The passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in
September 2022 has ushered in a new era of philately with her son and
heir King Charles III appearing on British postage stamps from 4th
April 2023.
A new effigy for a new monarch
Since the release of the world’s first adhesive
postage stamp, the Penny Black, in 1840, there has been a close
association between British coins and definitive stamps. The portrait
of Queen Victoria on the Penny Black was based on that designed by
William Wyon, chief engraver at The Royal Mint, for the ‘City’
medal of 1838, which commemorated Queen Victoria’s first visit to
the City of London the year before. During successive reigns, many
artists worked on both coins and stamps or had their designs for the
former adapted for use on the latter. In the 1960s, Arnold Machin
created an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II for decimal coinage and then
designed new definitive stamps, which became an iconic symbol of the
United Kingdom around the world, reproduced billions of times. The
new definitive stamps are a continuation of this long tradition: they
feature a portrait of His Majesty The King created by Martin Jennings
for the obverse of the new UK coinage and subsequently adapted for
use on stamps.
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Studio mock-ups of King Charles III NVI definitives - 2nd, 1st, 2nd Large, 1st Large.
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The complete set of Non-Value Indicated stamps
featuring the new portrait of His Majesty King Charles III The King’s
effigy appears alongside a 2D barcode printed in matching colour
alongside the main body of the stamp, separated by a simulated
perforation line.
Technical detail
Set of four includes 1st and 2nd class letter and
large letter stamps. The colours for all four values are retained
from the Machin stamps. The 39 x 39 mm stamps are printedin gravure by Cartor Security Printers and perforated 15 x 14.5.
The stamps feature a portrait of His Majesty The
King created by Martin Jennings for The Royal Mint for the obverse of
the new UK coinage and subsequently adapted by Royal Mail for use on
definitive stamps. Stamp designs © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2023. Stamp
artwork preparation by Endhouse Studio.
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Although no details have been provided yet, we expect these to be issued in counter sheets, business sheets and booklets of 8 and 4 as before. A production video shows a book of 8 x 1st class with the cylinder number apparently W1. The stamps are coded M23L of course.
The information provided so far is that products available will be:
FDC, Presentation Pack, Stamp Books 1C and 2C plus
Succession products – all pre-sale from 3rd March 2023.
I've no idea what 'Succession products' refers to.
UPDATE 3 March
A new £2.20 stamp has been announced for the new All-World airmail rate for letters - see Tariff
Products will be: FDC x 2, Presentation Pack x 2, Stamp Books (5), Business Sheets (4), plus Succession products.
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1st Class
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Plum Purple (£1.10)
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2nd Class
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Holly Green (£0.75)
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1st Class Large
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Marine Turquoise (£1.60)
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2nd Class Large
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Dark Pine Green (£1.15)
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| Definitive £2.20 stamp for All-World airmail letters to 100g, to be issued 4 April 2023. |
It does seem rather odd that this stamp will be issued the day AFTER the rate comes into effect.
UPDATE 31 March
I've received the basic sheet stamps (all 5 values) and three booklets, excluding the 1st x 4. Given the rate at which they are sending these out on the swap-scheme instead of sheet stamps, I would expect that these would have been reprinted by now and I'm expecting them any day.
NVIs and Airmail tariff stamp will be treated separately, with two FDCs and two Presentation Packs. All the retail booklets will be replaced, therefore 8 x 2nd, 8 x 1st, and 4 x 1st, 2nd Large and 1st Large.
Business sheets of 50 will be issued for all four values.
'Succession products' are a series of covers and framed stamps bearing the new NVI stamps and the equivalent Machins. This is the cover, which costs £19.99; 20,000 have been produced.
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Succession cover with 4 x Queen Elizabeth and 4 matching King Charles stamps.
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As Simon has put a comment on the relative size of UK and German barcodes, I'll repeat the Scotland gummed stamp with German barcode mock-up here. I think Royal Mail's equipment probably needed different sized code, or they were afraid that German stamps would be used (joke!).
UPDATE 13 APRILKing Charles III Business sheets are now showing on the 'buy definitives' section of Royal Mail's shop with the warning that
***Please note, to minimise any environmental impact,
existing stocks of definitive stamps that feature Her Late Majesty Queen
Elizabeth will continue to be distributed and will remain valid for
use. Please be aware that the stamps you receive may feature an image of
Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, rather than King Charles as shown,
depending on stock levels and usage.***
Product codes for the new business sheets are shown below
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1st
Class King Charles Definitive Business Sheet
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DS1654
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£55.00
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50
x 2nd Class King Charles Definitive Business Sheet
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DS1655
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£37.50
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50
x 1st Class King Charles Definitive Large Letter Business Sheet
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DS1656
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£80.00
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50
x 2nd Class King Charles Definitive Large Letter Business Sheet
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DS1657
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£57.50
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UPDATE 25 April
In reply to petemk's dealer (see comments) these are the real stamps. ALL were available on the day of issue, so I can only think he/she was referring to a particular format, say Business Sheets. And as they are available to order with the numbers above, I think some have been printed.
Mind you, it could be a very small run, like the 2nd Large 2010 sheet which wasn't widely found.
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Scan of actual stamps and Large booklets
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UPDATE 26 April
I have confirmed that the 1st class Large Business Sheet is at the printers, is not yet in stock with Royal Mail, so as has been mentioned in Comments, this cannot be ordered yet. The code will not be activated on the RM computer systems until stock is held.
Later Update
It was later confirmed that with plenty of Queen Elizabeth 1st Large business sheets in stock Royal Mail had decided not to print the King Charles one for the time being.
