Monday 27 April 2020

Slogan Postmark: Captain Tom Moore; Covid 19 stamps

Several people have written about this because it made the national news on BBC and in some newspapers.

(artist's impression)

Royal Mail will stamp all letters with the message to celebrate Captain Tom Moore's 100th birthday on Thursday.
All stamped post up until Friday will be marked with: "Happy 100th Birthday Captain Thomas Moore NHS fundraising hero 30th April 2020."
Royal Mail said it was "honoured" to issue the postmark.
World War Two veteran Capt Tom, from Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire, has extended his challenge to 200 laps after he completed the first 100 laps 14 days ahead of schedule.
His initial £1,000 fundraising target was broken in about 24 hours and he has now raised more than £29m for the NHS.  
Royal Mail said it had adapted its sorting machines in the South Midlands Mail Centre to re-route all post to Capt Tom into a dedicated collection box.
A spokesman said staff had already processed more than 100,000 cards using this new process and were expecting thousands more in the run-up to his birthday.
Volunteers have also been brought in to open and display the thousands of cards, which are being put on show at Bedford School where Capt Tom's grandson attends.

We first mentioned this last Tuesday on the April Slogan Postmarks post, and that's where we will post examples.

Meanwhile if anybody gets spare copies of these I have a number of people already asking about it - some are building up thematic Covid19 collections.  A number of countries around the world have issued stamps, as shown below.

Please continue to send images, and if you have spare examples on whole envelopes, please let me know by email, and I will put you in touch with the people who would like these for their collections.

Thank you.

Iran stamp March 2020
Viet-Nam pair of stamps 31 March 2020
China Post - the second design publicised but both pairs may not have been issued
Switzerland, sold in sheets of 10 for 50Fr. 1fr postage value each, Swisspost is reported to have raised 1 million for charity so far
Slogan postmarks used in Singapore

Single stamp from Bosnia-Herzegovina
Postmark slogan used in Malaysia before any stamps anywhere
The Isle of Man has produced not only 8 stamps but is using the same designs on it's machine-vended self-adhesive variable-rate stamps (= Post and Go).

Postmark Honouring Captain Thomas Moore's 100th birthday and fundraising effort for NHS charities.


Thanks to Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog and members of Stampboards for these images.


7 comments:

  1. Hi Ian, Interested to see that Royal Mail saw fit to issue this special postmark which is to be applauded and hopefully a self addressed letter sent yesterday will have the Postmark. I wonder if Royal Mail have missed a trick here with a new stamp issue ,I haven't seen it suggested, perhaps a single stamp for Captain Tom. It is abundantly clear that the Nation have taken Captain Tom to their hearts big time and what better way to produce a lasting celebration in a time of such uncertainty. I would imagine it would sell out very quickly with so many people from non Philatelic backgrounds keen to secure a memory of the event and probably eclipse all the popular issues put together as it would appeal to a different audience who may get one to show and keep for their children / grandchildren and therefore further the pastime and an interest from a younger audience. Strikes me with the right design and some thought put into it that it would be have been win win win, with all profits to the NHS. It could have been online sale only to prevent crowds and queues in Post Offices. Or maybe I'm alone in recognising when an event is worthy of philatelic celebration. Be interested in your views ! Best Regards, Derek

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder if they will update the slogan to replace Captain with Colonel?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Ian
    Having a special postmark and actually using it appears to be two different things. Yesterday I got an unused 2012 Olympic Union Jack envelope added a Union Jack Post & Go and dropped it in the local box. It arrived promptly today with the orange sorting bars but just a faint line across the top perforations, they don't appear to have put ink in the postmark machine. Oh well, it was worth a try.
    Regards
    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had similar, although in my case judging by the barcodes, it went through the machine upside down. Therefore the machine did not detect a stamp and so didn't postmark it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've had 3 pretty decent copies of the postmark through the door - all from the Edinburgh office

    ReplyDelete
  6. 5 copies 4 from Exeter, 1 from Chester & North Wales. The one half decent copy is from Exeter dated the 30th April on a grey envelope which looks better than the one on white. There seems to be an inking problem with Exeter as most of the slogans I get from there seem too be low quality. Bristol and South Wales Mail Centres seem to get it right more often than not in my experience. Is there a particular envelope colour/style/size that seems to work better for anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Please let me know if anyone has a spare copy. Maybe I can do a swap or purchase. Very keen to add ghis to my collection.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading the blog and commenting: please use an identity (name or pseudonym) rather than being Anonymous; it helps us to know which 'anonymous' comments are from the same person to avoid confusion. Comments are moderated to avoid spam, but will be published as soon as possible.