Do you use pre-printed stamp albums?

This is addressed only to those collectors who use pre-printed stamp albums for their GB collections.

I have addressed this subject several times before but it has never been more important.  Royal Mail have decided to change the policy on sales periods for 'special' stamp issues.  For some time the old policy of "withdrawn after 1 year" has been flexed to allow for the continued sales of stamps issues in a series - Classic Locomotives, World War I, etc.

Now they have decided that the less popular subjects will be printed in lower quantities (to avoid wastage) and go off-sale between 6-9 months after the issue date, whilst still allowing for sales at (one) Stampex.   No specific details have yet been announced.

Some album supplements will be appearing soon.  To ensure you have all the stamps you need, you have to guess which ones the publishers will include.  Look back at this post from six years ago: the situation has not improved.

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Computer Systems Upgrade

The main iMac here at Norvic Towers has been labouring away since its emergency purchase in autumn of 2011, with only regular software updates and no update to the operating system.

Since that time Apple have released three different operating systems, and we finanly decided that we really ought to get up-to-date so that we could continue to update the software as well.  That was done over the weekend, together with memory upgrades.  Of course nothing goes totally smoothly, but after a 60-minute discussion with Apple tech support regular back-ups are now working as they should, and all is well - fingers crossed!

But even though it was over the weekend this has upset the rhythm of the office, so we may be slow in responding to emails.  There were quite a few orders over the weekend but we hope to have these ready to despatch Tuesday afternoon as usual.  Thank you for your patience.

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First unexpected Machin of 2018 is probably the last from 2017

We are never surprised that the first Prestige Stamp Book of a year contains definitives with a year code from the previous year: that has become the norm.  So after that it is a waiting game until the first totally new and unexpected stamp appears, and this year we have had to wait less than a month.

News reached us last week of the second printing of the 50p dark grey or slate.  Yes, the second printing: the first was in on 180/9/2012 and the second was in October 2017.  This is a little-used value which postmasters tell me they cannot order, so presumably these are sold via Royal Mail's business user website.  My sub-postmaster thinks that it would be a useful value (like the non-existent 9p - for the difference between 2nd and 1st class letter rate) but he can't get it.  My thanks to RL for the picture.

We hope to have some soon: this is Norvic Checklist number 3051.7.

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Dark 1st class counter sheet M16L now in stock

First reported in Stamp Magazine the first counter sheets of the 1st class dark red were printed in December 2016 (coded M16L), but apparently buried in Post Office stores under later printings of M17L as very few appeared during 2017.

We are pleased to say that supplies have now started to appear but still not in great numbers.

I can show a cylinder block and date block but at present do not have any for sale.  The printing we have was on 12/12/16

 

These are now listed in our shop as 2914a.6.

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Blog Updates

This week we have updated the January and December slogan postmarks posts, the latter including several new Universal machine usages.

We've added to our webshop Game of Thrones stamps: 3 new Machins, Cartor N Ireland 2nd, and all the gummed versions of the stamps on the self-adhesive miniature sheet, plus the retail booklet.  The ordinary stamps from the sheet are widely available, as are Post and Go stamps (ok, not as widely available, but then there aren't many outlets in Norfolk either!).

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Special Handstamps and the Royal Mail Postmark Bulletin

I'm sure ere long Royal Mail will produce a January edition of their Postmark Bulletin, which will be the first since 1 December.

They seem to have fallen into the trap of so many service providers from local authorities to travel agents and insurance companies who put information onto a website, and assume that everybody will be able to find it there.  But like those organisations, Royal Mail can't satisfy all customers who don't seem to read everything that they are given!  So maybe people will read this, and then we will get fewer random emails asking, for instance, 'where are the Game of Thrones special handstamps?' and 'when we will get a new Bulletin?'.

This was included on page 10 of the last Bulletin.  It would be useful if Royal Mail's Bulletin dowload page had a link to the Postmarks page, but they don't spoon-feed, you have to do some work yourselves.

