There will, of course, be additions to this programme.
The Queen celebrates her 95th birthday, while her husband, HRH Prince Philip, Duke
of Edinburgh was born on 10 June 1921 and his centenary would seem to
warrant some commemoration. [Corrected: the platinum anniversary is 2022.]
Changes in red arise from the receipt of the Postmark Bulletin today.
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14-Jan-2021
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National Parks (set of 10 x 1st class + retail booklet)  |
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26-Jan-2021 Embargo 15 January |
United Kingdom – A Celebration  |
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16-Feb-2021 Embargo 2 February |
Only Fools and Horses (TV programme - 40th anniversary)  Set of Stamps 4x 1st & 4x £1.70, MS of 2 each 1st & 2x £1.70. Retail Stamp Book £5.10 and a Prestige Stamp Book (Definitive Pane 3x 20p, 2x 2nd & 3x 1st). Also a Collector's Sheet. |
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16-Mar-2021 Embargo 2 March |
Legend of King Arthur (no particular anniversary)  |
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29-Mar-2021 |
Retail Booklet - Queen  |
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15-Apr-2021 |
Classic Science Fiction  |
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04-May-2021 |
Wars of the Roses (1455-1487, 550 years, approx) 
|
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28-May-2021 |
Music
Giants V - Paul McCartney  |
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June |
TBC - not mentioned in Postmark Bulletin |
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01-July-2021 |
Dennis and Gnasher (Comic Strip)  |
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22nd July |
Wild Coasts  |
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12th August |
Industrial Revolutions  |
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2nd September |
British Army Vehicles  |
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17th September |
TBC |
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19th October |
Rugby Union  |
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2nd November |
Christmas 2021  |
Ian, sorry to be pedantic about it. HM's jubilee is not until 2022. HM KGVI died 6th Feb 1952.
ReplyDeleteI was a bit puzzled by the reference to the Platinum Jubilee. Whilst this is obviously an important anniversary for which stamps should be issued, it does not occur until 6th February 2022. Would you really expect any stamps to be issued in February this year? Or indeed at any time before February 2022?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information. However, I think you'll find that The Queen came to the Throne in 1952, so the Platinum Jubilee will be next year. This year marks The Queen's 95th Birthday as well as Prince Philip's centenary, and he has apparently asked for no fuss to be made of it.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, all I can say is that it's the same old ideas going round and round again, as shown by the fact that there are previous stamps on the subjects already! Lord knows what the point of the Wars of the Roses set is, but I'm gald to see Only Fools and Horses if only for a bit of light relief...
Thank you all for pointing out my error; and to Kevin who said I was correct in what I had written, but only after I had corrected it.
DeleteI don't think the Queen's 95th birthday will be celebrated with a set of stamps, think about when was the last time the Queen got stamps, on the 80th, 90th, we never got a set for her 85th, so I can't see that happening until she turns 100.
DeleteRugby Union seems like an strange choice for October given the UK will (hopefully!) be hosting the Rugby League World Cup that month
ReplyDelete2021 is the 150th Anniv of the RFU being formed and also the Anniv of the first Rugby International between Scotland and England.
DeleteI am loth to trust TBCs - mainly because, rather than 'we know what it is, but we're keeping it under wraps', I suspect that it is a case of ' we can't think of a way to fleece our customers this month, at the time of publication, but we'll come up with something'.
ReplyDeleteThey know full well what the issue is, they either can't say anything yet because the licence negotiations aren't fully finalised, or they don't want to because they think "secret squirrel" marketing is the way forward.
DeleteI'd like to see what comes up for Classic SF. HG Wells is an obvious starter but I'd add 20th Century names: John Wyndham, Christopher Priest, Brian Aldiss, Jeff Noon, Iain M Banks, Tanith Lee
ReplyDeleteTriffids, The Kraken Wakes (there's an updated version on the radio with David Tennant and Richard Harrington....), ...
DeleteThe birthplace of HG Wells I think has become a Primark! Read a few of his short stories. Think some tricks with UV might be nice on the stamps.
Currently reading the Culture series, as I've been fascinated recently by SpaceX...
