Thursday, 10 September 2026

There's something you should know: Music Giants XII bumper bundle of Duran Duran memorabilia issued on 17 September 2026

Music Giants 12 - hard to believe isn't it?   This is what WIkipedia has to say about the band:

Duran Duran are an English pop rock band. Formed in Birmingham in 1978 by keyboardist Nick Rhodes, guitarist (later bassist) John Taylor and singer/bassist Stephen Duffy. The band went through several early changes before the band's line-up settled in May 1980 as Rhodes, Taylor, singer Simon Le Bon, guitarist Andy Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor.

And this is what Royal Mail say:

Few bands have defined the sound and style of an era quite like Duran Duran. As pioneers of the New Romantic movement and one of the most influential groups of the 1980s, their blend of innovative pop, striking visual identity, and boundary-pushing music videos helped rewrite the rules of global stardom.

The stamp issue coincides with the start of the band's UK and European Tour in Autumn 2026.

The stamps  

Set of 8 x 1st class Duran Duran stamps issued 17 September 2026.

The stamps show the album artwork for Duran Duran, Rio, Ragged Tiger, Notorious, The Wedding Album, Astronaut, Paper Gods, and Future Past.  (No acknowledgements available.)

Miniature Sheet

Miniature sheet of 4 x 1st class Duran Duran stamps issued 17 September 2026 - what a mess! 

Technical details

The 38 x 35 mm stamps were designed by Royal Mail using existing album cover artwork. They were printed by Cartor Security Printers in lithography in gummed sheets of 48, in se-tenant strips of four, perf 14.

The 180 x 74 mm miniature sheet was designed by True North and printed by Cartor Security Printers in litho on self-adhesive paper.  Two stamps are 27 x 37 mm, one 37 x 27 mm perf 14, and one 35 mm square perf 14.5.

The stamps on the MS show posters for the Careless Memories Tour (1981), Sing Blue Silver Tour (1983-4), Astronaut Tour (2005-6), and the Invisible Tour (2025). 

This is the first miniature sheet that has a printed image on the rear of the sheet and features the four current band members: John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, as seen here on images of the press sheet of 12 miniature sheets (price £86.40)


Prestige Stamp Book

Sadly this once again includes two definitives which we have seen before from PSBs, the 50p and £1, coded M26L MPIL as expected. 


A limited edition (3,000) PSB has a red cover as shown and comes in a matching display box. It also includes five special postcards. (£50)

Collector sheet and fan sheets

As with all Collector sheets  10 x 1st class stamps (which means duplicating two of the stamps from the set) and accompanying labels.  As expected the stamps are self-adhesive unlike the sheet stamps. Price £19.20

Duran Duran Collector Sheet of 10 self-adhesive stamps

Two Fan Sheets, one for the Invisible Days Tour including four stamps from the miniature sheet, and one for the album Seven and the Ragged Tiger. The sheets are printed in the same way as the original stamps, so now new stamps.  The edition is 10,000 of each, individually numbered, priced £10 

Products available (if I don't run out of space!)

Set of 8 stamps, miniature sheet, presentation pack, first day covers (2, or 3 if you count the pointless PSB pane cover), prestige stamp book (PSB), limited edition PSB (£50), stamp cards, collector sheet, Fan Sheets (2), press sheet of 12 miniature sheets,  medal cover with set of stamps (£25), set and MS on 2 separate 'souvenir carriers' (£7.50), Limited edition silver ingot (£25), framed set & MS (£45), framed set (£40), framed collector sheet (£40), signed framed Invisible Days fan sheet - edition of 25 (£300).

Phew!


Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Slogan postmarks for September? Maybe - and other interesting postmarks and news

I am writing this at the end of August as I won't know until the middle of September what has happened during the month.

I expect September to start with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) default slogan, but I this should soon make way for a slogan marking Air Ambulance Week which this year runs from 7-13 September.  Postmarks should appear all week until Saturday 12th.  Then the BHF slogan should return.

 

 

 


 



 

 

 

 

 


Other postmarks and postal markings





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

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, 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.  

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