Why produce forgeries of old special (non-definitive) stamps?

It's a question I asked myself when I first heard about these and then saw a couple online.  The stamps in everyday use are the definitives - Machins or King Charles.  These are the ones that people buy normally, and they will be the ones they most often buy (forged) at a discount from online sources.

Most traders will be happy with definitives; Postcrossers and individuals who like attractive, different, stamps may be attracted to something less usual, like the pictorial country definitives.

And those people may like to have the others which have been forged, the Aardman specials, for instance, or these Classic Children's Television, originally issued in 2014.  Thank you to AB for these forgeries.

These are all scanned in pairs with the same settings, and then one of each stamp is copied along side the other to produce matching pairs (I didn't want to split the strips, not least because I borrowed the genuines from Dave Evans of Jerwood Philatelics!)

Can you tell which is which?  Bear in mind that the colour registration of any Royal Mail stamps is not 100% accurate, so text often has a blurry appearance, but sometimes they are very crisp.

Which would you rather put on your letters, knowing that a forged stamp - IF detected - would attract a penalty charge of at least £2.50 on he recipient?

The forgeries are on the right, on slightly thinner paper.  But really, if you bought the ones on the right (bottom strip on the picture below) would you know that they were not genuine stamps?  The quality is superb - and there was no security printing on the backing paper - and although there are differences, which is which?

What you can't see from singles is that the spacing is wrong.  The genuine measure about 196.5 mm perf to perf.  The forgeries measure almost 198 mm.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

This is the shipping label that was on the package of stamps that AB was sent.

Note the endorsement, Shipper only, not seller.   I wonder what this means in practice and in law.  Clearly the shipper is 'sending forged stamps through the post' presumably with the intent that they would be used for postage.

It's much easier to forge self-adhesive stamps than normally gummed and perforated stamps.  

I wonder what other self-adhesive special stamps will be forged.

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Post and Go update

As readers will know there have been no new Post and Go stamps issued by Royal Mail, and none is in the programme for the current year.  Some agree with this, some would welcome more of these and fewer expensive stamp issues.

The British Postmark Society Journal report for April includes the following which may be of interest to those collectors still looking for Post and Go.  It is worth noting that if the reels are being used for the 'post an item' option, ie with a value on, use of old stock may produce something totally new, so it is worth looking in kiloware as well.  I was reminded of this by the receipt this morning of an eBay purchase with a MA16 1st class Machin with value, date, and weight shown - see picture.

No new designs appeared in the first quarter of 2019, but the Winter Greenery designs reintroduced on 1 November 2018 continued in use into the new year. Various older issues reappear as stock is used up – for example, on 10 April 2019 kiosk 68 at Chorley was issuing Symbolic Flowers (2014) for 1st class/international and Hibernating Animals (2016) for 2nd class.  Meanwhile, Winter Fur and Feathers (2015) was found at Camden High Street and undated Poppies were still being issued at South Norwood.

In a number of cases, rolls of Post & Go stamps are inserted in the wrong reel of a kiosk, either in error or because of a shortage of the correct stamps.  Two recent examples found were 1st class letter on 2nd class (blue) Machin stamps from Camden High Street and 1st class letter on 2nd (blue) Game of Thrones stamps from Slough.

UPDATE 17 May
I'm grateful to DP for sending some examples of various Post & Go stamps with old and new European postage rates:

Robin MA13 from Harrogate

Poppy R17YAL from St Albans

 

Poppy MA16

 

Machin M17YAL from Farnham

"It does raise the question do we collect the service type or the value of the label which echoes what someone wrote about the Post and Go Christmas tour a few years ago about receipts."

Receipts are especially useful for location confirmation as it is more and more difficult to keep track of where old machines have gone and more particularly where new machines are installed, sometimes without publicity if they are the smaller machines with a counter mini-terminal as well.

