Provisional Stamp Programme for 2012

Royal Mail has announced the programme of basic stamp issues for 2012 (edited to show dates):

10 January - Roald Dahl (author) - more children's books, or a tale of the unexpected ?

2 February - The House of Windsor (Kings and Queens 6) Set and MS

6 February - HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee definitive
23 February - Britons of Distinction

8 March - Classic Locomotives of Scotland MS

20 March - World of Comics (Dandy, Beano, Eagle, Bunty - or Max Miller ??)

10 April - A-Z of the UK, part 2 (14 stamps)

15 May - Design Classics, Fashion

31 May - HM The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

19 June - Charles Dickens

16 July - Olympic and Paralympic Games (Welcome)

27 September - Olympic and Paralympic Games (Memories) [Stampex]

16 October - World of Dinosaurs
30 October - Space Science

8 November - Christmas 2012

Titles are provisional, and of course there will be the usual run of Smilers Sheets, Faststamps, retail booklets, prestige stamp books, and definitive variations to keep everybody busy.

Fundraising for Children in Need and Cancer Charities

Coming on Friday November 19th - the BBC marathon event that is 

Children in Need

 

Royal Mail is doing it's part with this slogan postmark being applied by many ink-jet machines, and we are doing our part with the auction of some autographed first day covers for which we are very grateful to the people who have signed.

All these covers are from the January 2010 'Classic Album Covers' stamp set, which was our biggest seller of all time.  

First up, BBC Radio 1 DJ, Annie Nightingale!  According to her profile, "She has been on the road with some of the world’s most notorious rock bands such as Primal Scream, The Who and The Rolling Stones, was once ship’s DJ on the QE2, and motor raced at Silverstone and Brand’s Hatch as part of a Radio 1 racing team."  She's also made several appearances at Glastonbury, so this FD postmark is appropriate.

Next, Terry Pastor, who designed the David Bowie 'Ziggy Stardust' album sleeve and who now has the Bowie stamp on his home page!  We've got the London "Classic Album Art' postmark on these covers.

Third & fourth, well-known cook, television presenter, writer, and majority shareholder of Norwich City Football Club, Delia Smith - who designed & baked the cake pictured on the cover of the Rolling Stones "Let it Bleed" sleeve.  The whole-set cover has the Glastonbury postmark...

.... and the single Let it Bleed cover has the Rolling Stones 'Olympic Studios' postmark:

All these covers will be auction on eBay with proceeds from the sale of the first four covers going to Children in Need.  Cancer Research UK will benefit from the sale of the second batch of covers.  

Keep watching for a further announcement when the auctions are live.

Great Britain 2010 Programme Update

Royal Mail have firmed up their stamp issue programme for 2010 and announced some additional products connected with the London 2010 Festival of Stamps. These notes are in approximate chronological order and are necessarily brief.

First up is another Souvenir Sheet in the Classic Album Covers range. The new sheet is in the same format and the same size as the last, but contains 10 Pink Floyd stamps, and some artwork and text specific to the band and Dave Gilmour. This will also carry a premium price (to be confirmed) and will be issued on Saturday, 6 March (yes, one week tomorrow).

30 March - examples of the 20gr Europe stamp that we were shown were not the same colour as the 60p Machin, but more a dark blue-green colour. The issued stamp may not be the same as the essay we were shown.

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London 2010 Festival of Stamps 8 May
- Prestige Stamp Book: the Machin pane will be self-adhesive with security features. My scribbled note shows 4 x 1st, 4 x 2nd and 2 x 50p stamps but that makes 10, so I have an error there. The security code on these will show a P for Prestige - position to be confirmed. (Not ROYAL PAIL, surely?)

- There will be an Exhibition Souvenir Sheet echoing the Jeffrey Matthews sheet from StampShow 2000. The new sheet will contain all the valued non-security stamps currently available in three rows, ie

1p,  2p,  5p,  9p
10p,  20p,  60p,  67p
88p, 97p, £1.46, London2010 Logo.

