Machin Definitives with Datamatrix code: new design for Large Letter counter sheets, booklets & business sheets - 1 & 28 February 2022

As expected Royal Mail is extending the incorporation of Datamatrix barcodes to more definitives in 2022.  In February the 1st & 2nd class and Large booklets, counter sheets and business sheets will make an appearance.  Further details of the purpose and use of these stamps are awaited, and will be published as soon as we have them.

Readers/contributors are finding more and more information and adding it in 'Comments' quicker than I can sensibly edit the blog.  Please look there for additional information including the 4 April issue for tariff change.

1st class purple definitive
issued 1 February 2022

Details were sent to Post Office branches, via Branch Focus, on Christmas eve, not the best time to impart information that you want remembered, I would have thought.  Branches were told that the stamps were being enlarged, resulting in the quantity of stamps in the booklets changing, with more details to follow.  

The colours of all the stamps have been changed.  In part this is to distinguish between the stamps for standard and Large Letters which are now the same size, but we understand there are also (as yet unrevealed) technical reasons for not continuing with the red and blue on the basic letter stamps.

Coinciding with the Platinum Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II the colour of the 1st class stamp is changed to Plum Purple which is, strangely, also the current colour of the £4.20 which pays the 100g Large Letter rate outside Europe. (It was also used for the long-running £2.25 stamp.)

The 2nd class changes to Holly Green (last used for the 2020 £3.82, but also for the £1.28 used from 2012-14);

The 1st Large changes to Marine Turquoise which is also the current colour for the popular £1.70 stamp which pays for letters up to 100g to Europe and up to 20g for the rest of the world; 

The 2nd Large is changed to Dark Pine Green (last used for the 2019 £3.45).

The Large letter stamps continue to use a large(r) figure of denomination, but the word Large is now placed at the left foot of the stamp, sideways reading up.

All images are pre-issue publicity pictures with identical barcodes.

New Retail Booklets and Sheets 1 February 2022

Counter sheets of 50 x 2nd, 1st, 2nd Large and 1st Large stamps will be issued.  ALL the sheets are 193.5 x 467.5 mm, whereas existing sheets are 145 mm wide. This means that the 'Large' stamps will be the same size as the basic stamps, which in turn means a new design.

I think we can also expect to see sheets at counters being folded at random as these new ones are almost certainly too wide for counter books.

Booklets of 8 and 4 will replace booklets of 12 and 6 (which replaced booklets of 10 and 4 way back).  The booklets will be 93.2 x 68.6 mm compared with the existing 79 x 57 mm. They are larger still than the Christmas booklets (88.5 x 65 mm).  Large Letter stamp booklets will continue to be packed in 25's and standard stamp booklets will be in 50s.

Prices will be as shown below:

COUNTER SHEETS of 50: 2nd class, 1st class, 2nd Large, 1st Large.   The security code is M22L with no source code, ie MAIL.

BOOKLETS: 8 x 2nd (5.28), 8 x 1st (6.80), 4 x 1st (£3.40), 4 x 1st Large (£5.16), 4 x 2nd Large (£3.84).  Booklet covers will match the colours of the stamps, that is the red covers will be abandoned. The security code is M22L with MEIL for the books of 8, MFIL for the books of 4 as before.

Phosphor bands.  The 2nd class stamps have a single phosphor band placed centrally over the Machin part of the design.  All the remainder will have two phosphor bands placed on the die-cut perforations to the left, and the printed 'perforation' design, to the right.

 

 

All images above are pre-issue publicity images. Coloured highlights show position of phosphor bands, which will be transparent and colourless as usual.  These images show W cylinder numbers.

Technical

The 39 x 30 mm self-adhesive stamps are printed in 50-sheet stamps (two panes of 25) in gravure by Cartor Security Printers, the new name for International Security Printers.  Despite this, the booklet have W cylinder numbers.   

The first day cover insert has been changed to reflect the new size of the stamps, etc:

I understand that the stamps will not be available until the day of issue.  Because of this there will be a postmarking extension of 28 days at Special Handstamp Centres. The First Day Cover will be available to order until 1st March 2022.

New Business sheets - 28 February 2022

As with the trial 2nd class business sheet issued on 23 March 2021 the new stamps will all be in sheets of 50 and the same size (171.8 x 100.7 mm) as before.  2nd, 1st, 2nd Large and 1st Large will be available.

UPDATE 21 February 2022.

