Did you get the London Festival of Stamps Retail Packs?

Only sold at the main show in London, many of these packs were sold out on day 1 and few collectors were aware of them.  Similar packs were produced for StampShow 2000 and are scarce.

 

We have the Accession Stamp packs with Cylinder block, dot block, or traffic light: click here.
Remember this stamp was designated as a definitive by Royal Mail's bureau so those with standing orders for Commemorative stamps didn't receive it - but it wasn't widely recognised as a definitive by post offices either, and those which choose to ignore special stamps left this in the safe!

A few days later similar packs were produced for the Britain Alone set.  Each of these packs contains a number of full sets of the stamps, although generally only the 1st class Churchill stamp is visible:

 

We have just a few packs on sale at bargain prices in our online shop - same link as above.

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Special edition of PUC £1 sold by BPMA.

Back on 8th December the British Postal Museum and Archive announced the sale of an extra souvenir from the London 2010 Festival of Stamps.

Copies of the PUC £1 were printed at London's Guildhall by Enschede representatives on an antique printing press. The whole process was very interesting, and we wondered what would happen to the many examples printed in blue by this special hand-printing process.   Well, now we know.  Just 50 blocks of 4, printed in blue, were made available at a price of £50 each.  The website originally indicated that advance reservations could be made and that there was a limit of 2 per customer. But the 'rules' were changed more than once, and I was told that anybody wanting to buy must ring on Monday 13th December at 9am, and the limit was one per customer.


But some people who phoned in the week before that Monday were able to order and pay for 2 copies in one transaction - and they have received them!

I think that the BPMA needs to think carefully about how they market any future limited editions to ensure fairness to collectors around the world.

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Litho ring flaw on London 2010 Festival of Stamps Souvenir Sheet

Two different ring flaws have been found on the 1p stamp in this sheet. 

From the position they could have the same origin - or they may be from two different parts of the press sheet.  We have seen several of each in our stocks - also on FDCs, now available on our e-commerce site.

Send us your finds!

London 2010 Festival of stamps - Smilers photobooths

Visitors are probably aware that Royal Mail will have two Smilers photobooths at the show (like the 1 they have at Stampex).

You should be warned that there is no facility to use digital images on flashdrives etc.  The system is set up only to take images from the camera - although it is possible that a photograph could be placed before the camera and used for personalisation of these sheets.

Having taken my flashdrive, I shall now print the images, and on Wednesday test whether fixing them to the wall behind where my head would be will be sufficient!   Somehow I doubt that they would allow the production of (effectively) "blank" labels by focussing just on the white wall of the booth.  :-(

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London 2010 Festival of stamps - Post Office presence

The key here is the difference between Royal Mail and Post Office (Counters Ltd).

Royal Mail were always going to have a big stand selling all their philatelic products as part of their support for the international exhibition and festival.  The presence of Post Office Ltd was by no means certain.  For Stamp World 1990 at Alexandra Palace there was a Mobile Post Office trailer in the car park.  I can't remember a presence at StampShow 2000, although there probably was one.

But as recently as late February Post Office Ltd couldn't tell us whether they would have counter facilities or even Post & Go machines at London 2010.  It does seem that the arrangements were made quite late in the process, but we did indeed have a Post Office presence, albeit in some fits and starts!

At the left, off shot, the Post & Go Machine.   At the right, the counter with scales, horizon desk and printer.   Not full facilities, but certainly I was able to draw cash from my bank account (avoiding a trip across the road to Barclays' ATM), stamps could be bought, letters and cards posted.  And, of course, the Horizon machine could produce the much-derided white label - but these labels were not white - Islington joined Wales in having the golden Machin labels!

