One-off offers are back!

After a longer-than-expected delay I have now been able to add some more (mostly) one-off covers, stamps, ephemera for your consideration.  These are on a new page linked in the column on the right.

(Incidentally you may notice a slight reordering of the sections on the right; this is just to bring the Offers list nearer the top.)

Here are some of the new items offered, click on the link above to get to the details and don't forget in most cases you can click on the images to enlarge them. 

And there's more items, together with all the unsolds from previous weeks.  Happy browsing!

 

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Surprise new service and prices from 1 January 2026

Unexpectedly - and not announced to business users via the usual email or letter - Royal Mail have issued another 'Our Prices' leaflet from 5 January 2026. (Download it here.)

Strictly speaking there are no tariff changes, ie no prices have changed, but some services have changed including the elimination of 'International Signed".  Only International Tracked and Signed and International Tracked remain.

Summary

International Tracked and Signed is now for Documents only, and only up to 750g (ie no parcel rates).

International Tracked is for Goods, including gifts, and Documents may be sent but a Customs Declaration must be completed.  There is no (basic) letter rate; the cheapest option is for 100g Large Letters.

Printed Papers have been moved to a new section and include rates for International Tracked, International Standard (basic airmail) for which there is also no basic latter rate (minimum price for 250g is £8.95 to Europe), and ( listed in that order) International Tracked and Signed (again, no letter rates so minimum price £14.25) but including weight options for 1kg to 5kg.

I'm working from a pdf rather than hard copy, which makes comparison difficult, but I could almost believe there are copy & paste errors in this.  Why no Small Parcel rates for ITS unless they are printed papers?  Why no Large Letter rates for printed papers under 250g?

I'll leave this for readers to pursue safe in the knowledge that only the dealers and collector-sellers will be affected!

 

 

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Datamatrix codes - they could do so much more.

Regular readers will remember that when the Datamatrix-added stamps were trialled, 

"Nick Landon, Chief Commercial Officer at Royal Mail, said: 'This initiative will see Royal Mail become one of the first postal authorities in the world to add unique barcodes to stamps. By doing this, we are looking to transform the humble stamp so that we can offer our customers even more convenient, new services in the future."

(See 2nd class Machin with datamatrix added)

Then...

"Following a successful national trial we will now be adding unique barcodes to all our regular ‘everyday’ Definitive and Christmas stamps. Each barcoded stamp will have a digital twin and the two will be connected by the Royal Mail App. The unique barcodes will facilitate operational efficiencies, enable the introduction of added security features and pave the way for innovative services for our customers. 

"The new barcoded stamps enable you to watch and share an exclusive Shaun the Sheep video via the barcode itself using the Royal Mail App. You or the recipient can watch the video just by scanning the stamp barcode using our App. More videos will be added over the coming months."

But apart from Shaun the Sheep, what additional innovative services have been added?  None as far as I am aware.

But one of the other first postal authorities in the world to add unique barcodes to stamps, Germany, has developed their barcodes to provide more detail, as I found out when a reader in Germany sent me a Christmas postcard.

Scanning the barcode with an ordinary QI reader produces very little information.

Postcard posted from Munich Germany 15 December 2025.

This is what the sender wrote:

The Deutsche Post stamp barcode base tracking isn’t even that detailed (only the fact that the letter has passed intermediate and final sorting centres), but it’s appreciated. It would probably be easy for RM to implement the same if they decided to.

Interestingly, while there are 2 stamps making up the airmail value, there’s only 1 piececode associated with them. I found this out when I scanned them in the app. During the purchase, the postal clerk scanned both stamps’ barcodes & did some inputs into their computer.

This is what the Deutsche Post website shows (they have an English option). 

Further information about 'Basic Tracking':

What is basic letter tracking?

Basic tracking documents the processing of your mail item at the origin and destination mail centers. Confirmation of actual delivery is not included in basic tracking.

I assume that if the card had been sent to a domestic address then the latest entry would show the 'final sorting centre' as the one that delivered to the addressee.  Being international with no link with Royal Mail, Cologne West was as far as it is recorded.

The extra effort of scanning and (presumably) putting the address into the system at Post Office branches would probably require additional payment from Royal Mail to Post Office Ltd, and hence to the postmaster.  However, it would bring extra footfall into the branches which might be additional benefit. 

A benefit for collectors and anybody who is interested in the stamp on their letter/card is found by clicking on 'More about this motif' which produces this very useful dropdown:

The data shows the size of the stamp, and of the image on it, the date of issue and the face value, the description of the issue (in this case permanent series or definitive) and the name of the designer (Bettina Walter).  

The last line, More information, describes why datamatrix-coded stamps have been issued and provides a YouTube video showing how you can track the progress of an ordinary letter even when it is dropped into a street postbox.  The letter is scanned in the DP app, and then you can give it an identity (card to Norvic) and then track it through the system.  It would be possible to tell the addressee when it was at the final delivery office.

