With the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth this post looks forward beyond the issue of King Charles III definitives.
Whilst there is no postal stationery all these will need to change.
"Digital Stamps" - or pre-printed stamps used for bulk mailings.
Direct Mailers believe (or have been told) that 'stamped' mail gets a better response than that with a different Postage Paid Impression. As these are printed as required for each client customer, it seems likely that there would not be much difficulty in replacing the Queen Elizabeth Machin design wit another showing King Charles III. And this is likely to be in green, of couse.
Post and Go stamps at Museums and Self-Service Kiosks in Post Office branches
As with Machin definitive stamps, we are likely to see these used to exhaustion - and there will be all sorts of stocks held in branches across the land. The 2nd class base stock should appear in green and the 1st class in (probably a light) purple with the head of King Charles III. I would expect these changes to be made this year, but for the old stamps to be used in parallel initially.
Whilst it is unlikely that there will be any totally new designs for pictorial Post and Go stamps, there are many pictorial stamps available for use at specific locations or on specific occasions. These will eventually be produced with the profile/cameo head of King Charles, probably as used on the forthcoming Garden Flowers special issue stamps.
1. Union Flag - for Naval anniversaries and patriotic occasions.
2. Poppy - leading up to Remembrance Day in November.
3. Winter Greenery - leading up to Christmas.
4. Mail by Rail: Post Office Underground Railway single design - used at The Postal Museum.
5. Other 'Mail by...' issues used at the Postal Museum in conjunction with their exhibitions
Any others?
Horizon Labels at Post Office Counters and similar labels at Self-Service Kiosks in branches.
These are produced in one colour similar to that of the 1st class Post and Go stock, even though they are used for 2nd class, 1st class and ParcelForce transactions. Again replacement will depend to some extent on existing stocks.
For the present I can't think of anything else postal - although other Post Office products such as Postal Orders do bear a portrait of the monarch will need to be replaced as well.
My thanks to John E for reminding me of these products which will need changing.
If anybody makes a mock-up of any of these with the new head and colours I will be pleased to add them here.
And if anybody can think of anything I have forgotten - please remind me!
For the "Special stamps" will it necessarily be a silhouette ?
ReplyDeleteA silhouette from the coins and definitives could more or less be any man so, being nearly circular to fit the coins, might we have instead a small circle as background to his actual portrait ?
We should know soon.
It's a silhouette. It looks quite similar to the Queen's one and is used in the same way. (Source - a post office let me see the flowers stamps)
DeleteTo be fair, the portrait used on the definitives (which I dislike for that purpose) would work very well as a silhouette on the "special stamps". I only wish that the new issues were of merit (to be fair, like the Flying Scotsman stamps) rather than repetitious "popular" (sic) culture.
DeletePost & Go - Mail by Rail single design at 'Steam' and Symbolic Flowers at Shakespeare Centre
ReplyDeleteI would have thought the CRIII cypher (as already used by the Channel Islands) would be clearer.
ReplyDeleteNeil,
DeleteUsage of the cypher would have been because it was almost immediately available rather than it being better than a portrait, silhouette or full. .
The use of the monarch's portrait is necessary to avoid using the country name.
DeleteNo, it is not. Because the first stamps were made by the UK, any without a country name will be assumed to be British.
DeleteI'm not convinced that is correct. The US Mayflower stamps in the 1930s (?) had no country name on, there have been other instances including Luxembourg's Europa stamps last year. Nobody would think that they were British, but they might not know which country they were from.
DeleteYou're right about the US Mayflower stamps, but I don't think you are correct about Luxembourg. The name may not be prominent, but it's definitely on the 2022 Europa stamps.
DeleteGoogle currently (March 13) has a cached version of the Royal Mail shop page for the flowers issue. If you Google "royal mail flowers stamps march" it is one of the top results. The link goes to a "page not found" error but if you click through to the cached version you can see the shop page with some (rather small) images of the stamps. I'm not sure if these have been published elsewhere so this may be old news.
DeleteThank you; the only images we have been sent are without head or denomination.
DeleteThis is the link
Sorry Simon, this was the 2017 pair which do not have the country name on.
DeleteI hadn't realised my initial comment (about the Google cache of the Flowers issue) was posted as a reply to another comment - sorry. Anyway, you will notice that clicking the images takes you to an error page, but you can see a slightly bigger version if you right-click and "open image in new tab".
Delete"Usage of the cypher would have been because it was almost immediately available rather than it being better than a portrait, silhouette or full. ." So? I think it is clearer than a small profile which (as others have said) could be anybody if you don't know from context. It still fulfils the requirement of a country identifier.
ReplyDeleteCharles appears to be using the Tudor Crown rather than the St Edward's Crown in his cypher and heraldry (except for viewers in Scotland) - I wonder if RM will adopt this too; or if it's just to expensive a change for them to make? If they do it could slowly filter its way around onto postmarks and other stationery.
ReplyDeleteThis seems odd, because the Tudor crown is one of empire, whereas the Edwards crown is one of kingdom, which is why watermarks changed in the 1950s when there was a move away from empire and towards commonwealth. I wonder why Charles would choose to revert to the Tudor crown?
Delete