It's quite clear - there are two pages, one for the Bulletin and another for the postmarks announced since the last Bulletin.

Anybody else asking will get a reply with a link to this blog post.  Don't expect a long explanation or a wordy reply: it's all here.

UPDATE 20 January 2018:
I understand that Royal Mail's 'first' bulletin, which is not sent to us, does not have all the details that collectors want for first day postmarks in use for the Game of Thrones issue.  Shown below is the information that we were provided with.  FS1801-PL is the Belfast FD postmark applied to Royal Mail Post and Go fdcs.  The design incorporates the Iron Throne as shown on the Tallents House postmark, but with the legend "First Day of Issue Belfast".
 
(Incidentally for those who like consistency in their P&G FDC collection, the official ones this time use the Game of Thrones cover and not the usual P&G cover.)

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We were powerless.....

Yes, during and after what the UK Met Office eventually referred to as 'Storm David', the name assigned by the French Met Office, we lost power from around 0620 on Thursday until 1500 Friday.  But we in our road were just a few of the 58,000 in Norfolk and Suffolk to lose power.  

Unfortunately due to the large number of incidents engineers only came to our incident this morning, but before they arrived a chuck wagon arrived on behalf of UK Power Network, providing hot drinks, soup, porridge, phone/tablet recharging facilities, and even I even saw one of our neighbours with her laptop using their wifi in the van!  So thanks to UKPN, and Haste Ltd.

So, there are a number of domestic issues to address before we're fully back up and running.  Emails will be answered according to their priority, but all within a couple of days.

Any orders received in the last couple of days should be despatched on Tuesday next, and the work-in-progress job of stock-taking Post and Go stamps will continue with some more stock being added where it was missed out before.  We should have all our Game of Thrones stock online by the date of issue.

This incident has been a reminder to always keep candles and matches close at hand, together with camping gas burners and lights, and keep mobile phones etc as fully charged as you can.  And if you are like us, using 'walkabout' landline phones - which rely on electricity - remember to have an ordinary plug-in phone available.  If, like others, you sent them all to charity shops or recycling when you got your posh 'answer it anywhere' phones, head back to the charity shop, and get another one.  That's the only way you can ring for help, and communicate with your power provider when your mobile devices have died, and are essential if you need the emergency services. 

Oh, and batteries for the radio are a good idea; stops all those dreadful silences when you can't think of anything else to talk about and you've done all the newspaper 'crosswords-by-candlelight'!

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Game of Thrones Update

In case readers miss its addition to the original post, this is just for the record with no comments possible here.

UPDATE 9 January: we have seen the stamps and can confirm that the Machin definitives are coded M17L MPIL. The iridescent printing is difficult to see especially on the £1.17 but this will be the only instance of this value on ordinary gum. 

The Northern Ireland 2nd class is a very good match to the last sheet printing we have although the phosphor is less evident to the naked eye.  

Collector Sheet - 10 x 1st class stamps with "labels that highlight key quotes from the series".  
UPDATE 9 January: this sheet is self-adhesive, the only way the stamps appear on this paper.  

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Royal Mail Slogan Postmarks January 2018.

Thanks to everybody who sent in examples of slogans received during 2017.  I expect to see several related to new stamp issues this year including the RAF Centenary and Women's Suffrage.  Doubtless there will also be various saint's days, Mother's Day, Booker Prize winner, Prince of Wales birthday, Royal Wedding (and baby), and Christmas.  Time will tell.

Nothing new to report yet, so I'm starting with one just received from Cornwall Mail Centre showing the default 'mental health awareness slogan, in the transposed position.

Actually this is new but I included it in the end of the December reports with the other examples of Universal slogan usage.   Lancashire & South Lakes unit 1 Remember to use the Post Code slogan on 2 Jan 2018 with 7 PM time. Times are unusual on Universals now, and cancellation of 2nd class mail didn't usual include the time, but funny things happen.

