Post and Go: Poppies and Winter Greenery 2017 printings, and some others

We now have supplies of the recent Post and Go stamps issued for the period of Remembrance and for Winter/Christmas mailings.

As previously announced, the Poppy Post and Go stamp was reintroduced at Post Office branches, the Postal Museum, and Enquiry Offices from 24 October, and at Museums from 20 October.  The stamps at Museums were the residual 2015 stock coded MA15.  Those in PO branches and enquiry offices are a reprint with code R17YAL - this last one interesting because the twin digits have replaced a single letter.  (Click on any image for larger versions.)

PO SSK R17YAL collectors set

 
Machine M011 Ministry of Defence Abbey Wood - MA15
The default version has the Ministry of Defence de&s logo, but buyers can choose the 'posting to Northern Ireland' option, whereby the obvious origin is hidden and the stamps are printed without the logo.

On the other reel, the Machin Post and Go stamp has the same two options.  We already have the original MA13 version on our webshop but obtained some more with the poppies, only to find that they are undated.  The only other M-series machines which have produced undated Machins with the current range of 6 values were those at Mount Pleasant (from 3 June 2015, and BFPO Northolt (from 27 June 2016) until M011 had undated stamps added earlier this year.  Stuart Leigh's Catalogue only shows this with the logo, but the no-log version may have appeared before now.

UPDATE 18 November
Some of the latest Abbey Wood stamps are already sold out, at least in collectors's strips, though we have 1st class singles.  We are attempting to restock with the sets and will notify customers as soon as we have definite information.
Update: No Poppies were available, but more Machins have been obtained, a mix of undated and MA13.

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WINTER GREENERY
A new printing of these stamps was introduced at Post Office branches from 13 November 2017.

The 1st class stamps have the year code R17YAL and 2nd class have CL17S.

UPDATE 9 December
A correspondent writes that "Sheffield are dispensing the 2017 Poppies, but not Winter Greenery so far."  A chance for local collectors to get the December datastring on Poppies.

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Lest We Forget Poppy re-use

 

As usual at this time of the year, the self-adhesive Lest We Forget Poppy will be on sale at Post

Office branches (from 24 October), and the Post and Go Poppy stamp will be in use again, though not from the same date at all locations.  A new printing with R17YAL** (thanks Frank) code has already been offered for sale on eBay.

Post and Go details
Post Office branches and Royal Mail Enquiry Offices should have the Poppy stamp replacing the Union Flag from Tuesday 24 October.
** Comments include information that the Museum and Enquiry Office machines have 2015 printings and the small rolls for these machines have NOT been printed with R17YAL code.

Museum sites will have the following changes:
(My apologies that this table may not show fully on mobile devices.  On iPhone, rotate to horizontal, and scroll right. iPad uses the web format, and data is not visible.   The end date for Museums is 19 November and for Enquiry Offices and BFPO, 23 November.)

A001	British Postal Museum †	Poppy Stamp replaces Machin 1st on 24th October	until 23/11/2017
A002	Royal Navy Museum	20 October: Poppy Stamp replaces Machin; Union Flag  ONLY - Trafalgar Day inscription	until 19/11/2017
A003	Fleet Air Arm Museum	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 20th October	until 19/11/2017
A004	Submarine Museum	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 20th October	until 19/11/2017
A005	East Anglian Railway Mus. ≠	No change.	n/a
A006	HMS Trincomalee	20 October Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag; “HMS Trincomalee”  replaced by “12th Oct 1817” on Machins	until 19/11/2017
A007	RN Explosion Museum	20 October Poppy Stamp replaces Machin; Union Flag  ONLY - Trafalgar Day inscription	until 19/11/2017
A009	Shakespeare Trust	No change.	n/a
A010	Steam GWR	No change	n/a
A011	Royal Corps of Signals	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 20th October and White Helmets inscription and logo ends	Until 19/11/2017
M001	BFPO-HQ	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 24th October	until 23/11/2017
M002	Mount Pleasant	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 24th October	until 23/11/2017
M003	Enquiry Office Bradford	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 24th October	until 23/11/2017
M004	Enquiry Office Kingston	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 24th October	until 23/11/2017
M005	Enquiry Office Windsor §	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 24th October	until 23/11/2017
M006	Enquiry Office Doncaster*	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 24th October	until 23/11/2017
M011	BFPO-Abbey Wood	Poppy Stamp replaces Union Flag on 24th October	until 23/11/2017