Not shown on the picture above is a further line which translates as 'More information about the stamp'.  Clicking on that, and then translating with Google Translate produces a wealth of information about these pictorial definitives:

Permanent series "World of Letters - Airmail"

Artistically, imaginatively, surreal - this is how the motifs of the new postage stamp series "World of Letters" can be described in a nutshell. In a playful way, she combines the most diverse worlds of life with the letter, the most personal ambassador in the world, and creates an original overall picture that invites you to collect and brings the desire to write to new life.

The possibilities of messaging are diverse and have a long history. Also "Luftpost", the motif of the new postage stamp of the series "World of Letters", is older than some may believe. For millennia, the pigeon served as a postman until the French brothers Montgolfier in the 18th. century a hot air balloon, the so-called Montgolfière, developed. From now on, man could lift himself up into the air. However, the breakthrough of the airmail was achieved with the invention of the aircraft. On the 17. December 1903 the world's first motorized flight took place. The Wright brothers did not have letters in their luggage that day, but already in 1911, as part of an exhibition in the Indian Allahabad, letters and postcards were officially transported in a biplane for the first time. With the permission of the Reich Post Office, a plane was used for the first time in Germany for the first time in 1912 at the postcard week "Flugpost am Rhein und am Main".

A particular interest in airmail receipts are stamp collectors who are committed to aerophilately. The stamps and stamps used are of importance here, but also the circumstances - for example, rescued mail items from accidental aircraft are sought after. The crowning achievement of such a collection, however, is the "Inverted Jenny," an American stamp misprint from 1918, in which the pictured double-decker Curtiss JN-4 was printed with the nickname "Jenny" traffic. With only a hundred known copies, the misprint of the first U.S. airmail brand is a valuable rarity. 

I haven't taken the trouble to edit the errors in the translation as most people will understand the meaning.

Obviously with Royal Mail only applying datamatrix codes to definitive and Christmas stamps the scope is far more limited, but imagine how much information the could have provided to people who were interested in these six cathedrals (or at least the five that people might have had on their cards).

Christmas 2024 miniature sheet showing Cathedrals.

 What do you think?

  

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Slogan Postmarks for January 2026 - and other postal markings

A reminder of what these monthly listings are for.  

For each month I record the different slogans in use, plus the default slogan that is used when there is nothing else.

For each of these I try to record only one of each of the basic two types (see the BHF slogans below), plus any that are reversed on square envelopes, which normally only gives three or four.  

Occasionally a slogan appears with different line spacing in the same format. 

 

I do not record multiple versions of the same as any of these unless I later get a much better example of one that I showed purely for the record, but which is otherwise not very clear.

The only exception to this, which doesn't seem to happen much these days, is when a slogan is used well out of time, such as the Air Ambulance Week slogan below which is from September 2024!  

 

I mention this only to avoid readers unnecessarily duplicating what has already been provided.

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January starts (as December ended) with the default British Heart Foundation slogan., and we already have both regular examples.  JH provided the one from Norwich, and RW the one from Plymouth both dated 2 January.

Default British Heart Foundation slogan Norwich Mail Centre 02-01-2026

Default British Heart Foundation slogan Plymouth & Cornwall 02/01/2026

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Now two for the price of one from LT.  Superimposed on the BHF slogan here is one for Air Ambulance Week - which is something of a surprise because that has the date September 8th - 14th.  So I don't know what's going on at Sheffield Mail Centre, because both slogans were applied there but the date on the BHF slogan is illegible.

Support your
Air Ambulance

Air Ambulance Week
September 8th - 14th

Air Ambulance Week September slogan used Sheffield Mail Centre 06/01/2026

 The year's first error!! 

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Other postmarks and postal markings, etc

Unfortunately this image from JW is only a fraction of the cover, but I imagine it was referred to Revenue Protection to check on some of the stamps.  Whatever the outcome, it was passed to be delivered as normal.

We showed a 1st class version of this in 2023, and now we have a 2nd class version.

 

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Remember, slogan postmarks appearing in January will be added to this post, so check here before you spend time scanning and emailing.

 

 

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Post & Go and Self-Service Kiosk News for 2026

This post and its comments will hold all news on Post and Go stamps, machines, and PO Self Service Kiosks (SSKs).   

For details of new Post and Go stamps issued by the postal authorities in Guernsey and Jersey I recommend WhiteKnight's Commonwealth Stamp Opinion. All issues from the islands, and Gibraltar and the SOAR stamps from Isle of Man and Ireland will normally be pictured there as announced.

Any late news for PO SSKs will continue to be added on the 2025 blog post. Please continue to make comments there until it is closed for comments or send me news/images by email.