"I wanted to get examples from both Huddersfield offices, which was pointless as the Northumberland Street office’s three machines were switched off and the New Street office’s two were on but out of service. At New Street I was told that they didn’t have any stock for the machines. Otherwise they would have turned it on for me to get the collectors strip. Colchester and Ipswich both turned the machines on for me to get collectors strips. However Chesterfield wouldn’t. 

"From correspondence with the Post Office I’ve had questioning if the relocated Ealing branch would have SSKs, I was told that they don’t publicise that information and won’t be adding new location or amending existing branches."

I looked at the Post Office website Branch Finder page, and Post and Go is still listed in the filter selection and in Branch Details. If it is kept updated then that is good for collectors.

UPDATE 24 May:  JE of the British Postmark Society has made this very valid point about the Post Office Branch Finder, showing that their database is not accurate.  That may be what was meant in the last line in italics, just above.

The Branch Finder does not necessarily yield correct and up-to-date information.

Some locations shown as having Self-service Kiosks no longer have them - e.g. Dundee, which had SSKs in the old Head Post Office (Meadowside) lost them in February 2018 when the franchised replacement PO opened at 30 Whitehall St, but the new location appears as a Post & Go office on the Branch Finder.

Even more extreme - Southport's main PO in WHSmith, Chapel St, lost its SSKs in 2014, when the Wincor-Nixdorf machines were withdrawn!

Conversely, POs which have acquired SSKs more recently, such as Slough August 2016), Burnham (Slough)(Autumn 2017), South Norwood (august 2017) and Barkingside (2017), do not appear when the Post & Go filter is applied...

Anybody trying to maintain a complete and current list has an uphill task! 


UPDATE 9 July: According to the August edition of Stamp Magazine it is possible that some formats of Post and Go stamps are not being reprinted.  

"The Postal Museum and other sites with Royal Mail kiosks have been unable to replenish their stocks, including stamps which were digitally printed.

"Machin-head stamps with the year coded '18' are available from a few machines, but nothing more has been updated. Existing stocks are being used up, with a few oldies appearing among them."

As Don Staddon writes, "The situation will need to be resolved soon".

The implication is that Royal Mail are reprinting the stamps required for Post Office SSKs, but not for their own machines.  Strange.


UPDATE 8 November.
Thank you to all readers who continue to update the changes in branch details, openings, closures, moves and FADs.  There hasn't been much general news about the Post and Go stamps available from Royal Mail but a new report here is a comprehensive list of what the Museum machines carried during autumn 2019.  

It also depicts the Winter Greenery stamps used at Post Office branches including the 2019 reprint, and the Machin 1st class 2019 reprint has now been reported, shown below digitally enhanced.

Any NEW stamps and reprints of old will be shown in new posts.  This post will continue, for the time being to record changes similar to those already included in the comments.   A new 2020 post will probably start early in the new year.




UPDATE - It would be useful and much appreciated if, for relocated or other new offices, readers could provide Office name, postal address inc postcode, and FAD.
This information will be of use to collectors monitoring Horizon labels as well as Post and Go. Any changes NOT involving P&G SSKs are also welcome, but probably best sent by email rather than as comments here. 

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Validity and Value of stamps with no Value (NVI)

It is over four years since we first had to consider the change in letter weight steps and the question of stamps pre-printed with obsolete weights.  A reader asked the question on the latest Revenue Protection post last month, and so I'll give this important subject it's own entry on the blog.

The question was:

There is another issue, as touched on, in that what postage rate do some of the perfectly legal NVIs and earlier Post & Go stamps now pay. A number of the original rates no longer exist.

I assume an "E" value will probably still pay the Europe rate of up 20g. Where is this set out, either for the public or the Royal Mail staff?

We have Overseas booklet stamps showing Worldwide postcard rate? Originally apparently 43p. What does that pay for today? Ditto Europe up to 40g - no longer a published postage rate. Worldwide up to 40g & 60g likewise both as booklet stamps and/or Post & Go values. Europe up to 60g and so on.

Does anyone know whether the answer set out anywhere or where the contact point is to enquire?

