The Royal Mail 2026 Stamp Issue Programme - your ideas!

As regular readers will know, Royal Mail will not announce the programme of stamp issues for 2026 until at least Christmas, and probably not in detail until shortly before the first issue in January.

I've had a quick glance at Wikipedia for British events in 1926, although it is not always centenaries (or multiples of 25/50 years) which are marked nowadays.

I can't see the General Strike featuring and not the birth anniversaries of Kenneth Williams and Ernie Wise.  

 

The Imperial Conference was held in 1926 which led to the Balfour Declaration which "accepted the growing political and diplomatic independence of the Dominions in the years after World War I ... determining that they were autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations" - and hence the formal use of the term Commonwealth. 

If we do see any stamps for the foundation of The Commonwealth, I can see the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog will be very busy!

Alas we are more likely to see more stamps for Winnie The Pooh, it being the centenary of the book's first publication.  

Other notable events from that year were the foundation of what became the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, and the establishment of the first air (and hence airmail) route to South Africa by Alan Cobham.    Both very worthy of commemoration - which is probably why they won't be included.

Suggestions by email only please to ian@norphil.co.uk, only one per person unless I prompt you for clarification or expansion.

Results and comparison with the actual programme in due course.  The exercise ends when the programme is announced - please don't leak it if you see the calendar in a post office, it won't be published here.

NOTE: just for context, the following countries have already announced their part of the annual, preliminary programmes for 2026.  In no particular order:

Slovakia (in June), Belarus, Germany, Poland, Russia, Latvia, Moldova, Bosnia Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Guernsey, USA, Jordan, Montenegro, Hong Kong, Croatia, Åland, 

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Revenue protection - is this one of ours?

A consequence of issuing entertainment media-related stamps around the world is that one seems very much like another.  But I wonder if any British stamps have been successfully used in other countries because of this?

In fact many of the thematic stamps issued by Royal Mail - wildlife, comic-book heroes, film and tv franchises - are mirrored in other countries.

I've added the latest example of confusion - a non-UK Star Trek stamp used here - to the Postal History blog along with other examples.  

To demonstrate here are three very similar stamps.

IS it any surprise that one might be used in a different country?

UPDATE 7 November - also added to the Postal History blog, news about a surcharge label I haven't seen before.

 Please comment on the other blog; comments are switched off for this post.

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Victory for the little man and the people on Royal Mail's postbox conversions

Royal Mail's postbox conversion programme took a hit in Berkshire, according to a report in NewburyToday.

Bradfield Southend postbox 29 October 2025 (Newburytoday)

 

Residents in Bradfield Southend when the traditional red postbox outside the village post office was taped up by Royal Mail in favour of a new automatic system, and started a petition for it changed back.

Most annoyed was Kate Brealey, postmaster at Bradfield Village Store and Post Office – as the new automated parcel box to receive parcels would have sat right outside the building.

The petition reached 800 signatures.  In a statement from Royal Mail, a spokesperson said: “Following discussions with the council, Bradfield Southend’s postbox will remain a standard one.” 

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Alan Wilson dealer list - free if you are interested!

Modern collectors of Machins may not recall Alan Wilson, and I admit I had forgotten about him until I found his price list in one of my boxes.

NO LONGER AVAILABLE - three people emailed, but none put their request in the comments section, which would have avoided the later two from doing so. 

Wilson was 'a leading dealer' and his catalogue was advertised in the January 1990 edition of the British Philatelic Bulletin.  

This is not a work for the faint-hearted, it is very detailed indeed - ideal for those who take their Machin collection to great depths - shades, phosphor screens, different perforator and head types, value positions,
variations in phosphor coated paper, etc,

But all was not what it seemed, as this report from The Independent shows.

In 1995, the cloistered world of philately was shaken by the confession by a leading dealer that he had been forging rare stamps for more than a decade. Alan Wilson, a bookish 36-year-old bachelor who lives with his mother in Luton, walked into his local police station and told officers he had tampered with ordinary stamps to make them appear rarer and more valuable.

