Well, perhaps 'first' is misleading as we had some in the Alice in Wonderland Retail and Innovative Britain Prestige Books, but these are the first stamps not part of a new issue.
We don't have them yet but some have appeared on ebay. The full list of new counter sheet stamps, which I will show here and list on our shop are as follows:
1p printed 21/01/15 - Norvic 3001.5
2nd class printed 26/02/15 - Norvic 2911.5
1st Signed For printed 25/02/15 - Norvic 2991.5
1st Large Signed For printed 24/02/15 - Norvic 2992.5
£1 printed 13/01/15 - Norvic 3101.5
As £1 is the new Europe 20g Worldwide 10g letter rate it seems likely that the 22/12/14 printing of the 97p was the last and - if properly planned - was large enough to last until the new rate comes into effect at the end of March.
I collect stamps, I do not collect source codes. Those are for people who want to throw away their money. They will never be worth much.
ReplyDeleteI thought collecting stamps, as with all hobbies, was for the joy of it, not to make money. I collect Machins but I wouldn't slag off those who collect pot frogs for instance.
DeleteYep! my wife would agree with you, I now have 86 varieties of the new Royal Mail Red in various formats, all look the same on the surface to the layman, I don't think she'll ever see 'the point' but then she doesn't collect Machins
DeleteI wouldnt get too worried by this, it seems like a troll to me. We all know that security codes have given a new lease of life to the whole Machin scene. Collecting modern stamps is never going to be for financial gain now, is it?
DeleteMmmm, I wonder if Stanley Gibbons thought collecting modern stamps was a waste of time when he started?
DeleteMaybe Anonymous would like to share with all of us who throw our money away on worthless Machins with source codes what he or she collects as I'm sure it would be most interesting.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing, all the new Machins in the original report do NOT have source codes only year date codes
If Royal Mail wanted to discourage collectors from collecting Machins they couldn't have done a better job. This is just the thin end of the wedge. Every year there is a price increase (which is probably every year) there will be another high value machin issue. The temptation will also be there for Royal Mail to start using these higher values in commemorative sets starting with Christmas
ReplyDeleteJohn Embrey
I think this is on the wrong blogpost, John, and should be on the one showing new stamps up to £3.30.
DeleteBut you're right about Christmas, I think.
The issue of normal Counter Sheets has nothing to do with collectors requirements, it is operationally led. We seem to encounter this misconception amongst collectors every year - the Machin tariff issue is for operational purposes, not for stamp collectors.
DeleteIt is a very common mistake to assume that the number of counter sheet machins sold to collectors has any bearing on what they decide to issue, the numbers used for actual operational purposes are vastly in excess of those sold for philatelic purposes.
Anonymous of 11th of March sounds like an RM / POL publicity statement. Are you management paid to read this blog? Checkout the blogspot for the new high priced Machins and see just how out of touch you are with RM's contempt for it's collecting customers and workforce.
ReplyDeleteThat was me. I'm no apologist for Royal Mail's antics when it comes to looking after stamp collectors, believe me. But I do get annoyed about collectors thinking that counter sheet Machins are issued for their benefit (or otherwise). Philatelic use of such stamps is miniscule compared to operational requirements.
DeleteAnd you are correct. As was made clear from the statement in the publicity.
DeleteBUT THIS IS ON THE WRONG POST, the matter of new values for the new tariff is a different subject.
I'll close this one to further comments.
Royal Mail (and possibly PO Ltd) DO read this and other blogs, including the comments, but I wouldn't expect anybody to make an official comment here or a reply to any of the comments.
DeleteI have had the occasional direct response from Royal Mail about blog content/comments.