RM seem to have forgotten machine M010 at Norwich Enquiry Office: we must assume that if anybody wants to use it they will add the Poppy stamps. 

† - The Postal Museum has confirmed that this will be for all values.
§ - Not Doncaster as in RM advice.
* - Not Croydon as in RM advice.
≠ - Yes, having been there I should have remembered this change which occured so long ago that you would have thought that the RM team responsible would have known!

Winter Greenery
This was mentioned in the October Philatelic Bulletin but we have had no other confirmation from the Post and Go team, but it is worth mentioning here although we are light on detail.  I suspect some offices may still have old 2014 stock, but there may have been a reprint so we await reports of a printing with R17YAL code - which may not be on both designs (1st/2nd) at any one location! (Thanks to Frankie G who confirms: "2nd class is CL17S and 1st class is R17YAL" - although that does not mean that you will find the new ones in your Post Office branch!)
  "13 November: 2014 Post and Go Winter Greenery: Stamps (2 x 1st Class, 2 x 2nd Class). Post Office Limited (POL) Self-Sservice Kiosk offices and selected sites POL only."

Quite what 'selected sites POL only' means I don't know.  As far as I know all sites which are not branch SSKs are Royal Mail (controlled), eg at Museums, so I have sought clarification on this as well.

UPDATE 23 October
Thanks to RW I can now show images of the 2nd class CL17S Winter Greenery stamp, and the embargo label from the 1st class roll.

 

UPDATE: A few people have contacted me to tell me about the self-adhesive poppy being on sale in their PO not having seen this post on the blog, so I have now added a picture of the stamp to show that this is not just about Post and Go stamps

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Stampex Stamp issues announced: Mail by Air, Ladybird Books.

We are now able to show the two stamp sets which will be issued during Autumn Stampex which this year runs from Wednesday 13 - Saturday 16 September at London's Business Design Centre in Upper Street Islington.  Both issues are now shown in detail on our website.

The latest Post and Go set is Mail by Air, which consists of the familiar set of 6 designs depicting key stages in the carriage of mail by air, from the first UK Aerial Post from Hendon to Windsor in 1911, through to the use of aircraft in the Datapost livery in the 1980s.

I particularly like the Imperial Airways HP42 flying over the pyramids of Egypt and the Short flying boat. 

The stamps will be issued on 13 September and the write-up for them is on this webpage.

UPDATE 13 September: My thanks to those who have written about the year coding on these which DP didn't notice and neither did I, on the stamps pictured below!  The year code is no longer M17L but R17YAL.

UPDATE 11 September: DP reports that the new stamps were installed in Richmond, Surrey last week - but when he went back for more they had been replaced.

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The second set will be issued on 14 September and depicts Ladybird Books.  I don't know why: there is no apparent anniversary and Royal Mail have not really justified it.  (Read more on our webpage here.)  The good news for users and collectors is that there are two 2nd class stamps in this set, just over a year after the last 2nd class special issues for Landscape Gardens.  The good news for those on a tight budget is that there is no prestige stamp book, which there often is with the Stampex issue.

All the stamps are in the same style: here is the 2nd class pair:

Whilst I do like many of the modern thematic issues - which usually offer opportunities to create maximum cards however difficult that might be in some cases - I do wish more stamps were issued with at least a passing acknowledgement of a specific anniversary or occasion.

Postcrossers will bemoan the absence of a postcard stamp but if they use really small writing they will be able to get these two stamps and a 5p stamp to make up the postcard rate of £1.17!

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