End of the Second World War details - 8 May 2020

The next stamp issue marks the End of the Second World War, timed to coincide with the end of the War in Europe and Royal Mail have started distributing the stamps to registered dealers.  Several people alerted me to its arrival on the Royal Mail website although that was only a place-holder and has since disappeared. 

This seems to be a regular thing, that the techies test the page on the live site, and either then realise their error or are told, and off it goes again until the proper embargo date. However, although they don't have a lead-in page, all the items are now available to view via the Special Stamps page.

Background
This stamp issue reflects on the end of the war both in Europe and in the Far East, with three concepts: Celebrating, Returning and Remembering.

In the eight sheet stamps are depictions of the sense of relief and celebration by service personnel and civilians when news of the conflict’s end was announced. Also featured in these stamps are images of personnel returning from overseas, as well as the return of children evacuated from major cities.

Of an entirely different tone, four stamps in a miniature sheet will mark the concept of Remembrance, with images depicting official monuments and cemeteries to the fallen as well as a major memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.


The stamp set of 8
A collection of eight Special Stamps featuring evocative photographs capturing the relief and jubilation that followed the formal end of the Second World War in 1945.

The original black and white photographs have been expertly reproduced in colour for the first time.

 

Details
2nd Class A serviceman returns home to South Devon from his airbase in Lincolnshire.
2nd Class Jubilant nurses celebrate VE Day in Liverpool.
1st Class Ecstatic crowds gather in London’s Piccadilly on VE Day.
1st Class Evacuees return home to London after a wartime stay in Leicester.
£1.42 Troops march through London’s Oxford Street during a parade for the Victory Over Japan exhibition.
£1.42 Soldiers and sailors leave a demobilisation centre carrying their civilian clothes in boxes.
£1.63 Allied prisoners of war at Aomori Camp near Yokohama, Japan cheer their rescuers.
£1.63 A member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRENS) proposes a toast during VE Day celebrations in Glasgow.

The Miniature Sheet
... focuses on memorials honouring servicemen and women who gave their lives to serve their country, as well as victims of the Holocaust.

 

Four stamps feature memorials in Jerusalem and Rangoon, as well as Runnymede and Plymouth in the UK, on a Miniature Sheet carrier bearing the title in stone carved lettering.  A common feature is that the memorials mark the loss of men and women who have no known grave.


1st Class Yad Vashem, Jerusalem Israel’s official memorial to victims of Second World War Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews.
1st Class Runnymede Memorial, UK commemorates over 20,000 airmen and women who were lost during operations from bases in the UK and Europe during World War II and who have no known grave.
£1.63 Plymouth Naval Memorial, UK, originally erected to mark the more than 7,000 sailors who died in World War I with no known grave, and extended in the 1950s to include nearly 16,000 sailors who perished in World War II.
£1.63 Rangoon Memorial, Myanmar within the Taukkyan War Cemetary commemorates almost 27,000 dead British and Commonwealth Land Forces who fell during campaigns against the Japanese in Burma (Myanmar) and who have no known grave.

Technical specifications
The 41mm x 30mm stamps are designed by Hat-trick Design, with Photo colourisation Royston Leonard, printed in sheets of 60.   The 192 x 74 mm miniature sheet contains four 60 x 30 mm stamps.  All are printed by International Security Printers in Lithography, perforated 14½ x 14 with phosphor bands (single central band on 2nd class).

Acknowledgements
Serviceman welcomed home © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images; Evacuees return home © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images;
Navy personnel celebrate © Mirrorpix/Bridgeman Images;
Allied POWs liberated © Everett Collection/Bridgeman Images;
Nurses celebrate © Mirrorpix/Bridgeman Images;
Jubilant public © Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images;
Demobilised servicemen © photo by Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images;
Troops parade at end of war © Mirrorpix/Bridgeman Images
MS Background image – stone carved lettering by Gary Breeze and photography by Joe Howat;
Hall of names, Holocaust History Museum, Yad Veshem, Jerusalem © Israel images/Alamy stock photo;
Plymouth Naval Memorial and Runnymede Memorial – photographs by Mike Sheil © Royal Mail Group Limited 2020;
Rangoon Memorial, Myanmar © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Prestige Stamp Book

Yes, there's an error in the caption on this one, but this is preliminary artwork. 
The actual pane is correctly captioned.

Compared with the £19.80 selling price, the Machin pane is relatively low priced compared with some others, with one airmail (20g Worldwide letter) and two make-up values the pane provides two sets of new stamps, 5p, 50p & £1.63 which have, at last, the M20L year code and a full MPIL source code. There are two spare 5p stamps so look out for those sometime being used for postage.

The Cartor litho-printed stamps are a good colour match for the Walsall gravure stamps, which means that Cartor are getting things right.  The style of the irridescent lettering is very thin - we've had this before - but the letters are much thinner than on the gravure stamps

These aren't very good photographs but they do show (especially if you click to enlarge them) the codes at top left and top right of the stamps.

   

 

The stamps are numbered 3005P.20, 3050P.20 and 3163 in the Norvic Checklist, a new version of which will be issued very shortly, now that the latest numbers have arrived from Gibbons.  A new post will appear here in due course.

Other products

First Day Covers x 2, Stamp Cards, Presentation Pack, Limited Edition Coin Covers, Press Sheet of 14 miniature sheets, Framed Stamp Set.

UPDATE 16 May
Reader GI-man reports:

I received 4 x Presentation Packs yesterday. All of the stamps were fixed the the backing card. The miniature sheet was also fixed to the card.
I was expecting to use the stamps - and now I can't! Has anyone else had similar experiences? Thanks.

It would appear that Royal Mail have not learned from their mistake earlier in the year with the James Bond presentation packs and that there are two versions, one of which is should have been for sale only on Amazon.   But once again they have mixed up the two stocks.  Anybody receiving the wrong one should follow the instructions on their Despatch Note or Invoice to get a replacement.

News About Other Machins

There is still no news of reprinted booklets or business sheets.  These are typically sold at supermarkets, card shops and other small retailers as well as Post Office branches and Royal Mail online.  With so many people finding ways to communicate electronically, and small businesses such as repair garages (who send invoices & statements by post) having far less business, it may be some time before we see any evidence of new printings.  

And of course people who consistently provide me with news, as they use their free public transport passes to trawl around those outlets looking for new stamps, are wisely not now doing so.  So please look out for what appears on your letters.  You may be pleasantly surprised to receive a bill with a new printing of a 2nd class booklet stamp on!

Let us know what you find, please!

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