Crown Office Franchising

In June in 2025 Post Office Ltd announced that the remaining Crown Offices would be franchised before the end of the year.  Locally this only meant a change of operator and personnel as Dereham has never had a Self-Service Kiosk, but around the country there were many mixed messages - and outcomes - as to whether existing machines would continue to be used by the new operator, which often operated out of different premises.  

Our correspondents have kept us updated with all that news and other news of just where SSKs are still on-site, which of these (if any) are working, and what they are dispensing.

There has been a gradual move to card-only, or shut-down, especially where staffing does not permit the previous 'floor-walker' assistance.  In these cases it's difficult to know if the machines were serviceable or not.  

There is no major news yet, but I know Malcolm and Trevor (and others) will be keen to add details from their travels in this new year, so I'll start with just this image as typical of what they will find!  Any specific, especially illustrated, news will be added just as soon as we get it.

8 January 

From Trevor's report in the comments

Shrewsbury 7th Jan SSK68 Machin R21YAL & CL19S (missing print in middle of stamp on 2nd Class)

Chester 7th Jan SSK67 Machin R20YAL (2nd on 1st stock) 

10 January Another picture from Trevor showing perfectly centred printing on the 2nd class kiosk 68 at Exmouth.

 

 

 

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Over to you, readers! 

 

 

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The 10th Anniversary & final season of Stranger Things kicks of Royal Mail's 2026 programme on 13 January.

If you collect all new issues Royal Mail's first offering for the season should wrap up any money you have left after Christmas.  

Since we were told that the first stamp issue in 2026 was Netflix's Stranger Things - something I thought I had never heard of - it keeps cropping up.  Of course the final series has just finished airing, so it was trailed widely on UK television channels, and listings magazine Radio Times had a big cover splash towards the end of the year. 

Royal Mail's write-up 

Nearly ten years ago, Netflix’s Stranger Things first entered our dimension. Set in the small, sleepy town of Hawkins, Indiana, in the mid-1980s, the show offered a savvy, self-aware tribute to the science fiction, synth-pop and scary stories of that iconic decade. A massive overnight smash when it launched, and now in its fifth and final season, the show made megastars out of its young cast and gathered a huge global fanbase along the way. 

In January 2026, Royal Mail are issuing a set of ten Mint stamps and a Miniature Sheet of four stamps to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this critically acclaimed science-fiction horror series.  Set in the 1980s, the series centres around the residents of the fictional small town of Hawkins, Indiana, who are plagued by a hostile alternate dimension known as the Upside Down.

Since the series was first released on Netflix on 15 July 2016, it has attracted a record viewership and a global fanbase, winning numerous awards across the entertainment industry. Praised for its characterisation, atmosphere, writing, soundtrack, and acting - with an ensemble cast including British actors in leading roles, the fifth and final series aired in November 2025.

Royal Mail has worked with the British artist, Kyle Lambert, who has created bespoke illustrations for the stamp issue.

The stamps

The 10 x 1st class stamps show key characters across the series, illustrated by Kyle Lambert. Five stamps represent the characters in the ‘real’ world with a red background and five represent the alternate dimension with a blue background, known as the ‘Upside Down’.

Iconic logos from the series appear if a UV light over the stamps and miniature sheet

Set of 10 x 1st class stamps issued 13 January 2026 showing characters from Stranger Things.

Red Row - 5 x 1st class: Eleven & Joyce; Dustin Lucas and Mike; Steve, Robin and Erica; Nancy, Jonathan and Henry; Eleven, Jim and Dr Kay.

Blue Row - 5 x 1st class: Will, the Demogorgon and Barbara; Jim, a Demodog and WIll; Max, the Mind Flayer and Billy; Eddie, Dustin and Max; Vecna, Holly and Mr Whatsit. 

Miniature Sheet

Stranger Things miniature sheet of 4 x 1st class stamps issued 13 January 2026. From left to right: Lucas Sinclair, Will Byers, Mike Wheeler and Dustin Henderson.

Technical Details

The stamps and miniature sheet were designed by Interabang using illustrations by Kyle Lambert. The 35 mm square, perf 14½, stamps in two sheets of 50, were printed by Cartor Security Printers in lithography on gummed paper.  The lithographed self-adhesive 192 x 74 mm miniature sheet contains two stamps 27 x 37 mm and two stamps 35 mm square, excluding protrusions, perforated 14.  All stamps have phosphor bands.

Prestige Stamp Book 

The PSB has two 'front' covers, one entitled 'The Rightside Up' and the other, slightly bluer, cover entitled 'The Upside Down'.  The miniature sheet panes 1 & 2 face each other, stamp panes 3 & 4 face each other, with the stamps in pane 4 inverted.  The stamps are in the same order as in sheets, so each pane contains some 'red' and some 'blue' characters.  Pane 5 contains four definitive stamps, two each 50p and £1, with security codes M25L MPIL.  Stamps in the PSB show the same UV reaction as those in sheets and the miniature sheet.  (Click on images to see each pane enlarged.)

