Cartor moves Wales 1st class to level 4, but otherwise no change.

The 1st class Wales country definitive has been reprinted again.

Readers will recall that (in common with all the other low value country definitives) the Wales stamp was reprinted in 2017 with a new font.  On this occasion the plate numbers were reset to C1.

But on 30/01/2019 plate C3 was used - and it followed from the previous C2 in having the old (original) font.  Now we have a further printing from plate C4 on 10/08/2020 - again in the original font!

1st class Wales country definitive printed 10/08/2020 from a new set of C4 plates, but still with the original font, rather than the revised font introduced in 2017.

The reprint has a slightly darker dragon than on the previous (C3) printing (shown here on the right). Otherwise there is little difference.

What, one wonders was the point of creating stamps in the new font?  Needless to say none of the other low value country definitives, from Wales, England, Northern Ireland or Scotland, has been reprinted since the introduction of the new font.  Or if they have, they haven't appeared yet in Tallents House stocks. My thanks to RB for reminding me that the England 1st & 2nd, the Wales 2nd and Scotland 2nd  were all reprinted in 2020, and the Scotland 2nd in 2018 & 2019.  These were all with the new font.  This makes it all the more surprising that the Wales 1st class has been reprinted twice with the old.

As you can see, this one is from four grid positions on a primary plate, so there are no others printed at the same time, as was the case with C3.

So to summarise:

C1 - 10 & 11/07/2012
C1 - 07/04/15
C2 - 17/11/2016
C1 - 26/12/2017   new font
C3 - 30/01/2019
C4 - 10/08/2020

Cylinder and date blocks of C3 and C4 can be obtained on request (normally 6 and 8 respectively, but blocks of 10 are available).  Please email your request - do not leave the comment here.

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