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UPDATE 15 January:  So we are half-way through January with only one new slogan postmark so far - and no news from Royal Mail as to why they have marked this one now.

My thanks to JG for sending this example about the award of the Dickin Medal to Mali of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, ‘For tireless bravery and devotion to duty during an operation in Afghanistan with the British Military in 2012’.  However the medal was awarded on 17 November 2017, the exact anniversary of the founding of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) in 1917.

It can't be, as previously asserted, that Royal Mail have no special slogans in use during their Christmas 'campaign' because they broke that policy with the Nobel Prize slogan!

The slightly garbled text of this example from Peterborough MC on 11 January is

Congratulations to

Military Working Dog Mali

Centenary PDSA

Dickin Medal recipient.

UPDATE 16 January.  Thanks to MB we have a good copy of the alternative layout from the other machines, this one from North West Midlands Mail Centre on 15 January.

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T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize.  MB also sent two copies of the slogan which has replaced the PDSA one.  Neither of these is a good example and both are from Edinburgh MC on 16 January.  

Ocean Vuong has won the 2017 TS Eliot Prize, for his debut collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds.  The Vietnamese-born poet, who now lives in Massachusetts, has won a host of awards for the collection, including Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

The postmark text reads

Congratulations

Ocean Vuong -

Winner of the 2017

T.S.Eliot Prize for

Best New Poetry Collection

And thanks to DW for the other version of this one from Southampton Portsmouth & IOW Mail Centre.

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UPDATE 25 January 2018
Royal Mail have used a slogan nationwide to mark Burns Night , not restricted to mail addressed to Scotland.  Thanks to GF for the North West Midlands version used 23 January and to KB for the Jubilee version used 22 January.  The slogan reads:

Fair fa' your honest,

sonsire face, Great Chiftain

o' the Puddin-race!

Burns Night - 

25 January 2018

 

UPDATE 2 March.
Thanks to peterh on Stampboards, I can show this example of January's Burns Night slogan running at Southampton Mail Centre a month later on 27/02/2018!

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UPDATE 30 January 2018
I'm going to use this one to start the February blog tomorrow, as it is almost certainly in use all this week.  By then we may have some better examples between us!

LETS' BEAT CANCER

SOONER ON

WORLD CANCER DAY

4 FEBRUARY 2018

South Midlands Mail Centre 29 January and Home Counties North MC 29 January.

 

Update: Thanks to RW for a much better example with text on 5 lines, from Bristol Mail Centre on 30 January.

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Centenary of Women's Suffrage - Votes for Women

Royal Mail have released the designs for the Women's Suffrage Centenary issue in the January Philatelic Bulletin.

Although the pictures are monochrome, the stamp captions are highlighted in purple and green, colours used by the Women's Suffrage Movement.  These will be issued on 15 February at Spring Stampex and nationwide at 7,500 Post Office branches.

More details later on our website.

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Postal Heritage Mail by Sea Post and Go stamps issued at Stampex

As shown in the 2018 schedule, Royal Mail will issue the fourth in their Postal Heritage series of Post and Go stamps on 14 February, during Spring Stampex, but we have been told that there will be no Post and Go machines AT Stampex.

The nearest Post and Go machines, as far as I know, will be at Mount Pleasant Enquiry Office, at the Islington Post Office branch at 160-161 Upper Street, and at the Postal Museum where the stamps will have the Museum inscription.

The stamps depict a series of ships which have carried the mails for a period of 230 years from HM Packet Antelope in 1780, the SS Great Western, the SS Britannia, the RMS Olympic (sister ship to the Titanic), to the first of the Queen's, the RMS Queen Mary, closing with the RMS St Helena which is due to end its service soon.

	Bureau pack
FDC Insert (click on image to see larger, readable, version)

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Snow Joke - it's Game of Thrones Boxed Set 1 for Royal Mail

The Stark truth is that many did not Cersei this coming.  However, there's no point in putting the Bolton the stable after the dragon has flown.....