No copies of my own to show here as they have to be posted and are not handed back, so here is one from Brian's postagelabelsuk blog:

The system produces receipts and certificates of posting which identify the branch location:

Meanwhile on the other side of the booth, the Post and Go machine was finally persuaded into life.  The Post & Go label (this one for Airmail) shows the branch code 002010 for the Festival:

The Post & Go stamps (known almost universally as Faststamps) also bear this code:

With appropriate juggling it was possible to produce the collectors-favourite strip of 5 different Faststamps:

But the Post & Go machine hasn't been programmed to show the Branch Location, although it does show the Branch code:

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Some first day covers have been prepared, and some letters sent through the ordinary mail. It will be interesting to see if there are any problems with the time-limited Post & Go labels which, issued on 8 May, had to be posted by 9 May. But there are no collections on 9 May, so the ones I posted this morning will be picked up on 10th May! Examples of actually posted, and first day, envelopes will be added when received.

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London 2010 Festival of stamps - photo-gallery

Had an enjoyable trip to London yesterday and the Festival of Stamps and the Business Design Centre in Islington.  Lots of news, but first a gallery of first impressions.

09.30 Ticket Holders starting to enter the building.

The queue extended round the corner and alongside the Hilton Hotel.

Auction House Spinks advertise on a London cab - it's a long-term arrangement but the driver now appreciated why he was parked up outside the Hilton!

10.15 After a breakfast break at the conveniently placed and friendly Cafe Uno, our first view of the main hall, with Royal Mail's stand in the far distance.

Royal Mail's huge stand with many serving points which kept queues quite short.

... with some super-large stamps (even if this one is in the forecast colour rather than as issued):

And lastly - discovered mid-morning by some and not until the afternoon by others!  The Post Office counter, with malfunctioning Post & Go machine off-screen at the left.

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Quality reproduction of PUC £1 !

These are scans of the PUC £1 facsimiles.  The printing on the reverse is over the whole block, so the GvR cypher is in the centre of the block.  I'm impressed!

Cartor heavy with the ink in Souvenir Sheet?

We now have copies of the London 2010 Festival of Stamps Souvenir Sheet, containing 11 Machin definitives printed by Cartor.  As is to be expected, these show marked differences to the normal sheet stamps printed by De La Rue.  Although Stanley Gibbons' Concise catalogue will probably only assign a number to the whole sheet, specialist catalogues should allocate numbers to individual stamps.

Here are the stamps, Cartor Souvenir Sheet stamps first, followed by the separate DLR stamps:

In fairness I ought to compare the Cartor printings of values they have printed before with their previous versions, but that can come later.  I think the comparison of the 20p & 60p values is most interesting!

London 2010 Festival of stamps - 1st class double-head

Proof that the 1st class double head stamp really is being sold in sheets, contrary to Royal Mail's stock list, but as mentioned in an earlier reply to correspondents:

The stamp is printed in sheets of 25, formed into 6 sheets, three across and two down.  Twin-pane sheets are available but Post Offices will generally have sheets of 25.  Sheet markings:

- the caption is above columns 1 & 2,
- the sale date below columns 4 & 5,
- the cylinder numbers to the left of row 4 (C1 phos, C1),
- the traffic lights to the right of row 4 (phosphor above red),
- the barcode and short title to the right of rows 1 & 2, and
- the positional grid to the left of row 2.

If I had been involved I would have made sure that Festival of Stamps was fully capitalised, but maybe I'm just old fashioned?  How about you?

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King George Accession surprises

Our supplies of stamps etc for the May Festival of Stamps are starting to arrive from Royal Mail, and are bringing some surprises with them. The colour of the 1st class double-head stamp is not 'flame-orange' as originally described, and as pictured on the Stamp Cards, the colours of the PSB panes are different, and the PSB panes are guillotined into the designs (as we were told they would not be). The one non-surprise so far is the predicted security codes on the PSB Machin pane.


You will recall earlier pictures of the new 1st class double-head 'flame-orange' stamp: the later image of the full sheet being quite different in shade to the publicity photos of the single stamp.

Well we don't have the single stamps yet but we do have the miniature sheet.  As you can see from this scan of the actual sheet, the colour is very similar to that of the 'whole sheet' image shown above, and totally different to the publicity image and the Stamp Cards (see below).

