A number of people wrote while we were away, so this is a short list of updates to earlier posts.
1. 1st class 1d black definitive mis-identified as Counterfeit - over on the Postal History Blog.
2. Following publication of the image of a Singapore kiosk we now have an example of the stamp dispensed from these machines - added to the annual Post & Go post.
3. Pictures of postboxes, parcel lockers, and Royal Mail transport is on the slogan postmarks etc, post.
Over the past few months we have seen he rapid expansion of Royal Mail parcel lockers and 'intelligent' post boxes.
The parcel lockers are being installed across the country, and many people have reported that their local postbox has been 'gift-wrapped in black plastic, prior to being converted to take parcels through a wider apperture. These also have solar panels on the top, would might make the siting of the attractive knitted box-toppers a thing of the past.
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| Job done, just have to close all these doors! |
Just behind me when I took this photo was a recently converted postbox:
And to the left of that fast-food outlet you can see in the last picture, just a further 20 metres away, is a small post office.
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| Holmewood Post Office, Derbyshire |
As recently as May this year, specialist property adviser Christie & Co reported the transfer of ownership:
Specialist business property adviser Christie & Co has announced the sale of Holmewood Post Office near Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
The business is a Mains post office which offers a variety of postal services to customers, as well as a small store stocking stationery equipment and convenience items.
The store has been purchased by an established postmaster who already owns two post offices in the region and has plans to expand the convenience offering with a potential extension to the shop floor.
Christie's said
“The incoming owner has an excellent opportunity to extend the current building to the rear and offer a greater variety of convenience goods. Despite there being close competition on this front, the Post Office should continue to drive footfall into the store and therefore, providing that the offerings are competitively priced, there should be a rise in sales on the convenience side of the business."
I make no criticism of either Christie's or the previous owner, but I wonder if anybody knew then of Royal Mail's intention to provide facilities which will undoubtedly have an impact on the postal footfall to the business.
Because according to Google maps, the postbox hadn't been converted in April:
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| Holmewood PO, Google maps April 2025, with knitted topper on postbox. |
And this is not all.
Royal Mail owners IDS proudly proclaimed on 30 September.
International Distribution Services, owner of Royal Mail, has acquired a 49% stake in Collect+, marking a major milestone in the company’s multi-channel strategy to make collecting, sending and returning parcels as convenient as possible. Following the investment, almost 8,000 Collect+ convenience stores will feature Royal Mail Shop branding.
The new high street brand will be a one stop destination for collecting, sending and returning parcels, selling Royal Mail postage at the shops for the first time and open during extended hours including evenings and weekends. Selling postage over the counter gives customers the option of paying when they get to the shop rather than doing so beforehand online. This service is now live in 500 shops and will be rolled out more widely in the coming months.
Royal Mail and Collect+ first partnered in May 2024 to meet rising consumer demand for convenient parcel drop-off and collection points. Since then, Royal Mail customers have been able to drop-off returns and pre-paid parcels at almost 8,000 Collect+ locations across the UK.
Last month, Vinted became Royal Mail’s first partner to offer its customers collection from the stores. More of Royal Mail’s retail partners will follow soon to offer collection to the shops under the new Royal Mail Shop brand.
The new Royal Mail Shop outlets will fulfil demand for face-to-face parcel services on the high street that are open for extended hours, including during evenings and weekends. They are part of Royal Mail’s rapidly expanded network of almost 24,000 Parcel Points - including 2,000 lockers, 11,500 Post Office branches, 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points and 1,400 parcel postboxes – the largest multi-channel parcel network in the UK.
Sub-postmasters were quick to respond, with the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters calling the move a stab-in-the-back after the long association between Royal Mail and Post Office. But there would seem to be little that can be done with the Competition and Marketing Authority so far silent on the matter.
I don't normally resort to using AI, but when you do a Google search an AI opinion almost always comes up. This is what it says about collect+ effect on "post office" branches
Collect+ will have a direct, negative effect on Post Office branches by competing for parcel services, but the Royal Mail's investment in Collect+ will also lead to the rebranding of thousands of convenience stores as "Royal Mail Shops" offering similar services, including parcel drop-off and returns, potentially diverting business from traditional Post Office branches. Royal Mail will also now offer postage over the counter in these Royal Mail Shops and extended opening hours, further challenging Post Offices.
It seems that the new Royal Mail Shops ex Collect+ will also "sell postage', but we know what that means - pay and drop. After all, nobody wants to use multiple stamps to send their packages. And with these shops you can use Royal Mail, Yodel, Amazon, UPS, eBay, DPD, FedEx, DHL, Parcel2Go, Inpost and others.
Now I must get on and stamp some letters: got to make sure there's a reason for the Universal Service Obligation to send a letter anywhere in the country for 87p. We have to use our post offices and support the sub-postmasters who have been under so much pressure for the last couple of decades.
With the wide number of board, role-playing, and electronic games now available one might have expected Monopoly to have gone the way of Totopoly or PIT which, although they still exist, almost nobody has heard of.