The answer is buried deep in a blogpost of April 2014, so I'll repeat and expand on it here.

UPDATE 10 April 2014

Regarding the future value of obsolete Post and Go stamps Royal Mail have advised:

Existing P&G stamps for WW 10g and WW40g and other previously issued NVI’s for which there is no current postage value e.g. WW Postcard, will continue to be valid for the next applicable weight step up from its stated value i.e. WW 10g stamp will be valid at the WW 20g value and the WW 40g stamp will be valid at the new WW 60g value.

Although they were asked specifically about Post and Go stamps, the reply covers the self-adhesive booklet stamps, including the airmail postcard rate stamp, which is the same rate as the Europe 20g/World 10g. The following year the 60g step was replaced by the 100g step and the same principle applied.  In other words, the stamps showing 40g are now valid for 100g.  The 10g and 20g stamps are still valid for the weights shown, as before.

Users of Stanley Gibbons' Great Britain Concise catalogue will know that the introduction includes some tables of postage rates.  One which is missing is this table which, apart from indicating the original selling price of some of the stamps, explains why certain definitive stamps were issued and, in the case of the £2.25, reiussed after being replaced.

	Europe 20g	World 10g	World 20g	World 40g
April 2009	56p	62p	90p	-
April 2010	60p	67p	97p	£1.46
April 2011	68p	76p	£1.10	£1.65
April 2012	87p		£1.28	£1.90
April 2013	88p		£1.25	£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

* error corrected
I hope readers find this useful.  It is probably worth reminding everybody that these are also all valid at the rates shown for inland postage, just as the 2nd, 1st, Large, Signed For, and Special Delivery stamps are all valid for services other than those shown and on inland and international mail.

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Non-Machin Postal Forgeries - 2014/2016 Christmas

By now most people know that various Machin definitives have been forged to defraud Royal Mail - the 1st class gold, blue, red, lilac and dark red are all quite common, and the recent 1st Large is widely used by eBay sellers!

What I hadn't seen until now were forged Large Christmas stamps.  What is interesting is that these are not produced in booklet form and the only normal outlet for them is Post Offices - although in theory any retailer could buy them for resale, although they usually stick to 1st & 2nd booklets.

2014. This 1st class Large seems to be self-adhesive, but it is the wrong size, and has elliptical perforations!  I suppose if that's what you've got you use it, but why produce something which is so obviously wrong?

The Large 2nd class is quite the wrong colour, and if you click on it to see it enlarged you will see that the definition is not as good as on the originals.

2016.  Similarly this 2nd class Large is quite wrong, and the perforations are too pointed.

If anybody has information about when and where these were used, we would be pleased to publish it.

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Royal Mail Unadopted Christmas Stamp found used

Every week we get questions asking about details of stamps or for assistance in identifying stamps which may or may not be real stamps.  Long-term readers will recall the postal use of Olympic Gold Medal trial printings, and the parrots back in 2012/13.

Once upon a time I could remember the date of issue of most GB special stamps - at least up to the 1980s.  Nowadays I'm lucky if I can remember which year some issues were, let alone what time of the year, but I recognise most of them as being genuine - after all, I have written about them here and on the website, and stocked most of them.

Today I was sent a real stumper.  Obviously a Christmas 2nd class stamp, and obviously postally used, this one didn't ring any bells, and the writer hadn't been able to find it by searching the description on Google.

 

But Google also has a 'reverse image search'.  Most web browsers now allow you to type your search terms in the 'web address bar' at the top, rather than going to your favourite search engine, but if you go to https://images.google.com/ you get this search box:

and if you click on the black camera icon you can either enter the URL of an image, or upload one from your computer.  Doing this I found the website of the designer, Gaia Bordicchia.  They were produced for the 2014 issue but not used.   