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PSB Panes:

The publicity image for the Machin pane is probably closest to the actual thing, with the background printed silver on white.  The perforations are as usual, with two holes beloe the elliptical hole.  As predicted these new self-adhesive stamps have security features (uninterrupted cuts of type I as on sheet stamps), security code MPIL (for prestige book) at top right, and MA10 (for 2010) to the left of the forehead.

Close-up of the stamps:

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The Seahorse PSB pane is printed silver on cream, not silver on white, and the loose ones we have been supplied with barely include the whole diadem, whereas in the book the full pane includes the whole of the left frame of the original stamp design.  The stamps are well produced, but.....

There are no extension holes to the perforations as shown in the publicity images for panes 1 & 2.

Plans, intentions, publicity, marketing and reality.
Mock-ups are just that - we shouldn't put too much reliance on them actually showing how the stamps/panes will turn out in reality.   To be fair, Royal Mail always say that they are working images - in the 6-12 months before they are actually issued - but is it too much to hope that the images and descriptions in their own Philatelic Bulletins might be accurate as soon as the stamps have been approved and printed?

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STAMP CARDS
The stamp cards for the 6 May stamps show the 1st class stamp in the colour we thought it should have been in - and possibly the colour that Royal Mail intended.  Sadly the actual stamps are rather insipid compared with these:

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London 2010 Festival of stamps - 1st class double-head

A contact in Finland has pointed out that Royal Mail's minimally informative mailshot 'first' fails to mention that this stamp is available as a single stamp and is not just in the miniature sheet.

I checked, he's right - and it's also not included in the April 2010 Bureau Stock List although the other Festival products are.  

The stamp should be on sale at all UK post offices but for those who can't get to a PO, and for international customers, the Royal Mail stock code for the single stamp is DS414.  Gutter pairs are also available.

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London 2010 Festival of Stamps - stamps and other products

Royal Mail has made a significant investment in this year's international exhibition, and seems determined to recoup as much as possible from visitors and other collectors.  Prices shown here are face value or Royal Mail retail prices.

I posted some of this information in February with the pictures we had then, but more (I daren't say 'complete') details are now available, so this is an illustrated summary.

6 May 1st class single stamp (41p) showing the Machin head of Queen Elizabeth II and the Mackennal profile head of King George V.   Now that we have these stamps I can tell you that they - and the one in the MS - are red, not orange/flame - click on the image to see the full double-pane sheet, with gutter in the actual colour. (Edit: the Royal Mail order code for the single stamp is DS414 but at the time of writing it isn't possible to purchase it online with the rest of the stamps in this series.)

6 May Miniature sheet (£1.41) with two stamps, the 1st class shown above and a £1 brown showing both Downey and Mackennal George V heads.  Royal Mail standing order customers will apparently only get a First Day Cover of the miniature sheet, and not of the single stamps.  

6 May Uncut Press Sheet containing 20 of the above Miniature sheets, in 5 rows, and two se-tenant tete-beche columns. (£31)

6 May George V British Rarities ingot cover and Commonwealth Rarities ingot cover, priced at £32.95 each. 

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8 May Miniature sheet (£2.82) with four stamps.  2 x 1st class showing the two 1924 British Empire Exhibition (BEE) stamps, and 2 x £1 showing the 10/- blue and £1 green Seahorse definitives.

8 May Uncut Press Sheet of 9 of the above miniature sheets (3x3). (£27.90)

8 May Presentation pack containing both 6 May and 8 May miniature sheets. (£4.75)

8 May Stamp card set of 8,, ie one for each of the 6 stamps and one each for the miniature sheets. (£3.20)

8 May  Prestige Stamp Book with 4 panes of stamps.   Pane 1 has 3 each of the 6 May stamps arranged checker-board fashion (£4.23); Pane 2 has the two seahorse stamps (£2.00); Pane 3 has four BEE stamps arranged checker-board fashion (£1.64); and Pane 4 has self-adhesive (for the first time) Machin 2nd class (2), 1st class (4) and 50p (2) definitives with security features (£3.28) (Total £11.15!).

