Pooh - another stamp issue for the bear and friends on 14 October 2026

Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared on a British stamp in 1979 as one of four stamps marking the United Nations International Year of the Child.  More recently Pooh and his friends featured on the 2010 Children's Books Europa set, though why ten stamps were devoted to one set of characters from the books is unclear.  Four years earlier, the Animal Tales joint issue with the USPS covered ten different books, but not including Pooh.

I must confess I thought the bear had made more appearances on British stamps, but I suppose the seemingly unending appearances of Paddington might have confused me.  Add in Rupert, Alice, Peter Rabbit, and many others, going back to the Greetings Booklets, one could - I hope - be forgiven for losing track.

But it would be difficult to argue against at least the basic premise of this issue as 2026 marks the centenary of the first publication of Winnie the Pooh by A A Milne in 2026.  You can read more about the character and the story behind the stores here on our webpage for the 2010 issue.

The new set is illustrated in "the style of E.H. Shephard's original book illustrations "before Pooh got his iconic red shirt".  Some may think the red shirt came with Disney, as shown on the PSB's definitive pane shown below, but the red shirt first appeared in 1932 as shown on the Piglet fan sheet when the characters were drawn in colour by Stephen Slesinger, a US comic book pioneer who bought the copyright to Pooh in 1930.  After Slesinger's death in 1953, his widow licensed the rights to Disney in return for regular royalties, which is why any first day covers or special handstamps now have to be licensed through The Walt Disney Company. 

The stamps 

 

Set of 6 x 1st class Winnie the Pooh stamps issued 14 October 2026.

 Miniature Sheet 

Miniature sheet of 4 x 1st class Winnie the Pooh stamps issued 14 October 2026.

Technical Details 

The set of stamps and miniature sheet is designed by Supple Studio ©Disney. Based on the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. The 4x x 30 mm stamps were printed by Cartor Security Printers in lithography on gummed paper, in three sheets of 60 in vertical se-tenant pairs, with phosphor bars.  The 115 x 89 mm miniature sheet contains three 27 x 37 mm and one 41 x 30 mm (Eeyore) stamps perforated 14 (14½ x 14 mm Eeyore) printed in lithography on gummed paper with all-over phosphor.  The Press Sheet contains eight miniature sheets.

Collectors Sheet

The sheet contains 10 first class stamps with four of the stamps included twice, matched with other illustrations as labels.  The lithography-printed sheet is self-adhesive.

Self-adhesive Collectors Sheet 

Prestige Stamp Book

The book describes the evolution of the story over a hundred years from the Milne story and Shephard illustrations to the modern Disney renditions.

Four prestige book panes including the set of 6, plus two extra Pooh & Piglet stamps,
miniature sheet and definitive pane containing 1p, 50p, £2, 2 x £1 definitive stamps.
These are should be coded M26L MPIL - but it's very faint!

The PSB and Limited Edition PSB are delayed until 26 November

 

Commemorative Stamp Book 

Continuing the practice of issuing retail-format self-adhesive booklets which are not sold anywhere but the Royal Mail philatelic service.  As usual 4x identical 1st class stamps but printed in gravure, rather than lithography.

Fan sheets

The four Fan Sheets are in editions of 5,000 priced at £8 each.  Each contains four identical stamps in a relevant background:  Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore.

Products available

Set of 6 stamps, miniature sheet, presentation pack, commemorative booklet, prestige stamp booklet, press sheet of 8 MS, collectors sheet, fan sheets (4), first day covers (3 including the definitive pane from the PSB), limited edition PSB, 50p coinx3 cover (reverse of coins designed by Disney), proof coloured silver and proof gold coin covers Character Packs for set, and MS, limited (5000) edition ingot (£50), framed miniature sheet (£40), framed set (£40).

Australia Post

As the comments make reference to the package issued by Australia Post I thought I would make an exception and show those as well - if only to show collectors of Royal Mail products that things could be worse.

Their Winnie the Pooh 100 Years Stamp Collection is AU$39.99 (£21.05 - plus shipping and import taxes if you choose to buy direct).  This is, of course, much cheaper than even a modest selection of Royal Mail's Pooh products. There is also a numimatic cover for AU£59.99.

The Collection contains these four sheets:

Miniature sheet of four unrelated flower stamps with Disney Pooh design on borders.

Gutter sheetlet of four slower stamps with attached Disney Pooh labels and a gutter strip of four more labels

Sheet of 6 self-adhesive MyStamps with designs depicting different Pooh characters.

Sheet of 6 self-adhesive MyStamps* with designs depicting the same Pooh characters.

Readers have commented on this blog about the absence of Kanga, Piglet and Rabbit. The Ozzies on the other hand have omitted the key characters of Owl and Christopher Robin, apart from on the throw-away sheet design (assuming you use the stamps, as some people do.)