A strange combination (total value £5.05) omitting the 50p & £1, and 1st & 2nd class stamps.

- To mark the 10th Anniversary of Smilers Stamps there will be a Generic Sheet containing the four new Smilers Stamps issued in February. At the Show four Smilers Sheets were available for personalisation, with the show Logo in the margin.

- An Exhibition Generic Sheet will be available, as issued for overseas Exhibitions since Hong Kong in 2004.

- 6th May Accession Miniature Sheet was overprinted and on sale for the Exhibition Period only.

- A Postal Union Congress Souvenir Pack will also be available. Details here.

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18 May - Commemorative Sheet Halley's Comet (Centenary of first appearance which was photographed).

15 June - House of Stuart confirmed (Monarchs known, MS: Wm Harvey, Battle of Naseby, John Vanburgh, John Milton)
15 June - Retail booklet, Mammals, 2 plus 4 x Machin gold.

8 July - Commemorative Sheet British Grand Prix

27 July - Olympics/paralympicsset of 10 & Commemorative sheet.
27 July - Olympics Retail booklet 3, 2 plus 4 Machin gold.

10 August - Commemorative Sheet - London Eye

19 August - Stage Musicals, set & MS (details to follow - think modern)
                  - Great British Railways, monochrome set of 6

15 September - Retail booklet: British Design Classics (Spitfire)
15 September - Generic Smiler (Spitfire)

16 September - Medical Breakthroughs (originally scheduled for February 2011)

17 September - Bird Pictorial Faststamps

12 October - Children's Literature. Despite the designated first day site association with AA Milne Royal Mail are not yet in a position to confirm that this is Milne, Winnie the Pooh or to say how many authors, how many books, or how many characters will be featured.
We now know that this is a set of 6 and a MS, all Winnie-the-Pooh

12 October - Olympics Retail booklet 4, 2 plus 4 Machin gold.

October - Lest We Forget se-tenant strip of 3 to be reissued from existing stock, no new printing.
28 October - National Arboretum Remembrance Commemorative Sheet.

2 November - Christmas, secular, Wallace & Gromit. Range and size as 2009, ie definitive and large definitive size, 7 stamps, MS & Smilers.

Mary Quant's going grey ! Black colour fade on Design Classic book 4 - update

A while back I reported faded black on the Mary Quant booklet.

Now I'm able to show used (but not soaked) copies side-by-side which clearly show the extent of the fading on the stamps:



That these are quite widespread suggests either a lack of care or a problem at the printers.

Another error on the Quant booklet concerns an upward shift of the silver, putting the value and Queen's head into the perforations and the lowest (silver) caption line up to the black caption line above it.



Again, there are more than a few of these about, I'm told.

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Design Classics 2 = Classic Album Covers - 7 January 2010

After the success of 2009’s British Design Classics, 2010 opens with a look at the classic art of the album cover. For decades the album sleeve has been the canvas for some of the most imaginative graphic artists in the world. This stamp issue salutes this unique art form and celebrates some of the greatest examples, used by UK artists.



(Click on the image for a much larger one)

In the set of 10 self-adhesive stamps the albums, artists and cover artists are:

Sheet 1 - strip of 5
a. The Division Bell – Pink Floyd - 1994, design by Storm Thorgerson;
b. A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay - 2002, design Sølve Sundsbø;
c. Parklife – Blur - 1994, design Chris Thomson / Stylorouge, photography: Bob Thomas;
d. Power Corruption and Lies – New Order - 1983, design by Peter Saville;
e. Let It Bleed – The Rolling Stones - 1969, design Robert Brownjohn

Sheet 2 - strip of 5
a. London Calling – The Clash - 1979, design Ray Lowry;
b. Tubular Bells – Mike Oldfield - 1973, design Trevor Key;
c. IV – Led Zeppelin - 1971, design Graphreaks, Art Directed by Jimmy Page;
d. Screamadelica – Primal Scream - 1991, design Paul Cannell;
e. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – David Bowie - 1972, design Main Artery

The Souvenir Sheet, in the form of a 'Best of...' album cover, contains the same 10 stamps, the same size, conventionally gummed and perforated. This sheet is 223mm x 188mm (8.8 x 7.4 inches)



The stamps and sheet will be issued on 7 January 2010. Other products include -

Presentation Pack. This is a fully illustrated folder which contains all ten Classic Album Covers Stamps.