I don't yet have permission to show all four designs, but you can see them here.  This is the Christmas pudding one shown as on the website:

So the question is, who produced the stamp?  My deduction is that it is certainly not a print from the website, because the perforations on the used one are torn, not die-cut, and if you were cutting out a picture printed from the web, it would be straight-edged either including or excluding the printed perforations.  So it must have been taken from a perforated sheet (or miniature sheet?).  Did Royal Mail produce some as trials - gummed trials are cheaper than self-adhesive?  How many of the four were printed, how many different designs, and how many were used? 

If anybody else has seen these, I would be interested to hear about them.  Meanwhile the investigation continues!

UDPATE
The comments below refer to Philatelic Bulletin giveaways, but these were not commissioned for potential use as actual stamps.

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Post and Go overhaul

As previously mentioned, Royal Mail are cutting back on the Post and Go programme this

year,  although they have not made a specific announcement about just how much.  Already we know that they are not having kiosks at either Spring Stampex or the Scottish Congress in Perth, and I have been told unofficially that they will not be taking their machines to the political party congresses in the autumn. 

Partly because of this we have taken time to look over our Post and Go stock and ensuring that all our stock is actually listed in our webshop, that all is in the correct category and will be selected under the 'Faststamps/Post and Go' heading.  We've also adjusted many prices - now is the chance to get some you may have missed many at lower prices than advertised elsewhere.  Included are stamps printed in Australia, Hong Kong and Korea, and some of the newer digital printing versions of earlier stamps.

As with Machin Security Stamps, when Post and Go (or Faststamps as they were called) were first FS numbers.
While we were waiting for Gibbons to produce the first entries, we set about our own numbering system, partly because we wanted to list the stamps logically in our stock. So those available from Post Offices and elsewhere with no additional inscriptions were allocated
produced, there was no catalogue listing. When Stanley Gibbons catalogue editors did compile a listing it was fairly straightforward, with one catalogue number assigned to each of the five original values.

The localised or commemorative inscriptions (variously and incorrectly described as either underprints or overprints by some) to stamps sold at Stampex and international exhibitions, are in the FT series.

Stamps issued from machines at the BPMA, Postal Museum, local stamp fairs and exhibitions, and military and other museums and attractions are listed in FV series. We stock very few of these.

Our stock is listed on our webshop here.   The software arranges stock in a certain logicality, but it is not completely intuitive even in our system.   Some first day covers are also available.

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New Post and Go Pack Discovery

If you've already read this story, read again.  Information now provided by a collector shows that the official comment was far from accurate - and may even have been created only to answer the original question, with no regard for accuracy!  Additional information is in blue.

It's spot the difference time!   Back in February 2014 new NCR Post and Go machines were introduced at Harpenden, and they were then rolled out over the rest of the country.  One of the features of the new machines was the introduction of 'Open Value' stamps, replacing the previous 'Post and Go Labels' that were dispensed by the Wincor-Nixdorf machines.

Recognising that not all collectors had access to the machines, and seeing a way of creating another product to sell, Royal Mail made a 'Post and Go Collectors Pack' containing the basic values in Open Value format.  This pack was PG15, and it was first issued on 07.07.14.  Most Post and Go collectors bought one, even though the stamps were not produced from an NCR machine but from the RM2 machine C001, with datastring B7GB14-C001-1840-015.

As with the Union Flag and Spring Flowers stamps, when stock was exhausted a reprint was produced, but not announced.  Can you see the difference?

It isn't obvious, and doesn't affect the pack, only the stamps:

Still not got it?

The difference isn't the same as on the Union Flag reprint, and only affects the weight -version 1 has kg and this is Kg on the reprint (version 2).  The pack is no longer available from Tallents House.

A Royal Mail spokesman said:

“The reprints of the Union Flag, Spring Blooms and Collectors Packs were different to the original printings because in the intervening period there was a software upgrade which impacted on the appearance of the font. The capital ‘K’ on the Machin reprint was a set up error and should not have happened.”