Correct - the site of Wells's father's drapers shop at 47 High Street, Bromley is now Primark (used to be Allders). Hopefully RM will do a better job than the Royal Mint https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/05/hg-wells-fans-spot-numerous-errors-on-royal-mints-new-2-coin
DeleteI wish I could think of another (British) female name to add. Doris Lessing?
Depends on your definition of "science fiction" (which, to my mind, need not be futuristic) but the most classic SF work I know does indeed have an authoress, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley.
Delete6 x 1st class stamps in Miniature Sheet format (Royal Mail Ref MZ160) on the 26th of January 2021 is entitled "A Celebration" - I just wonder what we are celebrating?!!! Hopefully I will get the Covid vaccination or maybe all the PO staff wrongfully accused of fraud (the Horizon Case) will be pardoned and get massive compensation and those responsible for the farce land up in clink. That would be a great Celebration. Doug (Enfield)
ReplyDeleteMy take on this is that they've perhaps slipped something into the programme because they can't do an issue that covers the "B" word, being as divisive as it is. This will answer all those who complain about that.
Delete"Slipped" ? They've driven it in with a flag-waving coach and horses! Expect to see it on Royal Mail and cover producers' websites in 10 days, on 15 January.
DeleteNo Post & Go again, would have thought that the staff in WHS et al would now have the experience of putting Winter Greenery in their machines (and other designs!) that it shouldn't be an issue or has RM fallen out of love with the concept? The first casualty of reductions in letter volumes perhaps. It would be interesting to see the % split between stamps and labels dispensed by each SSK.
ReplyDeleteThey are not a convenience item like a book of Machins so that perhaps explains little 1st & 2nd use on domestic mail
DeleteWell somebody has used them, judging by the non-museum non-pack ones seen in used selections on eBay. Don't forget open values as well.
DeleteA few years ago I bought about 40 Post and Go all at once to put on Christmas Cards (just googled and it must have been 2015 Winter Fur and Feathers) because it was easier than queuing to buy counter sheets and I didn't particularly like the Christmas issue that year. That was when I worked in Central London and had easier access to a choice of larger PO. Working from Home, my local sub-PO is too small to rate a SSK so I'm sure many people will buy booklets at the Supermarket kiosk rather than queue if they only want stamps for letters or paying bills. I certainly can't recall receiving an incoming Post and Go in the last 2 or 3 years.
DeletePerhaps interesting they are going to do Only Fools and Horses. When was that survey for RM for the stamp calendar, and they considered Monty Python anniversary... ? Think there would have been much more fun with Monty Python (dead parrot, just a flesh wound... arguments/contradiction...). I can't think of many things about Only Fools - luvly jubbly, the unscripted fall through the bar hatch, the three-wheeled vehicle, and some of the characters, oh, and dodgy dealing.
ReplyDeleteTriggers Broom!
DeleteJanuary's Philatelic Bulletin reveals on backpage the details of the Only Fools and Horses issue on 16/02/21. Set of Stamps 4x 1st & 4x £1.70, Miniature Sheet made up of 2x 1st & 2x £1.70. Retail Stamp Book £5.10 and a Prestige Stamp Book (Definitive Pane 3x 20p, 2x 2nd & 3x 1st). Also a Collector's Sheet amongst other items.
ReplyDeleteOverall the Stamp Calendar for 2021 looks pretty impressive on paper apart from the February set, looking forward to Classic Science Fiction, has to be TV related surely, could be Space1999 combined with Sapphire & Steel in my eyes those are two classic TV sci-fi series unless they include Blakes 7
ReplyDeleteI'd possibly buy those.... UFO for another Gerry Anderson series; Quatermass; The Tomorrow People, Doomwatch, Red Dwarf
DeleteWow! 3 classic sci-fi series mentioned in the 2 replies above. Sapphire and Steel, The Tomorrow People and Blake's 7. I have all 3 😁
DeleteUnfortunately I am still not inspired enough by the 2021 calendar to start collecting modern issues again. I will watch with interest to see what is released though.
I fear Martin will be disappointed. In fact they are even uglier than the 1995 set, if that is possible...