But current owners Hasbro have widened the Monopoly appeal by producing multiple special and local editions, encouraging people to buy - for example - the Norwich, Prague, Grenoble, Dresden, Riyadh, and New South Wales. I'm sure many of these get played, for a while, but I wonder how many people in the UK play any Monopoly on a regular basis.
As you can see on Wikipedia, the game has a chequered history in the USA with the original inventor being paid only $500 by Parker Brothers. I wonder how many £200s Royal Mail will collect!
Royal Mail write:
Monopoly, one of the nation’s favourite board games, turns 90 this year, and its enduring popularity shows no signs of diminishing. The ‘fast-dealing property trading game’ originated in the US, but after securing the European licence in the 1930s, John Waddington Limited of Leeds created a brand-new version of Monopoly.
Featuring locations from around London, the game was transformed into a truly British icon, ensuring that family gatherings would never be the same again.
Today, the game is available in more than 100 countries worldwide and has been translated into over 40 languages. With many different themed versions to choose from, Monopoly continues to evolve and reinvent itself, as successive generations roll the dice, ‘pass GO’ and collect £200.
The stamps - 10 x 1st class
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| Row 1: Collect £200; Old Kent Road, Pentonville Road, Whitehall, Free Parking and Vine Street//Row 2: Park Lane, Liverpool Street Station, Oxford Street and Regent Street, Coventry Street, Chance. |
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| Monopoly Collector Sheet of 10 x 1st class stamps |
Technical details and acknowledgements
Hat-trick design are responsible for adapting the original images of the board. The MONOPOLY name and logo, the distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board, cards, and the playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property trading game and game equipment. © 1935, 2025 Hasbro.
The 41 x 30 mm stamps are printed by Cartor Security Printers in lithography with PVA gum, perf 14½ x 14, in two sheets of 50 (se-tenant strips of 5).
We've been given no details for the Collector Sheet but can assume that it is printed by the same printers but on self-adhesive paper making the stamps different.
Products Available
Set of 10, Collector sheet, first day cover, presentation pack, stamp cards, 50p coin cover with either UNC cupronickel & brass (£19.99), silver proof (£75), or gold proof (£1595) coins.
There is also a framed version of both the set and the sheet, and a limited edition playing piece in the form of a silver plated King Charles postbox for £25.
This post brings previous tables up to date with the postage rates effective from 7 October 2025.
The tables are included primarily to explain the stamps used on cover, because they show that, for example, a stamp originally issued as a 30p Europe 20g stamp would later be valid for 100g and with a value of £1 in 2015 and £2.20 in 2023!
Remember that the International Rate stamps were all valid at the rates shown for inland postage, just as the 2nd, 1st, Large, Signed For, and Special Delivery stamps were all valid for inland services in addition to those shown and on international mail.
Now, of course, the old Machin and Country definitives without barcodes are no longer valid but the Post and Go stamps are as are the commemorative stamps, so the tables are still relevant for new use as well as for for Postal History purposes.
The E stamp was issued from January 1999-2004, and paid the Europe 20g rate. This was 30p when issued and the cost but also the franking value increased periodically:
October 1999 (34p), April 2000 (36p), July 2001 (37p), May 2003 (38p), April 2004 (40p), April 2005 (42p), April 2006 (44p), April 2007 (48p).
Airmail Rates Table
Europe 20g / E‡
|
World 10g
|
World 20g
|
World 40g
|
|
April 2009
|
56p
|
62p
|
90p
|
-
|
April 2010
|
70p
|
67p
|
97p
|
£1.46
|
April 2011
|
68p
|
76p
|
£1.10
|
£1.65
|
April 2012
|
87p
|
£1.28
|
£1.90
|
|
April 2013
|
88p
|
£1.28
|
£1.88
|
|
E20/ W10
|
Europe 60g
|
World 20g
|
World 60g
|
|
April 2014
|
97p
|
£1.47
|
£1.28
|
£2.15
|
E20/ W10
|
Europe 100g
|
World 20g
|
World 100g
|
|
April 2015
|
£1
|
£1.52
|
£1.33
|
£2.25
|
April 2016
|
£1.05
|
£1.52
|
£1.33
|
£2.25
|
April 2017
|
£1.17
|
£1.57
|
£1.40
|
£2.27
|
April 2018
|
£1.25
|
£1.55
|
£1.45
|
£2.25
|
April 2019
|
£1.35
|
£1.60
|
£1.55
|
£2.30
|
April 2020
|
£1.42
|
£1.68
|
£1.63
|
£2.42
|
E20/ W10
|
Europe 100g
|
World 20g
|
World 100g
|
Europe Large 100g
|
World Large 100g
|
|
Sept 2020
|
£1.45
|
£1.70*
|
£1.70*
|
§
|
no NVI
|
no NVI
|
1 Jan 2021
|
£1.70
|
£1.70
|
£1.70
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£2.55
|
£3.25
|
£4.20
|
4 Apr 2022
|
£1.85
|
£1.85
|
£1.85
|
£2.55
|
£3.25
|
£4.20
|
3 Apr 2023
|
£2.20 |
£3.25 |
£4.20 |
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2 Apr 2024
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£2.50 |
£3.25 |
£4.20 |
|||
7 Oct 2024
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£2.80 |
£3.25 |
£4.20 |
|||
7 Apr 2025
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£3.20 |
£3.50 | £4.30 |
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7 Oct 2025
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£3.40 |
£3.50 | £4.30 |
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* With effect from 1 September 2020 a combined Euro 100g/World 20g Post & Go stamp was issued, priced at £1.70.