This is what I wrote originally:
Apart from the reader who originally drew my attention to this last year, no collectors or dealers I have spoken to are aware of the reprint.   The original is most likely to be the more common, as regular customers of both Royal Mail and dealers would have got the original.  Only latecomers and dealers replenishing their stocks would have had the reprint - and some dealers I spoke to still have some of their original supplies unsold!  The few collectors who have only got the reprint in their collections will have no difficulty in finding the original; those who have only the original will find the reprint hard to obtain.

This is what I have since been told:
Version 2 first appeared in packs after Flags and Spring Flowers had changed; they were very rare even if you knew what to look for.  I found some at Stampex and bought some direct from Tallents House, the ratio was about 6 times normal (version1) packs to one of the large K type (version 2).

HOWEVER.  This first day cover appeared on eBay.  Even allowing for post-dating - where collectors can send covers to the Special Handstamp Centres for a short period after stamps are issued (because of late delivery of the stamps or covers) - this must mean that Version 2 was available at more or less the same time as Version 1.

Even with this new information, my original comment probably remains valid.  Only a small proportion was version 2 with the big K.  And the early availability* would also account for the fact that the rest of the text - weight, datastring, value - is the same as on version 1.  

The Big K is not so much 'Version 2' as 'Error, upper-case K'.

* The Union Flag reprint was first reported in February 2015, and the Spring Blooms in March 2015.

UPDATE 21 March
Dennis has reminded me of an earlier blog post from July 2015, when Dominic noted that in the pack he bought from Tallents House the 97p airmail stamp was printed on MA13 Machin stock.  Now this makes the waters even more muddy.

If we assume that each of the values was printed on a separate roll, and then the stamps guillotined for machine-inserting into the packs (as is usual), it is fair to assume that a mix of rolls was available. The two blue rolls would be the same MA12, two of the brown rolls were undated, and the third was MA13.  MA13 has not been used for either the 1L or 1LG stamps.  But the 97p MA13 has only been found with a lower case 'k'.   Which rather casts doubt on the suggestion that the upper case K was printed as part of the same run as the lower case.  It is unlikely that Royal Mail can provide any reliable explanation of any of these differences.

Of course it makes no difference to Royal Mail at Tallents House what stamps they use, though a degree of consistency would be useful!

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Stamps in Spring Blooms Post and Go Bureau pack also reprinted.

We reported that the Union Flag Post and Go Bureau Pack had been found with reprinted contents, the stamp being from the RM2 machine with a revised font for all text.  The Spring Blooms Bureau Pack (16) has also been found with stamps from RM2.

The change did not affect Symbolic Flowers or later packs which were all printed on RM2 machine C002.

Click on the image for an enlargement.

Both packs are available on our webshop while stocks last.

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New Prestige Book definitive stamps have 2014 coding

As with the 2014 Locomotives of the United Kingdom prestige book, which had 2013 year coding on the Machins, the first PSB this year - Inventive Britain - has stamps coded M14L MPIL.  

It's not issued until 19 February, but we know that there are four new stamps, being the 1p, 2p, 81p and 97p on gummed paper, litho by International Security Printers.  Unfortunately the selection of stamps once again means only one set per book, so dealers and collectors wanting singles are likely to be using the remainder for postage, so look out for them.

Publicity image

Actual scan:

UPDATE 4 Feb:  Now that we have stock I can show the microscope pictures - more will be on our website later this week.

The 81p from this book compared with the sheet stamp issued in March 2014, and with the 68p from the Roald Dahl prestige book:

There appears to be no noticeable difference between the stamps in the book and those in sheets, including the A-Z of the UK Bletchley Park and the Britons of Distinction Alan Turing.  All were litho printed by Cartor, perf 14½.

UPDATE:  Chris H has sent this UV picture which shows that once again the 1p stamp has an orange glow from the ink.  This also happened with the 5p stamps from the First Airmail and Dr Who PSBs and the 1p and 5p from the Football Heroes PSB.

UPDATE: Publicity pictures from our website to show what Jonathan is referring to in the comments.

Pane 3 with £ missing from the £1.47 !

 

Pane 4 with £ missing from the £1.28 !

 

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