The limited edition version (not pictured here) has a cover imitating a VHS video tape and comes in a VHS case.  The set includes a poster of a map of Hawkins, paying homage to 1980s video game nostalgia. 

Definitive pane (5) of the Stranger Things prestige stamp book issued 13 January 2026.

Collectors Sheet
The sheet contains all 10 stamps from the set and accompanying labels from across the series. The sheet is self-adhesive litho, making the stamps different to those issued in ordinary counter sheets.

Stranger Things Collectors Sheet issued 13 January 2026.

The Fan Sheets of Eleven and Vecna contain four relevant stamps on a poster, costing £10.

The two medal covers in editions of 5,000 are priced at £25.  

Product Range

Set, miniature sheet, two first day covers, presentation pack, press sheet of 8 miniature sheets, Collectors Sheet, prestige stamp book (PSB), special edition PSB(2000), Eleven and Venca Fan Sheets, set and ms medal covers, framed products, miniature sheet poster, Eleven and Vecna signed enlarged prints.

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Royal Mail Stamp Programme for 2026

Coinciding with the release of details about the first issue of the year, Royal Mail have set out the programme for the first half of 2026.  As last year, they have withheld details about the second half, even from cover producers who have to do a lot of research before they can start printing designs and sponsoring handstamps.

Full details of the first issue will not be published here until the embargo date of 6 January but as Royal Mail's website includes this detail, I see no reason not to share the first six months' issues with you now.

Thank you to the dozen or so readers here and on Stampboards who contributed over 70 suggestions, some of them frivolous (like the set that kicked off 'reader suggestions' many years ago), many others very unlikely, but some notable anniversaries and other worthy suggestions for which we will have to await the full programme to find out whether they match.  

As with previous years, there will be many stamp issues that no-one came anywhere near guessing and some that even when they are issued we will not really understand Royal Mail's justification.

Suggestions which I don't think will make it into the second half of the programme - Centenary of the General Strike, 75th year of Europa, 50th Anniversary of Dolly the Sheep, 150th anniversary of the Bell Telephone, The Archers (long-running BBC radio soap), Birth or Death Anniversaries of Agatha Christie (although that would be an easy option as there is already a precedent for using her material), Benjamin Britten, John Constable, Henry Blogg and David Beckham. 

Other subjects which stand a reasonable chance: The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, 300th Anniversary of Fire Brigades, The King Charles Coastal Path, London Zoo.  

Thematic subjects suggested were: Theatre Buildings* - which could incorporate the National Theatre, the Royal Ballet, Royal Opera, and Royal Opera House all of which have anniversaries in 2026.  Music Giants were not given much chance, although Swedish group Abba, Freddie Mercury himself, Genesis, Gorillaz, Joy Division, Led Zeppelin, and Oasis all got a mention.  Trees were suggested both for themselves and for the National Arboretum (linking in with Remembrance), Christmas Trees at landmarks, and the Peak District National Park.  *If this comes about then the person who suggested Architecture might be in contention too!

Suggestions which might be deemed frivolous - but about which picture books have been published - include Solar power, Trademarks, and Wheelie Bins.

I think one of the problems with trying to predict is trying to remember what has happened in the not too distant past when, maybe, we took less interest in new issues.  Thus the 60th anniversary of Star Trek when that has been done to death anyway, Centenary of Winnie The Pooh ditto (although having the agreement with Disney for earlier issues might sway things), and the National Arboretum was the subject of a Commemorative Sheet.  

Anyway, for the time being, this is what we know.  My intention always is to add links to this table when the details of the issue appear in their own post, but sadly that rarely happens.  I don't mind if you nudge me, by email. 

This table has already been amended since my first draft because dates have changed and the order of some issues has been revised since we were first told.  So don't expect this to be the final even for the first half.  I've no idea when we will get the July-December details.

13th January	Stranger Things (Neflix series)
21st January	Concorde supersonic airliner
19th February	Hornby 125th
26th February	Roses - 50th Anniversary of the first set of stamps dedicated to this flower, which was issued on the centenary of the Royal National Rose Society
20th March	Lord of The Rings
March	New Tariff definitives - values to be determined when rates are announced
21st April	Centenary of the Birth of Queen Elizabeth II
	(placeholder)
14th May	Castles
23rd June	Waterfalls
July - December	The rest of the table will be completed when Royal Mail release the details.
August	placeholder
September	placeholder
September	placeholder
October	placeholder
3rd November	Christmas
November /December	Possibly!

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