Royal Mail have now announced in their Philatelic Bulletin details of the badly-embargoed stamp issue for 23 January 2018.   This will 'celebrate' the HBO cable-television series, Game of Thrones (GoT).

Those who are interested in this series probably know all there is to know, and I know very little.  Those who don't know anything about it may already have cancelled their standing order with Royal Mail because they regard this as one step too far, and 2017 is as good a cut-off point as any to stop buying new Great Britain stamps, or at least some of them.

So for the record, these are the philatelic collectables on offer.  Anybody who wants to see the products designed specifically for GoT fans will find them on Royal Mail's website soon.  Click on any of these images to see larger versions.

A set of 10 stamps depicting characters from the series (10 x 65p, £6.50 - product code AS3257)

A miniature sheet depicting some non-human characters from the series and the Iron Throne (5 x 65p, £3.25 - product code MZ129)

A retail booklet of 6 x 1st class Iron Throne stamps (£3.90, product code UB412)

Collector Sheet - 10 x 1st class stamps with "labels that highlight key quotes from the series".   (Price £7.50, product code AT102).
UPDATE 9 January: this sheet is self-adhesive, the only way the stamps appear on this paper.  With a premium of £1 it is possible that this sheet will be included in SG Concise catalogue.

Prestige Stamp Book (Price £13.95 - product code YB074).  Contains all the 10 'Human' stamps in the set, and a page of definitives - thankfully all Machin definitives rather than all Iron Throne stamps, so at least something for Machin collectors to be interested in.

 

The definitive pane contains two 1st class Iron Throne stamps (gummed rather than self-adhesive), two Northern Ireland 2nd class country definitives, and Machin definitives of 20p, £1.17 and 2 x 5p which will presumably be coded M17L MPIL, although they may have M18L codes.

UPDATE 9 January: we have seen the stamps and can confirm that the Machin definitives are coded M17L MPIL. The iridescent printing is difficult to see especially on the £1.17 but this will be the only instance of this value on ordinary gum. The 5p, as often before, reacts under ultra-violet light and shows quite orange.

The Northern Ireland 2nd class is a very good match to the last sheet printing we have although the phosphor is less evident to the naked eye. 

 

For the first time Royal Mail have combined a normal stamp issue with Post and Go stamps.  This is something that I suggested almost two years ago.  Now that many Post Office branch customers are directed to Self-Service Kiosks they rarely get the chance to see any of Royal Mail's special issues.  This may encourage them to ask questions and see the point of sale material in branches.  The basic pack has one 1st class and one 2nd class stamp, price £1.21 - product code ZS050.

There is a single first day cover for all the products, and a presentation pack containing both set and miniature sheet.  There are also Medal covers for the set and the miniature sheet, and framed products.

We shall be stocking the Machin definitives, and Post and Go, including a limited number of first day covers.  More details later.

UPDATE 5 January
Thanks to an alert reader who spotted these in his Post Office I can confirm that PO Branches do indeed have instructions about when (not) to use the Post and Go stamps. The 2nd class is coded 2nd CL18S and the 1st class is R18YAL .

UPDATE 8 January
A number of special postmarks have been announced for this issue, a few are shown below.  Those not sponsored by Royal Mail for FDCs and medal covers can be seen here.  More may be added.

UPDATE 20 January 2018:
I understand that Royal Mail's 'first' bulletin, which is not sent to us, does not have all the details that collectors want for first day postmarks in use for the Game of Thrones issue.  Shown below is the information that we were provided with.  FS1801-PL is the Belfast FD postmark applied to Royal Mail Post and Go fdcs.  The design incorporates the Iron Throne as shown on the Tallents House postmark, but with the legend "First Day of Issue Belfast".
 
(Incidentally for those who like consistency in their P&G FDC collection, the official ones this time use the Game of Thrones cover and not the usual P&G cover.)

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