December starts (as November ended) with the default British Heart Foundation slogan. Again, JH has provided an example, but again it is difficult to read.
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| Default British Heart Foundation slogan Jubilee Mail Centre 3 December 2025 |
Unlike last month - when we had only one example of the Remembrance slogan - while I have been away a flood of examples has reached me from readers - thank you all! This is for the state visit of the German President. This occurs in 3-line versions: JM sent the best one from Manchester (with others in the same format from LT, AA & RW are less than ideal which is a shame for a very short-term slogan). The Nowich one in the other 2-line format from JH is the best we've seen so far. But we have had one from Sheffield here, which is quite poor, but in the reversed format on a square envelope!
Welcome
President
Steinmeier
State Visit 2025
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| Welcome President Steinmeier State Visit slogan Manchester Mail Centre 03/12/2025 |
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| Welcome President Steinmeier State Visit slogan Norwich Mail Centre 03-12-2025 |
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| Welcome President Steinmeier State Visit reversed slogan Sheffield Mail Centre 03?-12-2025 |
We will expect some form of Christmas posting slogan from Royal Mail very soon, probably replaced later by a 'Last Posting Dates' slogan. As we understand that there are no Universal machines now in use, it will be interesting to see what appears other than from the regular ink-jet machines.
Don't rely on my post or everyone else sending examples!
Other postmarks and postal markings, etc
Recipients of my sendings last week may have been able to determine that they were posted in Street, Somerset. The light was in the wrong place get a good photo, so here is one from Google StreetView when it was still a branch of WHSmith. Now it is a One Stop, but at the same address in the HIgh Street postcode BA16 0EZ.
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| Street, Somerset, branch post office from Google streetview March 2024. |
I was able to get my post cancelled at the counter with the self-inking counter datestamp GG shown on the left below. Also shown is one I obtained in 2017, unit E. Note that this one, with quite different spacing, has an unexpected error, with two M's in Sommerset!
US Tariffs - did Royal Mail deliberately route some mail through Europe?
JW reports a discussion on Reddit about an International Tracked parcel from the UK to USA. It appeared to be stuck in limbo in the USA, but was returned a month after sending with a CN15 Return label from Hungary! And this wasn't just a one-off. This was the label shown by user Leading-Pie1366 at the beginning of December.
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Another user reported that they too had this problem: "after clearing customs at usps.com it was showing that it was scanned at 'BUDAPEST 1005, United States of America'." This person obtained a refund for their postage label from Royal Mail.
Google AI suggests that because of backlogs Royal Mail was shipping via Hungary, but that doesn't quite match up with the tracking routing described on Reddit.
Remember, slogan postmarks appearing in December will be added to this post, so check here before you spend time scanning and emailing.