* "With MyStamps, you can use our template and your own image to create a truly personalised sheet of 20 stamps. With six shapes on offer, each with a different look and feel, and your choice of postage type and rate, you'll be able to celebrate some of life's memorable moments stamped on your post.

"MyStamps are perfect for sending out birthday or wedding invitations, Christmas cards, or simply adding a personal touch to your mail."

These are similar to the original P-(ersonalised)stamps from Australia and Smilers from the UK, but are more like the Commemorative Sheets (for instance marking the Centenary of the Halley's Comet) that Royal Mail issued.  AusPost have made hundreds of such issues featuring all manner of cartoon and sports associations.

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Planned but not issued Greetings Booklet: Farm Animals 1995 precursor

The recent issue of domestic pets reminded me of a Farm Animals issue.  Not this one from 2005, but an earlier set which was planned for a Greetings Booklet.

Norvic Philatelics limited edition FDC for 2005 Farm Animals set. 

Readers may recall the post back in June of this year about 1995 plans for self-adhesive Priority Service Machin definitives.  When he sent me that information MM also sent an information sheet about a booklet of 10 1st class stamps depicting farm animals; the booklet would follow the style of the time with 20 greetings labels

Greetings in Art booklet issued 1995, 10 stamps and 20 labels.

The issue date was to be 31 January 1995, with the stamps designed by Why Not Associates and printed by Walsall Security Printers in litho.  The animals depicted appear to be, in order, Dog, Duck, Cat, Sheep, Donkey, Goat, Horse, Chicken, Cow, and Pig.

Click on the image for enlargement

In the event, the January 1995 stamp issue (on 17th) showed five cats, and the Greetings booklet issued in March was Greetings in Art, shown above.

The last of this type of booklets was issued in 1997-8 (19th century flower paintings).

In 1999-2000 the 25-set Millennium series were all square stamps and no more Greetings sets were issued until the silver 'Occasions' set issued as five separate sheets.  

Royal Mail eventually returned to the Farm Animals theme 10 years after the initial concept, with stamps designed by by Rose Design using woodcut-style illustrations by Chris Wormell.  

2005 Farm Animals stamps printed in gravure by Enschedé.

 

Woodcut was also the basis of the illustrations used in the Sheep, Pigs and Cattle Post and Go stamps designed by Robert Gillmor.  

As with the previously described priority services definitives, nobody knows Royal Mail decided not to proceed with the 1995 set.  As far as I know this did not go to the proof stage.

  

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How Royal Mail achieve the perfect handstamp on FDCs - updated

In a 2019 post I described the system that Royal Mail used to achieve mostly clean and legible handstamps on first day covers and other mail, including a video and GPO-published write up of the process.  This is an update of that article.

The handstamps are, for the most part, not handstamps at all, but are applied by foot- and hand-operated machines.  (The changeable date designs are still handstamps as far as I know. *)

You can read a detailed description here in our reference area. This is a pdf file, so you can download it, or read it in your web browser, depending on your system settings.

The article is copyright Royal Mail, 1993 & 2007, reproduced by kind permission.  

This is the machine which was at Europhilex in 2015

(There is a video of the operation on the 2019 post.)

I've now found a picture of a similar machine which was in use at the British Forces Postal Service HQ in Northholt, NW of London.   This obviously isn't identical but the technique is the same as the close-ups show.  If readers read the pdf referred to above in conjunction with these pictures it should provide a clearer idea of the operations.

As described in the article there is a camera in the unit which enables the user to see where the postmark will be applied on the cover.  The article refers to 'clichés' which has the postmark printed on as a, but the handstamp centres referred to them as 'foils'.

BFPS 'handstamping' machine 2010. 

 

This picture shows the handstamp which is on the machine to be applied to covers taped to the screen to ensure proper alignment.  It is similar to this one for BFPS 3107 marking the 69th anniversary of the Battle of Britain 17 September 2009.

BFPS 3017 handstamp

This picture shows one of the pads to which the ink is applied, before transfer to covers, with some foils alongside, presumably ones which have already been used.  

 

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Digital Switchover - Possible interruption to service

Tomorrow out telephone line will be subject to the Digital Switchover.

Many readers in the UK (and France, Australia etc) will have already experienced this with no problems - we don't expect any problem although our last interaction with the telephone system when we moved to this location left us for a month with no landline.

Our 0845 number (which redirects to our geographical number) will remain the same.  Eventually we will abandon that and switch to an 07 number but for the time being you will notice no difference if all works as it should.  

If anything goes wrong, there will be an interruption where we won't be able to make or receive calls or use our internet connection.

UPDATE - because of our peculiar configuration (there are two lines to the property but only one landline number) it took all morning, but with the technical expertise in the family all is now well!

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