ReplyDeleteI would not want to jinx Mr Mc Cartney, but is it not forbidden to have living folk on stamps unless they are royalty?
ReplyDeleteYou've forgotten Elton John two years ago? Oh how the mighty are fallen!
Deletehttps://blog.norphil.co.uk/2019/09/music-giants-iii-3-september-2013.html
Well-known cricket fan Allan Leighton - then Royal Mail Chairman - saw that off when keen to issue stamps celebrating England winning the Ashes in 2005, after a gap of some 19 years.
DeleteEven at the time, it was hardly the greatest justification for abandoning a point of principle, the Ashes being a competition in which only two countries compete, and the fact that the win was in any way remarkable was more a damning indictment of those who oversaw nearly 2 decades of 'failure' (or, for the more even-tempered, a period of Australian excellence featuring names who even now are remembered as worldbeating exponents of the sport).
If only the dam hadn't been breached, we might have been saved many of the populist (or, possibly depending upon your financial position, 'exploitative') issues of recent years - Star Wars, Star Trek, (most of) James Bond, Sherlock and the upcoming Only Fools and Horses, to name but a small number of affected issues.
Well you may not have been able to see their faces, but the Rugby team were celebrated in 2003. And there were numerous others, unidentified before that - Hillary, 'Rights of the Child' 2001, various other millennium stamps.
DeleteIt would have happened sooner or later; it is a way to get money from outside the philatelic community, whilst reinforcing the view that nobody has to buy everything.
My memory tells me that Francis Chichester breached the dam of monarch only - am I not correct?
DeleteIf you are referring to the 1967 issue it is the first, but that is fairly anonymous - as the Edmund Hillary inclusion in 'Extreme Endeavours' in which the caption was changed to 'Everest Team' to ensure that a (then) living person was not identified.
DeleteAnother candidate is Roger Taylor - who appears (recognisably him) in the background of the 1999 "Entertainer's Tale" Freddie Mercury stamp.
ReplyDeletePub quiz challenge: Who is the first non-Royal to appear twice in their lifetime?
Yuck!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GB-UK-A-CELEBRATION-M-S-PRESENTATION-PACK-JANUARY-2021-ROYAL-MAIL-PACK-NO-M26/154289606273?hash=item23ec608e81:g:SmUAAOSwpJlf~fkL
How about commemorative issues commemorating the prime number (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17 etc) anniversaries of previous commemorative issues?
ReplyDeleteLike another post I also cannot see the relevance of the Wars of the Rose's issue, it is not 550 since the start or finish the start would have been 2005, perhaps somebody knows?
ReplyDelete550 years since the middle? certainly there were some important battles in 1471.
DeleteIndeed Ian, I was forgetting Tewkesbury, & Towton very bloody affairs.
Delete£21.90 is the price for the up and coming 'Only Fools & Horses' PSB. Face value £19.77. Another expensive outing. Is it time for RM to re-assess the issue of such booklets ?
ReplyDeletehttps://ericarthurstally.co.uk/only-fools-and-horses-tv-series-prestige-stamp-book/
February's Philatelic Bulletin gives details of the 'Legend of King Arthur' issue on 16/03/2021 on the back page. Set of 5x 1st and 5x £1.70. Why do we need all these £1.70 stamps when 2x 1st Class can be used to achieve the European rate.
ReplyDeleteHave I missed an issue date.
ReplyDeleteJust received notification of Queen 50th anniversary retail stamp book price £5.55 for issue on the 29th March
Queen the band as opposed to Queen Elizabeth?
DeleteAdvice Note from RM confirms that Paul McCartney issue on 28/05/2021 will include a £5.10 Retail Booklet, MS and a PSB.
ReplyDeleteAugust Philatelic Bulletin confirms make up of British Army Vehicles stamps issued 02/09/2021. 4x 1st & 4x £1.70 + £5.10 MS (2x 1st & 2x £1.70).
ReplyDeleteFull details and images should be available from 19 August. No PSB with this one, anyway!
DeleteInformation on 17 September issue should be available from 1 September and that's a whole different story.