Monday 7 January 2019

RPSL anniversary marked with miniature sheet on 15 January 2019

This stamp issue is a celebration of Royal Mail’s stamp history, and of organised philately, coinciding with two significant anniversaries: 150 years of the Royal Philatelic Society and 50 years since HM The Queen opened The Postal Museum. The long history of organized philately in the UK is honoured with the Miniature sheet featuring six classic stamps with one key stamp design from each monarch’s reign since the invention of the penny post under Queen Victoria’s reign.

The stamps chosen for this miniature sheet (3 x 1st class and 3 x £1.55 airmail) will not, like the music icons, be everyone's choice but that is what has been chosen.

Queen Victoria £1 Green (1891) - 73 x 30mm
Edward VII 2d - Tyrian Plum (1910) - 31 x 30 mm
George V ‘Seahorse’ – 2/6 brown (1913) - 52 x 30 mm
Edward VIII definitive (1936) – 1½d - 33 x 30 mm
George VI Penny Black centenary (1940) ½ d green - 42 x 30mm
QEII Coronation 2½d red (1953) - 52 x 30 mm

(All dimensions rounded up.)


Royal Mail notes that:
The Royal Philatelic Society is the oldest such society in the world. It was formed in April 1869. The future King George V became its patron in 1896, and later granted permission to the use the Royal Arms. It promotes the study of philately through regular meetings, exhibitions, prizes, and publishing articles, maintaining a library and collection of stamps and publishing a journal (The London Philatelist). It has a display at Stampex. 

Her Majesty the Queen officially opened the National Postal Museum in London which houses the award winning Reginald Phillips collection of stamps and the rare Tyrian Plum stamp. Quantities of this stamp were sent to post offices. However following the death of Edward VII on 6 May 1910, it was decided not to issue the new stamp and almost all the stock was destroyed. Only a few examples survive, making this stamp one of the great rarities of philately.
The sheet should be available from approximately 7,000 post office branches throughout the UK, and from Royal Mail's Tallents House bureau.

According to our information, as well as a presentation pack and first day cover, stamp cards and a press sheet will be produced,  as well as a limited edition sheet at Spring Stampex with an additional inscription.  This will only be available from the show.

The sheet was designed by hat-trick design. Copyright Royal Mail Group Ltd 2019, courtesy of The Postal Museum, and printed by International Security Printers in litho.  The sheet is 192 x 74 mm, and the stamp sizes are as shown above.

5 January
Although we couldn't publish the images earlier, US stamp weekly Linn's has the news in its 21 January edition and they can be seen here together with full details about the original stamps, The Royal and the Postal Museum.


15 comments:

  1. originally on 19 December 2018 at 19:32
    Good to see the new miniature sheet. the choice of subjects is wise but it is a pity they are not reproductions like the lovely 2010 Festival of stamps issue (with the Seahorse £1), the 2008 Wilding 1st class stamps or the Penny Black commemoratives of 2015. Sadly it is now hard to work out where commemoratives can be bought: but the announcement that The Broadway Post Office in London, near St James's Park Underground will become philatelic is good news for 2019

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  2. originally on 20 December 2018 at 10:34
    I'm fascinated by the idea of the varying dimensions - I'm presuming this is because the historic stamps are shown at their original size? In fact, I'd quite like to be able to buy the Victoria and George V options as counter sheets for postage.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it's a shame when a MS includes airmail rate stamps which most people won't use. We will be able to use some to send orders worldwide (£1.55 or £2.25), and for signed-for inland (£1.77+). But we also have many older stamps to use up, so even dealers may not split these for use, and they are too big and too costly to use in their entirety.

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    2. I have always rather liked the retail booklets of 4x Machin and 2x Commemorative as a way for casual stamp buyers to get something a little more interesting. Though the varying sizes here would have made it awkward or forced a different choice of "classic" stamps.

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  3. originally on 24 December 2018 at 12:13 Nice to see this issue has been announced. Earlier this month I wrote to Royal Mail about the non-issue of a stamp calendar for 2019. They have informed me that, because of production issues in 2018, the 2019 calendar has not been finalized and that no calendar will be issued for 2019. If you want to know what is being issued you have to log on to Royal Mails 'Stamps and Collectibles' website, fortnightly at least, to check what is going to be issued. You will then be able to order from Royal Mail. Not sure from their reply as to whether you will be able to order via your local Post Office; for one issue this year (2018) my postmaster said I had to order before the end of the month.

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    Replies
    1. I think we will see the calendar in the February Philatelic Bulletin and Postmark Bulletin.

      We will publish it here as soon as there is something definite (including TBAs) from Royal Mail

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  4. Shame the anniversaries this MS is said to mark aren't at least mentioned on the sheet margins.

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    1. Sadly nothing unusual there. In so many cases a stamp issue is 'linked' to an anniversary and this is not mentioned.

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  5. Pleased to see that all six monarchs are illustrated and I agree with Mr Rundle that the anniversaries commemorated should have been mentioned. I wonder if the Walsall printed, Standard Signed For, NVC will be issued to S.O. customers with this issue ? Does anyone have any updates about this ? By the way the 'First' leaflet issued for the Stamp Classics says that the perforations are 'Various' but I can't see how that can be.

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    Replies
    1. Shame that RM still think perforations equate to size of stamp

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    2. We have no information on the perforations for this, because that wasn't included in the Factfile we were sent.

      But I don't think there is any suggestion that Royal Mail think perforations = size of stamp.

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    3. Sorry, I had assumed that the leaflet alluded to was RM produced hence the comment. Given the apparent lack of knowledge/control displayed recently then it seemed to fit!

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  6. Perhaps 'various' means, say, 15 X 14 rather than 14 all round. The January 2019 Bulletin gives issue details of the 13th February stamps - Leonardo da Vinci. There will be a Prestige Book.

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  7. The January issue of the Philatelic Bulletin shows no image nor gives any details of the 'Stamp Classics' mini-sheet, apart from the note on the back page. I just don't understand the reason for this, presumably the details will be in the February edition. By the way, the back page is numbered 554 when it should be 544. In fairness I always find that the Bulletin is a visually attractive production.

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  8. Not related to the stamp issue per se, but being new to this philatelic 'lark', I was dumbstruck by the fact that there was any need for a £1 stamp during the reign of our current Queen's great-great-grandmother. What service was so expensive (and sufficiently commonplace to necessitate the production of such stamps)?

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