Stamp Cards - postcard-sized enlargements of the stamps, sold in complete sets only.

First Day Covers (FDC) - special envelopes with designs to compliment the stamps.

Prestige Stamp Books consist of pages of stamps interleaved with information about the subject.

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You can read more about these stamps and stamp products on our website. (If you are new to stamps, click on the 'newcomers' link to the right of the stamps image.)

In due course we will add an ordering page which will include the ability to order any quantity and pay. Otherwise we will take email orders, through the website.

GB 2010 stamp programme updated

The Great Britain programme for 2010 has been revised from the outline announced in February:

7 January - British Design Classics II - this will NOT be similar to the 2009 issue as previously thought

2 February - Girl Guide Centenary

25 February - 350th Anniversary of the Royal Society

1 March - Castles of Wales generic Smilers Sheet (last in series)

11 March - 150th anniv Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

23 March - Kings & Queens: House of Stewart

13 April - Endangered Mammals

6 May - Accession of King George V (London 2010 issue)

8 May - The King's Stamps (ditto - 1st day of London Festival of Stamps)

13 May - Britain Alone (commemoration of events of 1940)

15 June - Children's Books

-- July? - Olympics & Paralympics II

19 August - Stage Musicals

16 September - Great British Railways

12 October - Kings & Queens: House of Stuart

2 November - Christmas
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Some of these are sets, some are miniature sheets, some have prestige stamp books, some will have generic Smiers Sheets. There will also be retail booklets advertising London 2010 (March) and the Olympics (January & February).

More details and images in this thread as embargo dates are passed, and here on the blog

Mary Quant's going grey ! Black colour fade on Design Classic book 4.

Two collectors have reported a very grey print of the black on the Design Classics Booklet 4, featuring the mini-skirt. One report is from the UK and the other from Australia, neither has the cylinder booklet, though from the cylinders used that would only show that the black was light or dry, rather than missing.

Remember the words 'Designed by Mary Quant' are silver so not affected by this fault. These two scans were not done at the same time, but the outcome is clear enough. Check yours, and let us know if you have any similar - or worse! And if you have a cylinder booklet it would be good to see a picture of that as well.

Error



Normal

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Design Classics retail booklet update - not numbered!

I mentioned on the latest site update that unlike booklet 2, booklets 3 & 4 had that number on the edge.

Well, that was on the publicity pictures - for what they are worth. I now have the Concorde booklet and there is no number; the edge caption is the same as on books 1 & 2.

Design Classics retail booklet update

My factory-sealed packet of 50 booklets contained none with cylinder numbers, so I assumed that there were none on these booklets. However, a friend received two from the Philatelic Bureau, and both had cylinder numbers (W1 repeated) below the routemaster stamp. Distribution seems, therefore, to be haphazard!

Design Classics Prestige Book Machins quite different to earlier versions

The Design Classics stamp issue on 13 January 2009 includes a prestige stamp book. Stamps on two of the panes are Design Classics, another pane has a block of 4 Concorde stamps, two from the new set and two from the 2002 Jet Airliners set.




But as usual one pane contains a mix of Machin definitive stamps. As this book is printed by Cartor Security Printers of France, the definitives are all new, and as the enlarged images show, the Cartor versions are quite different to the sheet versions printed by De La Rue.


In each case the De La Rue stamp is on the left, and the new Cartor stamp is on the right.
Whilst the pane image above is from Royal Mail publicity, the images here are of actual stamps, which were scanned in one session with the same settings - in addition to the quite distinct head, the shade of the 16p is quite different. This will be required by specialist collectors and those with preprinted albums.