The sophisticated fraud brought him about £100,000, but his sense of guilt eventually led him to confess. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence and fined £30,000. Ironically, the fakes he manufactured were of such a high standard they have since become sought after by collectors.
 

So if anyone would like this price list - it has a few notes and highlights - please let me know in the comments and then email your address if I don't already have it.

Please check the comments before emailing in case it has already been claimed.

NO LONGER AVAILABLE - three people emailed, but none put their request in the comments section, which would have avoided the later two from doing so.

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Jane Austen Commemorative Sheet rumoured for December.

Fifty years ago Royal Mail marked the 200th anniversary of the Birth of Jane Austen with a set of four stamps and a slogan postmark.

 

1975 Jane Austen stamp set issued in October rather than just before Christmas.

The 250th anniversary was ignored for the current year's stamp programme - too many trite and banal subjects to use, rather than mark any cultural anniversary.

Or so it seemed.

I have today heard a rumour that a Commemorative Sheet will be issued on the actual anniversary date, December 16th.  

This is odd on so many counts.  The last Commemorative Sheet was United for Wildlife in 2018, and Royal Mail discontinued them.  Also abandoned were Business Customised Sheets (BCS) (in 2017) followed by Smilers Sheets in 2018. 

So if this is a change in direction, what more might we see in the future?  I thought Commemorative  and BCS were abandoned due to falling sales - certainly demand had gone through the floor about five years earlier so it was really no surprise.  

Royal Mail have been contacted!

 

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Has anyone seen a new NHS barcoded letter yet?

In the wake of further criticism on delays to ordinary mail Royal Mail announced in April a new solution for the more important letters from the National Health Service. 

The solution design provides an option for NHS providers to add a unique NHS identifier into the Mailmark barcode. Where our internal reporting shows that we are not meeting expected quality of service standards regularly, at either a local or a national level, the new NHS barcode will allow us to identify NHS mail and automate its extraction from Royal Mail sorting machines. Thereafter we will discretely handle the mail through to delivery. This will ensure NHS providers get the service they require, and patients receive their letters in a timely manner.

Customers choosing to use the NHS class identifier will need to add it to the class field in the Mailmark barcode and eManifest. This is not a new or separate service. Instead, the NHS barcode would be eligible to be printed on NHS letters using Access Priority (D+2) or Standard (D+3) Mailmark Business Mail services. The option is suitable for patient communications including appointment letters and test results.

I haven't seen any such letters yet, or had any reported, but it is now apparent that these will be handled in the same way as Special Delivery mail, according to this graphic from the Royal Mail website.

Note the original meaning of discreet - "Discrete means separate or divided. A discrete unit is a separate part of something larger."

 

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Christmas 2025 - five stamps, MS, smaller collector sheet - issued 4 November 2025

Some readers may have seen the designs for this years 2nd class and 2nd class Large stamp designs which Royal Mail have made available to direct mailing houses for their Christmas campaigns.  Inexplicably this was done on the (publicly viewable) Royal Mail Wholesale webpage in September with the exhortation that the mailers "must treat the image as confidential until 4 November and it should not be included on any of your promotional material or website."  (They can be seen on the Commonwealth Blogspot now.)

All the usual details will be shown here - the set, the miniature sheet, and the usual collector sheet - when the Royal Mail publicity machine kicks into action on 28th October.

Royal Mail is uncharacteristically brief in its enthusing about these designs:

Royal Mail is celebrating Christmas 2025 with a set of 5 stamps illustrated by British artist Paula Doherty. These illustrations focus on key characters within the nativity such as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men, the angel and baby Jesus.  

 

 

Set of 5 stamps and miniature sheet issued 4 November 2025 

Technical Details

The 39 x 30 mm stamps were designed by Hat-trick using illustrations by Paula Doherty and printed in gravure by Cartor Security Printers on self-adhesive paper in sheets of 50.  The miniature sheet is 179 x 74 mm.    

Booklets

Now we come to the interesting part - the information provided to the Stamp Trade, and on the order form, shows only booklets of 8.

