Harry Potter Prestige Stamp Book and new Counter Sheets - 4 December 2018

We can now show some of the detail of the stamps in the Harry Potter PSB which will be issued on 4 December 2018.

Of most interest to readers of this blog, I suspect, is the definitive pane.  This contains two 'sets' of four Machin definitives, 1p, 20p, 50p and £1.25.  All have the MPIL and M18L source and year codes, as is to be expected.

Sorry for the slightly wonky pictures, my old microscope' joints are beginning to get loose.

The reverse of the definitive pane has printing which probably shows a floor plan of Hogwarts School of Wizadry. 

 

Panes 1 and 2 have 5 stamps each, a block of four and a single, with pane 1 showing the characters from the set, and pane 2 showing the vehicles and the Triwizard Cup.  They too have printing on the reverse:

 

Panes 4 and 5 share the stamps which are on the miniature sheet; we don't have these yet but the assumption must be that they will be bound facing each other and that they too will have printing on the reverse.
UPDATE 23rd November: As expected panes 4 and 5 also have printing on the reverse.

 

They do indeed face each other in the booklet. Click on the images to see them enlarged.

What is more surprising is the layout of the booklet which has two front covers, and half the pages inverted in relation to the others.

Pages are:
1. Front cover, inside front cover
2. Stamp pane - the five students
3-5 Narrative pages about the people.
6.  Narrative: Hogwarts Express & Triwizard Cup
7.  Stamp pane - transport and Cup
8.  Narrative, more transport
9.  Narrative, Harry Potter
Inverted:
10. Narrative, Professor Snape
11. Narrative, Prisoner of Azkaban
12. Definitive stamp pane
13. Narrative, Marauder's Map
14. Narrative, The Half-Blood Prince
15-16.  Stamp panes, ex miniature sheet as above.
17. Inside back cover, Back cover.

UPDATE  7 December: A number of make-up errors have been found on this PSB, see this newer post.

The definitives are four new stamps, Norvic numbers 4001.8, 4020.8, 4050.8 and 4125.8.

We will produce first day covers - but see below.

New Counter Sheets

Also on 4 Decmber Royal Mail's philatelic service is distributing to some standing order customers the new Walsall printings of the 100g and 500g Special Delivery stamps (Norvic 2985.8 and 2986.8), and the 1st class and 1st class Large Signed For stamps (2991.8 and 2992.8).  We will be listing the latter in our shop as soon as we have supplies, for distribution after 4 December.  The Special Delivery stamps have been available for some time as they have already been sold in some Post Office branches. 

FIRST DAY COVERS

We are planning to do first day covers for all of these stamps, using Royal Mail's standard definitive  envelope.  As this is the first day of philatelic availability for the special delivery stamps, some customers may want them included, whilst others will only want the stamps that are actually newly available.  Pre-order prices are:

A.  FDC with 4 x Harry Potter PSB definitives and pair of Signed For definitives - price £9.25

B.  FDC as above but plus two Special Delivery definitives - price £28.50

If you would like to order these please email as soon as possible.  Because our office will be closed from 14 - 23 November, emails will not be acknowledged until 24/25th.  Orders must be placed by 25th November to ensure that we obtain enough stamps and covers.   A relevant Harry Potter postmark will be used.

Exceptionally, if you would like the Harry Potter stamps on a Harry Potter cover, and the others (2 or 4) on standard definitive covers please let us know.  Prices will be slightly higher due to higher costs.

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