujitsu to obtain Post Office's permission before "amending the centrally held Transaction data."
The blogs, longer articles, and the business
As mentioned in the opening paragraph the blog has been affected this year by the lack of important news on Machin definitives and the SwapOut scheme, and the limited news - other than updates provided by others - on Post and Go and Self-Service Kiosks. And so the number of individual posts has fallen slightly again. Nonetheless we are now approaching 11 million views thanks almost entirely to all the input from readers, supplemented by news about new stamp issues.
I am reluctant to enforce the use of names and pseudonyms in comments but it isn't really isn't difficult to understand why. This typifies what happens with Anonymous comments:
This time last year I had intended to list definitive first day covers, and Post & Go oddities. Instead with the additional time available I found myself sorting through my own collections of postal history, and reminded myself just what a fascinating and absorbing journey can be taken through examining stamps that have been properly used.
I prepared a 12-sheet display of pre-World War II postcards and covers entitled 'Around the World for a Penny'. I discovered I had items sent not only to all the expected destinations - USA, Canada, Western Europe, Russia - but to Fiji, Mauritius and Chile! I will turn this into an online display somewhere which I shall in due course provide links to. Whether or not you already collect this, I hope that you - as a true philatelist - should be entertained and informed through these displays.
As I consolidate the material accumulated over the decades a great deal of duplication has been revealed and I hope that some of this will be of interest to readers. Towards the end of the year I started listing some oddities, like the machine-vended booklet wrappers which, I am pleased to say, the new owner incorporated into his collection to make a display to his local stamp club.
I've restarted selling stamps for postage again so when you have used all your surplus I will probably still have some available.
I know some readers are still relatively young (ie under 50!) but it is never too late to really examine what you have in order to share it with others. It is possible, certainly with postal markings, that you have something seemingly innocuous which will turn out to be the first example seen, or to extend the 'known use' period backwards or forwards by months or even years.
Again, if you have any particular interests in worldwide stamps, cards, postal history and oddities, please do ask, as this takes up far more space at present than the core collections that I want to keep.
So we turn the corner of another year with an uncertain outlook around the world and despite efforts are still no closer to Peace on Earth than we were this time last year. But we can take solace in our philatelic collections.
Even if it means we are hiding from the realities of current affairs, it can give us some peace and relaxation, and is usually good for our mental well-being - and physical, if we remember to get up and walk around a bit. Don't have everything within easy reach of your desk!
THANK YOU for your seasonal greetings by email and cards, these are much appreciated.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers.
Ian, once again many thanks for the continued flow of information, its most welcome. Lets hope the chosen option for P&G isn't C!
ReplyDeleteSeasons greetings to all at Norvic and to all readers of the blog