But Royal Mail's web shop, today, also shows booklets of 4 of each value.

Royal Mail have been approached for more details. 

Digital Stamps used by Royal Mail Direct Mail customers preprinted on seasonal mailshots. 

Collector(s) Sheet 

From 2025 the traditional Christmas Collectors Sheet will be reduced to 10 stamps, from 20, in the following formats: 2 x 1st class, 2 x 2nd class, 2 x 1st Class Large Letter, 2 x 2nd Class Large Letter, 2 x £3.40.
The Sheet will be printed in self adhesive and litho, which is different from the main set which is printed in self adhesive and photogravure.  The labels here are particularly uninspiring - taking them singly they will mean nothing to anyone.  Price is £22.54

Products available 

Set of stamps, Miniature Sheet, Collectors Sheet, Retail booklets (apparently 4), Stamp Cards (6), Presentation Pack, First Day Covers (2).

UPDATE 28 October: I've had a report that the sheet stamps were on sale and were used in Ripon yesterday.  

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Is this a new label, or a very old one?

I've been using a stock of old premium services barcoded labels for many years now, some go faster than the others.  International Tracked is probably slowest of all!

My question is prompted by the latest image sent to me by our Canadian correspondent which has a different label.

All my stock has a solid colour border - green for International Tracked & Signed, orange for International Tracked, dark blue for International Signed For, etc.

The one on SS's cover has no coloured border, and the legend at the foot is all text and no graphics - but the barcode number is earlier alphabetically - RF 5821.... rather than my RN 20297 ....

At a guess I would say that this is an earlier one, rather than more recent and - because it was posted in the Southampton area and postmarked by the Mail Centre rather than a post office branch - I would say this might be from big dealer Rushstamps.

I've not seen one of these before - anyone else?

UPDATE 23 October Thanks to Tom (see comments) the source of these has been identified.

The label on the cover is identified on Royal Mail's Track & Trace webpages as a 'business label' - presumably supplied to business account customers on request.  Here are some screenshots from that page.  I still don't remember seeing any of these so I suspect not many businesses (or not many philatelic businesses) use them.

It is interesting that the more detailed ones are for post office branches, because the graphic instructions at the foot describe what is done at delivery.

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Odds and ends of updates in other subjects.

A number of people wrote while we were away, so this is a short list of updates to earlier posts.

1. 1st class 1d black definitive mis-identified as Counterfeit - over on the Postal History Blog. 

2.  Following publication of the image of a Singapore kiosk we now have an example of the stamp dispensed from these machines - added to the annual Post & Go post.

3. Pictures of postboxes, parcel lockers, and Royal Mail transport is on the slogan postmarks etc, post. 

 

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Royal Mail muscling in on Post Office High Street business

Over the past few months we have seen he rapid expansion of Royal Mail parcel lockers and 'intelligent' post boxes.

The parcel lockers are being installed across the country, and many people have reported that their local postbox has been 'gift-wrapped in black plastic, prior to being converted to take parcels through a wider apperture. These also have solar panels on the top, would might make the siting of the attractive knitted box-toppers a thing of the past.

On our recent break I found examples of a topper in Louth (which I shall add to the 'slogan postmarks etc' post for October), but at Heath Road, Holmewood, five miles southeast of Chesterfield, I found not just a converted postbox but a new locker, about five metres from each other.

 

The locker was actually being installed when I pulled in to the layby to post a card. 

  

Job done, just have to close all these doors!

Just behind me when I took this photo was a recently converted postbox:

And to the left of that fast-food outlet you can see in the last picture, just a further 20 metres away, is a small post office.

Holmewood Post Office, Derbyshire

 

As recently as May this year, specialist property adviser Christie & Co reported the transfer of ownership:

Specialist business property adviser Christie & Co has announced the sale of Holmewood Post Office near Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

The business is a Mains post office which offers a variety of postal services to customers, as well as a small store stocking stationery equipment and convenience items. 

The store has been purchased by an established postmaster who already owns two post offices in the region and has plans to expand the convenience offering with a potential extension to the shop floor. 

