Royal Mail report that production of the Olympic Handover cover has been delayed, and delivery will probably not be until November.
If I understand the position correctly, this has also delayed delivery of the Memories of London 2012 sheet where customers ordered them together, as they are 'bundled' for despatch by Tallents House. By the time people get them London 2012 will indeed be a distant memory.
I wrote in the original announcement:
Update: For those interested in
special printings, consider the likelihood of Royal Mail staff tearing
maybe 100,000 stamps of these stamps from the miniature sheets? I think
the £1.28 stamp for these covers will come from a special printing of
just this stamp.
I wonder if this is the reason for the delay?
Note that the MS was printed in litho by Cartor and if there is a roll created for these covers, as would be totally logical for the reasons that you state, then Cartor cannot produce stamps in rolls as they only print sheet-fed. So, they may well be printed gravure at Walsall creating a whole new stamp.
ReplyDeleteSpeculation for sure at this stage, but the issued cover is worthy of examination for its printing process and for cut, instead of torn, top and bottom edges.
Of course, another alternative is that Cartor prints the stamp in counter sheets, which are then broken down into singles for affixing, in which case there will probably be no difference between the MS and special printing.
My covers arrived today (!) and the evidence points to the stamps being from MS. See 20 November post - http://norphil.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/no-special-printng-for-stamps-on-rio.html
DeleteAccording to the 'First' publication from RM, this MS was printed by Walsall, and the literature on the back of the Pres Pack states the same.
ReplyDeleteContracts are often given to Walsall but the stamps printed by their subsidiary Cartor.
DeleteWalsall's lithography printing is always done by Cartor. OTOH as Glenn writes, if a roll is produced, then it will probably be gravure printed in England, unless a third printer is involved. Needless to say, Royal Mail rarely acknowledge anything special about the stamps on such covers.
I got my Handover to Rio covers this morning but im still waiting for the Memories First Day cover to arrive
ReplyDeleteMy cover also arrived today.
ReplyDeleteI have a London Rio cover serviced with the complete minisheet . The sheet covers the whole top half of the cover completely . You can not see London or any of the North Atlantic . It seems to point to the fact that the cover was originally designed only to carry the £1.28 Handover Stamp
ReplyDelete