Now that Royal Mail have put the 2024 Christmas stamps on their website for pre-ordering, it makes me - once again - question whether I need to post details of new issues here at all. But they do provide us with more technical details than they put on their website, so for everybody's benefit I shall continue.
The details will appear here on the date of issue but in the meantime you can see the products here.
Royal Mail are celebrating Christmas 2024 with a set of 5 stamps paying homage to some of the most spectacular Cathedrals in the UK. Visitors entering a cathedral in the UK are likely to be struck by their size and grandeur, intrigued by the architecture and history or moved by their services, from a liturgical pageant with exquisite music to the stillness of morning prayer.
The stamps have been illustrated by British artist Judy Joel.
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| Set of 5 Christmas stamps issued 5 November 2024. |
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| Christmas 2024 miniature sheet of 5 stamps. |
Details
2nd Class (£0.85) - St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh
1st Class (£1.65) - Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
2nd Large Letter (£1.55) - St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh (Church of Ireland)
1st Large Letter (£2.60) - St Deiniol’s Cathedral, Bangor / Cadeirlan Deiniol Sant ym Mangor (Church in Wales – Anglican).
£2.80 - Westminster Cathedral, London (Catholic)
Technical Details
The 39 x 30 mm stamps designed by Together Design London Ltd are printed by Cartor Security Printers in gravure. The stamps and miniature sheet are all self-adhesive. The miniature sheet measures 179 x 74 mm. © Royal Mail 2024.
Generic/Collector Sheet
The sheet contains eight each 2nd and 1st class stamps, 2 x £2.80, and one each of 2nd Large and 1st Large stamps. (The image provided shows the original draft with a value of £2.50 for the airmail stamp). The sheet is printed in lithography which means the stamps are different, if you collect single stamps from sheets - and you'll have a lot left over because there is just ONE set of 5. (Price £30.95).
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| Christmas Collector sheet issued 5 November 2024 containing just one set of stamps. |
Booklets
First Day Covers (2), Presentation Pack, Retail Books (2), Collector Sheet, Postcards (6).
I have always considered it tacky and discourteous to send Christmas greetings as an email message, but under the new postage rates it will cost me about £80 to buy stamps for my usual number of cards. Perhaps the time has come to go electronic.
ReplyDeleteI think these stamps the best Xmas stamps for a long time. They are inoffensive, pretty designs rather than the usual anæmic ones issued for Xmas. I also like the refreshingly different choices of cathedral rather than the obvious ones; such as York or Canterbury; that I should have expected were I asked before it was revealed here. Xmas stamps are the only commemoratives one sees these days on post, so I shall miss Mr Fisk's card to me!
DeleteWestminster Abbey has a Christmas card and Advent Calendar by the same artist I believe.
ReplyDeleteWas it a reject by Royal Mail from the final Cathedral choice?
The lady walking her dog, doesn't appear on each stamp, although I understand it is the trade mark of the artist!
A "refreshingly different choices of cathedral", all different from the 1969 cathedrals set and Wales and Northern Ireland represented this time.
ReplyDeleteCorrection. The Westminster Abbey card is very similar in style but not by the same artist!! Maybe next year. !
ReplyDeleteI like this set, well designed and cheerful! As others have said it's just a shame Royal Mail decided to add barcodes 😕
ReplyDeleteThe Edinburgh one is certainly different. Edinburgh has 3 cathedrals, none of them known as 'Edinburgh Cathedral'. The best known is St Giles', now the Presbyterian one though dating back to before the Reformation. The other two - Catholic and Episcopal - are both confusingly called St Mary's. The one on the stamp is the Episcopal one, viewed from a minor road behind it. But it's a pretty picture.
ReplyDeleteThe Edinburgh Cathedral second class image has been used by the Salvation Army on their latest postage paid impression code C9 10018
ReplyDelete