Back in April Royal Mail announced the production and issue of King Charles III definitive business sheets, and they appeared on their website briefly - although with the caveat that they still had plenty of Machins to sell.
Later in the month I found that although three sheets had been sent to buyers, the 1st Large was still 'at the printers', or so we were told.
Royal Mail Stamps & Collectibles have now announced:
DS1656 - 50 x 1st Class King Charles Definitive Large Letter Business Sheet will not be printed & made available for the time being
As stated previously, the stock control principles for the change of Monarch is that all stocks of QEII Machin stamps would be used up before reprinting with the new KCIII Definitive version.
Following a review of requirements, and stock held
across all our Channels and Outlets, we have the delayed the next* print
run of DS1656: 1st Class Large Letter Business Sheet.
A further announcement will be made when stocks of Machins have fallen to a level which requires the new stamps to be printed.
*The use of the word 'next' implies that there has already been a 1st class Large printing - can anybody confirm, please, as I have not bought any new king sheets.
I phoned the Philatelic Bureau and they are still showing the 1st Large Business sheet as unavailable this afternoon. The surprising thing is that you still cannot order full sheets of 50 or half sheets of 25 of the King Charles counter sheets 2nd ,1st ,2nd Large and 1st Large on the website though you can get counter sheets of the £2-20 on the website. All the local PO's near me still have QEII counter sheets in these values so I have yet to see a King Charles counter sheet in these values.
ReplyDeleteI suspect this is for a couple of reasons. (1) The website shop is not exclusively for collectors - they could have but not. (2) They don't want everybody to buy the KC3 stamps - they will supply the old stock first.
DeleteMarch 3rd announced to the trade issues of CIII definitive including four Business Sheets - 11th April Confirmed the 4 Business with stock codes and Business Sheets and all 4 had First Day of issue 4th April although only 3 available from the 20th April - 6 weeks later announce the 1st large is not printed . Are Tallents House in competition with deliveries as to can give the poorest and most unreliable service?
ReplyDeleteWe could have the novel situation where the counterfeiters issue the sheets before Royal Mail!
ReplyDeleteExeter WHS had 1st & 1st Large CIII on sale today. They had about 50 sheets of 2nd Large QEII to sell through so wont be seeing any CIII replacements for while. Its all very hit an miss out there for the ordinary man in the street trying to collect! Manchester Spring Gardens had nothing but the £2.20 CIII airmail stamp last weekend despite the friendly clerk checking in the safe!
ReplyDelete