§ On the same date the World 100g stamp was
replaced by two stamps: World 100g Zone 1-3 is sold for £2.50, and World
100g Zone 2 is £2.55.
On 1 January 2021 the pricing for all world zones was standardised, although that for large letters over 100g varied. The Post and Go range was then consolidated to include airmail Large Letter stamps.
Inland premium services
Note that some of
the rates were in effect before the stamps were issued, and some new
stamps were issued at old rates before tariff increases.
Stamps Issued ± or Rates
Effective
|
1st Signed For
100g
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1st Large Signed
For 100g
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100g Special Delivery
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500g Special Delivery
|
17 November 2009 ±
|
£1.14
|
£1.36
|
-
|
-
|
6 April 2010
|
£1.15
|
£1.40
|
-
|
-
|
26 October 2010 ±
|
£5.05
|
£5.50
|
||
20 April 2011
|
£1.23
|
£1.52
|
£5.45
|
£5.90
|
30 April 2012
|
£1.55
|
£1.85
|
£5.90
|
£6.35
|
2 April 2013 §
|
£1.70
|
£2.00
|
£6.22
|
£6.95
|
31 March 2014
|
£1.72
|
£2.03
|
£6.40
|
£7.15
|
30 March 2015
|
£1.73
|
£2.05
|
£6.45
|
£7.25
|
29 March 2016
|
£1.74
|
£2.06
|
||
27 March 2017
|
£1.75
|
£2.08
|
||
26 March 2018
|
£1.77
|
£2.11
|
£6.50
|
£7.30
|
25 March 2019
|
£1.90
|
£2.26
|
£6.60
|
£7.40
|
23 March 2020
|
£2.06
|
£2.45
|
£6.70
|
£7.50
|
1 January 2021
|
£2.25
|
£2.69
|
£6.85
|
£7.65
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4 April 2022
|
£2.35
|
£2.85
|
||
3 April 2023
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£2.60 |
£3.10 |
October starts (as September ended) with the unexpected slogan for the Rugby World Cup win by the Red Roses. We still don't know the period of application, meanwhile here's an example of the slogan applied in October, thanks to Jon on Stampboards.
Update 11 October: A reader of the Postal Mechanisation Study Circle's (PMSC) Newsletter writes:
New slogan details are provided to mail centres by software updates; these are the software deployed dates, and dates when each slogan will likely be available for delivery on the "doormat".
* Because the software only goes live when there is a re-set of IMP and iLSM which of course varies office to office a slogan might print on or the day after the deployed date (and is machine specific so again could vary within one mail centre). The same situation occurs when the next slogan overrides it.
There can be very late deployments when an instruction comes through late, and on routine slogans, getting the slogan ready on a particular day could be at any time ahead of the day.
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The default British Heart Foundation slogan was back in use on 6 October; this one from Jubilee Mail Centre supplied by JH.
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| British Heart Foundation slogan Jubilee Mail Centre 06-10-2025 |
Other postmarks and postal markings, etc
Postboxes etc Some postbox and locker pictures are shown in the post on Royal Mail's expansion into the high street. Here are some more pictures from our holiday.
1. Standard George V postbox in Mansfield Market Place. The box, like Mansfield sadly, is badly in needed of a make-over. You can only keep adding layers of paint for so long.
2. Two boxes from Louth, Lincolnshire. The one with the Magic Roundabout topper is outside Louth post office in Northgate. Sadly Ermintrude had keeled over, but other characters were upright! The other is on the corner of Mercer Row and Market Place
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| Magic Roundabout's Zebedee |
3. Morrisons Supermarket, Banbury and 4. Newstead Abbey south of Mansfield.
How did we manage to fit in Lincolnshire, Nottingham/Derbyshire and Buckinghamshire in one? Well we had to leave for a family occasion part way through, which took us to Buckinghamshire. Unfortunately our return was marred by sitting for over five hours on the M1 near Lutterworth after a serious crash. The incident was attended by at least two fire engines, 10 police vehicles, three ambulances and the helicopter, and two National Highways Traffic vehicles. Only two cars were involved and one person was taken to hospital.
I did get the chance to talk to the veteran driver of a 36 tonne Royal Mail articulated lorry behind us. He had a new tractor unit (although someone had already pranged it) with the Charles III logo.
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