Ahead of the next tariff increase Royal Mail will issue a set consisting only of 2nd class and 1st class stamps depicting Garden Wildlife. As pointed out on Commonwealth Stamps Opinion, this follows a similar series of River Wildlife two years ago.
Might this mean Woodland, Moorland and Seashore Wildlife in future years? (I hope this doesn't put ideas into the minds of the stamp commissioners at Royal Mail - they do read this!)
This stamp issue is a celebration of the plethora of amazing species that inhabit the UK’s gardens, from frogs to foxes, bees to badgers.
It is estimated that there are some 24 million gardens in the UK which support a huge diversity of wildlife. Gardens can contain a wide range of habitats, including flowerbeds, shrubs, fruiting trees, lawns, ponds, vegetable plots, compost bins and woodpiles. When managed with wildlife at heart, they provide food, water and refuge to enable many species to thrive.
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| Garden Wildlife stamps issued 11 March 2025 |
The stamps
2nd class: Fox, Blackbird, Common Frog, Blue Tit, Badger
1st class: Smooth newt, Hedgehog, Robin, Buff-tailed Bumblebee, Garden Snail.
Technical Details and acknowledgements
The 41 x 30 mm stamps, designed by Stop, Look, Listen, are printed in litho by Cartor Security Printers in sheets of 50. The 2nd class do have the single phosphor band this time.
Fox © Rosemary Roberts/Alamy Stock Photo; Blackbird © Kim Taylor/naturepl.com; Common Frog and Robin © Mark Hamblin/2020VISION/naturepl.com; Blue Tit, photograph by Ben Birchall © PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo; Badger © Lee Hudson/Alamy Stock Photo; Smooth Newt © David Kjaer/naturepl.com; Hedgehog © Guy Edwardes/naturepl.com; Buff-tailed Bumblebee © Ernie Janes/naturepl.com; Garden Snail © Stephen Dalton/naturepl.com.
Collector Sheet
Not able to let an money-making opportunity go, Royal Mail have also produced a collector sheet with all 10 stamps alongside labels depicting the same species. I wrote this about the Business Customised Sheets in 2011 six years before the facility was ended.
The stamp dealers, in conjunction with Royal Mail, were producing - in
effect - glossy colourful posters, which happened to have 10 or 20 1st
class stamps in them. Purely money-making, not even philatelic.
So Royal Mail are also producing unnecessary 'posters' which happen to have stamps in them, going so far as to use different printing process or paper (these are self-adhesive of course), so that collectors who must have everything want these as well. It doesn't help that some preprinted albums and catalogues list the individual stamps separately even though they will never be used - at least not until sold for discount postage. This is £13.70 compared with the £12.50 face value. (After the tariff increase, of course, they will be worth more!)
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| 2025 Garden Wildlife Collectors Poster with self-adhesive stamps |
Products available
Set of 10 stamps, presentation pack, first day cover, stamp cards, collector sheet, framed set.
Previously from Royal Mail
Most people wouldn't regard the badger as a garden animal, though obviously some do visit gardens, though not as many as foxes, which are also not primarily garden animals, hence both featured in the 2004 Woodland Animals set on our website. Incidentally we still have some of these limited edition (25) FDCs available for this issue: they marked the 1350th Anniversary of Dereham, and were postmarked at the town Post Office.
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| Woodland Animals 2004 first day cover - price now £7.50 |
I have to say, I really like them! They’re simple but have a certain charm—very British in a way I can’t quite explain. The 2004 Woodland Animals set is interesting to see in comparison; it’s a much stronger collection overall, with a more cohesive look and a richer, atmospheric colour palette. Oh well, I’ll grab a few random 1st and 2nd class from this set for everyday mailing—at the very least, they’ll brighten up the envelope! Thanks for sharing, as ever.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aurelia's opinion of these pretty & useful stamps. And they will be for sale before the postage rates go up by 2p and 5p. Certainly for me communicating by post is cheaper than ringing up on a weekday, especially now that free numbers are steadily replaced by 'local rate' ones. If only we had a suitable make-up stamp to add to the frog 2nd class one; as se3Simon suggests; to send letters to France...or the 1st class one for snail-mail!
DeleteHow appropriate to put a snail on a 1st Class stamp.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have 2nd and 1st without the unnecessary other values at least. To whom can people write to make comments to Royal Mail on stamp issues? I approve of their 1st and 2nd limitations going forward, but it is going to make postcard sending a bit of a performance unless they introduce better make-up values. I find the practice of these sheets of self-adhesive stamps very annoying as well - I guess I need to get over my completist tendencies!
ReplyDeleteBlackbird, blue tit and robin.
ReplyDeleteOnly the black-headed gull's missing from 1966.
Four stamps for 6⅓p then, ten for £12.50 now - about 200 times as much !
And your salary increase since then?
DeleteIn your opinion how likely is it that SG will list the self adhesive stamps separately? I might have to buy a poster lol .
DeleteIan, since 1966 I've gone from pocket money to a pension.
DeleteHowever the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator tells me that 6⅔p then should now be £1.06, or about one-fifteenth of £12.50. And there were only about half the number of sets back then.
Like all other Collector Sheets, SG will list them at the back of the Concise; individual stamps are never listed unless also available singly in other products such as PSBs.
DeleteMudgie, I should have put an emoji there to convey a wink, or smile at least. I'm in much the same situation although I was working then and getting about £7.50 a week.
DeleteAhh yes ian silly me i forgot that, thank you more money saved
DeleteThey look lovely, though more like miniature Athena posters rather than stamp artwork. Some people will say that's a good thing. But as a bird stamp collector who stopped most countries at 1990 but kept my home country collection going, I decided to stop at QE2. Nice as these are, they aren't changing my mind.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity that there is no postmark with a bird pattern for this set.
ReplyDelete"Most people wouldn't regard the badger as a garden animal".
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, and yet the rat with a population of over 150,000,000 ( over twice the human population ) still hasn't been featured in a wildlife set.