Christie's said 

“The incoming owner has an excellent opportunity to extend the current building to the rear and offer a greater variety of convenience goods. Despite there being close competition on this front, the Post Office should continue to drive footfall into the store and therefore, providing that the offerings are competitively priced, there should be a rise in sales on the convenience side of the business."

I make no criticism of either Christie's or the previous owner, but I wonder if anybody knew then of Royal Mail's intention to provide facilities which will undoubtedly have an impact on the postal footfall to the business. 

Because according to Google maps, the postbox hadn't been converted in April:

Holmewood PO, Google maps April 2025, with knitted topper on postbox.

And this is not all.

Royal Mail owners IDS proudly proclaimed on 30 September.

IDS acquires stake in Collect+ to strengthen Royal Mail’s position as UK’s largest out of home parcel point network

International Distribution Services, owner of Royal Mail, has acquired a 49% stake in Collect+, marking a major milestone in the company’s multi-channel strategy to make collecting, sending and returning parcels as convenient as possible. Following the investment, almost 8,000 Collect+ convenience stores will feature  Royal Mail Shop branding.

The new high street brand will be a one stop destination for collecting, sending and returning parcels, selling Royal Mail postage at the shops for the first time and open during extended hours including evenings and weekends. Selling postage over the counter gives customers the option of paying when they get to the shop rather than doing so beforehand online. This service is now live in 500 shops and will be rolled out more widely in the coming months.

Royal Mail and Collect+ first partnered in May 2024 to meet rising consumer demand for convenient parcel drop-off and collection points. Since then, Royal Mail customers have been able to drop-off returns and pre-paid parcels at almost 8,000 Collect+ locations across the UK.

Last month, Vinted became Royal Mail’s first partner to offer its customers collection from the stores. More of Royal Mail’s retail partners will follow soon to offer collection to the shops under the new Royal Mail Shop brand.

The new Royal Mail Shop outlets will fulfil demand for face-to-face parcel services on the high street that are open for extended hours, including during evenings and weekends. They are part of Royal Mail’s rapidly expanded network of almost 24,000 Parcel Points - including 2,000 lockers, 11,500 Post Office branches, 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points and 1,400 parcel postboxes – the largest multi-channel parcel network in the UK.

Sub-postmasters were quick to respond, with the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters calling the move a stab-in-the-back after the long association between Royal Mail and Post Office.  But there would seem to be little that can be done with the Competition and Marketing Authority so far silent on the matter.

I don't normally resort to using AI, but when you do a Google search an AI opinion almost always comes up.  This is what it says about collect+ effect on "post office" branches

Collect+ will have a direct, negative effect on Post Office branches by competing for parcel services, but the Royal Mail's investment in Collect+ will also lead to the rebranding of thousands of convenience stores as "Royal Mail Shops" offering similar services, including parcel drop-off and returns, potentially diverting business from traditional Post Office branches. Royal Mail will also now offer postage over the counter in these Royal Mail Shops and extended opening hours, further challenging Post Offices.   

It seems that the new Royal Mail Shops ex Collect+ will also "sell postage', but we know what that means - pay and drop.  After all, nobody wants to use multiple stamps to send their packages.   And with these shops you can use Royal Mail, Yodel, Amazon, UPS, eBay, DPD, FedEx, DHL, Parcel2Go, Inpost and others. 

Now I must get on and stamp some letters: got to make sure there's a reason for the Universal Service Obligation to send a letter anywhere in the country for 87p.  We have to use our post offices and support the sub-postmasters who have been under so much pressure for the last couple of decades.

UPDATE 31 October.  I'll add links to news stories here with very brief extracts: the problem is nationwide and the postmasters are not happy.

Postmaster hits out at Royal Mail over change to post box - St Helens Star 

Helen Thaker, who has run the Dentons Green branch on Greenfield Road since 2001, claims the change is driving customers away from using Post Office services reducing vital commission-based income.

She stated that she believes the decision reflects a wider breakdown in the relationship between Royal Mail and the Post Office and is “taking the bread and butter” away from post offices.

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