Collectors and dealers alike agonised over what Royal Mail intended for non-datamatrix stamps three years ago.
What soon became apparent was that there was a grey area.
Some stamps were definitely invalid and should be swapped, some would definitely remain valid. And some would remain invalid but would also be accepted for the swap scheme.
Here and on various philatelic forums people were asking why Royal Mail didn't just produce a list of what would remain valid and what would not, and what would be swapped and what wouldn't. The grey area didn't matter so much because stamps could be on both lists.
Thanks to a reader and regular contributor we now know much more. The reader was given a tour of part of a Mail Centre and spotted a notice board with some very useful information, which I have reproduced below.
So what does this tells us?
At the time of printing ordinary old Machin and country definitives are invalid and the £1.10 surcharge applied.
The Machin Signed For and Special Delivery stamps should not be surcharged. Likewise the Machin airmail postcard, 20g and 40g stamps.
Definitive-sized Wildings and the 1d red (and black and 2d blue) stamps should not be surcharged.
Post and Go stamps should not be surcharged unless underpaid.
And as we know, Christmas stamps without barcodes remain valid.
Dates and timing
The £1.10 surcharge applied in 2023, so we don't know whether the poster has been updated, replaced, or whether RM HQ have simply assumed that all postal operatives now know what is what - which, given the high turnover of staff, would seem to be a foolish assumption.
But it's something. And something that I will try to explore with Royal Mail.
Could you make the pictures bigger please as I can only maximise so much
ReplyDeleteHave you tried clicking on the image to see the original size? Works with all images on Blogger-hosted sites as far as I know.
Delete1. You can click on them to probably see them larger, although if the image is full screen vertically, as these are close to, then you won't improve on that.
Delete2. You can download them by Right-click/Save image as../ and then use your computer's facilities to enlarge; I use a Mac so can't start to say how you would do that on a PC.
Now if only PO counters could have something like that. Last week, I had an, admittedly newish, member of counter staff insistently tell me that my 1st Class 2021 Queen, 1974 special issue was invalid. I pointed out that it was a special issue, but they were adamant it was non barcode and therefore unacceptable. Unfortunately, the PO typically only has one member of staff at a time, even though its a town centre and so I couldn't challenge more than my grumpiness already had. Instead I walked across town to another PO and posted without issue.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to 'regular contributor'. Jolly useful as well as interesting for us ordinary folk; as well as postmen; not least as I have too many Wilding commemoratives to use up which will be mostly on postcards as they are small enough to fit on them
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