Here is an image of part of the four business sheet headers.

Parts of top panel for the four new business sheets 2nd, 1st, 2nd Large, 1st Large with the official issue date (we believe) of 28 February 2022.

The interpretation of the datamatrix codes showed these dates:

2nd class 29/11/21; 1st class 26/11/21; 2nd Large 08/11/21; 1st Large 05/11/21 (edited)

As with the 2nd class blue issued last March, there is no printing date or serial number on the reverse.

Philatelic supplies

Official first day covers, booklets, and counter sheet stamps as appropriate will be provided by Royal Mail to their standing order customers, on 1 February only.  Assuming the business sheet stamps have some sort of source coding, then it would be possible to obtain double-dated covers for all eight stamps.  

More details about printing dates etc now that we have samples to hand.

Collector and dealer interpretation of the datamatrix codes using a QR code reader app led us to believe that we had worked out printing dates.  However, examination of these stamps has revealed some oddities.  I'll be interested to know what others find.

 

Stamp	Sheet date	Datamtirx
2nd class	01/12/21	031221
1st class	01/12/21	011221
2nd Large	06/12/21	121121
1st Large	06/12/21	101121
2nd x 8 booklet		221121
1st x 8 booklet		171121
1st x 4 booklet		151121
2nd Large booklet		041121
1st Large booklet		031121

Scans of actual sheet stamps.

The sheets of 50 are divided into two panes of 25.  Cylinder numbers are W1 x3, showing colour, iridescent, and phosphor reading up.

As with the Christmas stamps, the printing is sideways. As the MBPC is treating this as just a change to the orientation of the stamps, most of the data is in the left margin.

The cylinder numbers are on row 9, the grid on row 8, and one barcode on row 7. A row of coloured squares is on row 6, consisting of one in the stamp colour and three black.  A further barcode is on row 4, with the FSC data on row 2, and the printing date on row 1.  As with Cartor-printed country definitives this is in black rather than in the colour of the stamps.  The lower selvedge is blank.

A further barcode is above column 5, with the product code above column 4, and the colour above column 3, all inverted.  The product code and colour are printed in colour.  Whilst the left and right selvedge are continuous, the information in the top margin is on labels 29.5 x 14 mm with rounded corners.

2nd class green datamatrix counter sheet upper and lower half-sheets.

Preliminary images of security codes
These are not as good as I hope to show later when I have other equipment. Click on the image for a larger view.  The 2nd class is M22L MEIL, and the 1st Large is M22L MFIL.

UPDATE AFTER NEWS RELEASE FROM ROYAL MAIL

Thank you for all the comments which were made on this blog readers by people who collected the news announcement in the early hours (eg 2 am while I was asleep).  I appreciate them all but not all have been accepted for publication because of duplication. 

Whilst the mainstream media have focussed on the video and tracking aspects of these stamps one of the most important things for collectors and the trade is this from Royal Mail's website.

Transition to Barcoded Stamps

Following a successful national trial we will now be adding unique barcodes to all our regular ‘everyday’ Definitive and Christmas stamps. Each barcoded stamp will have a digital twin and the two will be connected by the Royal Mail App. The unique barcodes will facilitate operational efficiencies, enable the introduction of added security features and pave the way for innovative services for our customers.

The barcodes match the stamp colour and sit alongside the main body of the stamp, separated by a simulated perforation line. The new barcode is an integral part of the stamp and must remain intact for the stamp to be valid.

Non-barcoded stamps will be phased out but will remain usable until 31 January 2023. Customers are encouraged to use their non-barcoded stamps before this date. Alternatively, non-barcoded stamps can be exchanged for the new barcoded version through Royal Mail’s ‘Swap Out’ scheme. 

The ‘Swap Out’ scheme will open on 31 March 2022. Forms will be available via a variety of channels, including local Customer Service Points; the Royal Mail website and via our Customer Experience team. Customers will be able to use a Freepost address. Further details will be announced shortly.

Watch our exclusive Shaun the Sheep video

The new barcoded stamps enable you to watch and share an exclusive Shaun the Sheep video via the barcode itself using the Royal Mail App. You or the recipient can watch the video just by scanning the stamp barcode using our App. More videos will be added over the coming months.

FAQ: What happens if I use a non barcoded stamp after 31 January 2023?

If you post an item with a non-barcoded stamp after 31 January 2023 it will be liable to surcharge — as it will be the equivalent of it having no postage. So please either use up any non-barcoded stamps you have — or swap them out.

 

Post Offices will not be involved.  Swap-out forms will not be available and POs will not do the swapping.  Royal Mail Customer Service Points will handle them, and I suspect they may have a small stock of stamps for exchange.  This is interesting because a lot of CSPs in delivery offices used to sell stamps but they were withdrawn over security issues.

 

UPDATE 8.30 pm

Again, thank you to everybody who has commented on this dramatic and controversial news.  

 

I've added a couple of paragraphs to the Royal Mail statement above which clarifies that this only applies to definitive and Christmas stamps.  Special issues, commemoratives, whatever you call them, are unaffected, which means that the older ones from 1971 will remain valid.  

 

It is unclear whether the exchange scheme will apply only to today's stamps (and those issued in April - see below) or if stamps with a face value are included.  If they are - as they should be - one wonders how the exchange will be facilitated.  It's doubtful if customers will be able to request specific stamps and I suspect that a £1.25 stamp traded-in will be exchanged for three - £1, 20p, 5p.  Similarly all definitives must be included including gummed ones, and NVIs of any colour.  (How many colours of 1st class stamp can you remember?)

The benefits to Royal Mail are enormous - the pallet-loads of forgeries coming in to the country from the east will lose their usability at a stroke, and anybody to exchange them will almost certainly be questioned as to where they obtained them, and told that they will not be accepted.   

 

Similarly the task of Revenue Protection officers will be eased - no longer will they have to check whether the landscape orange 1st class self-adhesive stamp, or the 1st class black with imperforate edges are genuine.  All these will be removed from postal duty.  [There will undoubtedly be a short period where people continue to use old stamps when they cease to be valid - if only Postage Due stamps were still used that might be worthwhile, but little pf postal history worth will come from this!]

 

The costs, however, are high.  If they intend to exchange everything sent in by collectors, businesses, and dealers who are holding older stamps for use/sale as postage the manpower involved in checking every application and all the stamps included with the application will be huge.  Rather than sacking 700 middle managers Royal Mail should keep them on as they will need people to deal with this exercise.

However, there is also no clarity on Country Definitives, those 2nd class, 1st class and airmail stamps in designs appropriate to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - by coincidence the order of this listing just about matches the reported availability in the territories concerned. - very sparse in many areas.   As these are printed on gummed paper in litho it seems unlikely that the barcoding will extend to them.  I don't think it will be politically acceptable to deny the smaller countries their own stamps, so I see those continuing, albeit in a small way.

The videos.  What really surprised me when I read about this in the early hours of another night interrupted by my long-running non-Covid cold, was the way the press release was picked up by the popular press, with headlines focusing on the fact that with these stamps you could watch a Shaun the Sheep video.  By now these stories have been overwhelmed by other Google results as the story gains wider traction in regional, national, and specialist newspapers and magazines, and on other websites.

It occurred to me that with so many parts of the country having experienced delivery delays, with mail from before Christmas being delivered 2-3 weeks after posting in many parts of the country, the last thing readers of those newspapers wanted was to know that in future they would be able to watch Shaun the Sheep or other videos when their letters were delivered.  

MORE TO COME

Not for the first time our readers tell us something that our contacts in Royal Mail Stamps and Collectables have not.  According to the Royal Mail "First" publicity leaflet received today by one or our readers, the roll out plan will be the 4th April for 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2. £3, and £5 stamps in sheet format.  Note that it says that the dates are provisional.

Extract from 'First' Royal Mail's new stamps publicity leaflet about barcoded definitives.

If there is to be a tariff change in April, one would expect to see airmail-rate stamps included but the rates for these, and any changes to the basic inland rates are never announced until a month before the change.

Prestige stamp book definitive panes

Logically the inclusion of Machin definitives in PSBs after April would seem unlikely.  The new size makes this difficult.  Of course they could include the unchanged country definitives but the market for these is low, so fewer collectors would feel compelled to buy them.

Whatever, Machin collectors will be divided between those who are pleased that they no longer need to spend around £20 to get between 1 and 4 stamps unavailable elsewhere, and those who feel cheated that there are no longer Machins in PSBs.  I'm thinking most will fall into the first category, especially after the £11.88 (plus airmail stamps) cost of the April issue, following on so closely from today's issue and the business sheets at the end of the month.

This story isn't over yet, so come back from time to time, and remember to check on the latest comments.

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