8 May Prestige Stamp Book first day cover set.  Royal Mail will produce a set of 4 FDCs for all the panes in the book.  This may be a first.  In 2000 Royal Mail produced three FDCs for the Profile on Print PSB panes containing oversized stamps (these were new stamps not previously available elsewhere).  I have a recollection, however, that Royal Mail also produced FDCs for either the very first PSB - the 1969 Stamps for Cooks book - or the £1 Wedgwood PSB issued in 1972.

8 May Exhibition Souvenir Sheet containing 1p, 2p, 5p, 9p, 10p, 20p, 60p, 67p, 88p, 97p, £1.46 Machin definitives and perforated label with London 2010 Festival of Stamps logo. (£5.05)
EDIT: This sheet will not be sent to Royal Mail's regular customers as part of their Standing Order, but must be bought at the show or ordered separately from Tallents House - stock code S1003.

8 May Exhibition Overprint Sheet: 6 May sheet overprinted (or maybe the legend is incorporated into the printing?) BUSINESS DESIGN CENTRE, LONDON 8 - 15 MAY 2010 in the top right corner.
EDIT: This sheet will not be sent to Royal Mail's regular customers as part of their Standing Order, but must be bought at the show or ordered separately from Tallents House.  
Update: Two sources, a collector in the UK and a dealer in Australia, told us that they had been told by Royal Mail that this sheet would be available after the show, from the Bureau at Tallents House - we are now advised that this is not so.  Royal Mail also told dealers, before the show, that this sheet will be in the Year Book, due in November.  It remains to be seen whether this information turns out to be true. 

8 May Collectors Pack containing most of the current Machin definitives.  The low-value collectors pack will contain all the definitive stamps still on sale at post offices (as listed above) plus the self-adhesive 20 gramme, 40 gramme and postcard airmail stamps, the 2nd*, 1st*, 2nd Large* and 1st Large* NVIs, and the 1st and 1st Large Recorded Signed For stamps.  Not shown in the publicity picture, but included in the pack, will be the 50p* & £1*.  *Self-adhesive security definitives (£16.10).

8 May  Postal Union Congress Facsimile Pack Non-postally valid facsimile sheet of the 1929 PUC £1, printed from copies of original plate, in blocks of four in a pack.  (£4.95)

8 May  London 2010 Exhibition Generic (Smilers) Sheet.  A new-style Exhibition sheet, self-adhesive for the first time, with the definitive-size 1st class Hello stamp and twenty different pictures, iconic of London, on attached labels (£8.50)

8 May 10th Anniversary of Smilers® Generic Sheet, containing an assortment of stamps available in the Smilers service, including the new 1st class Birthday cake (x4) and Present (x4) stamps, 20gr Europe (x2) and 20gr Worldwide (x2) stamps, and the 1st class Union Flag (x3), Balloons, Firework, Thank You, Love, and Robin.  This will also be available for personalisation at the London 2010 exhibition, and these sheets will be overprinted with the Exhibition Logo (£10.00).
 
8 May George V Postcard Pack.   A pack of 6 picture postcards which will enable collectors to make their own maximum cards with the stamps and special postmarks available.  (No details or image so far provided.)


8 May Philatelic Bulletin Supplement - The George V Royal Cypher Issue.  A5 illustrated booklet "which provides a highly detailed look at many of the stamps issued during George V’s reign starting with the Downey head."  (£2.95)

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13 May  Britain Alone.  Set of 8 stamps and Miniature Sheet of 4 stamps, the latter marking The Dunkirk Evacuation.   (£5.30 and £2.86).   Also a set of 13 Stamp Cards (one for each stamp and one for the MS - 35.20), a presentation pack (£8.70), and a Prestige Stamp Book (£9.76) containing the 8 stamps from the set and 4 from the  miniature sheet on 3 panes, plus a pane of Machin definitives 4 x 5p, 2 x 10p, 2 x 60p.

There will also be a Dunkirk Medal Cover at £14.95.

13 May  Also on this day, but totally unrelated, Royal Mail will issue coils of 500 & 1000 1st class and 2nd class definitives.  These will be conventionally gummed with the ROYAL MAIL* security overlay, but no security slits.   (*As reported in the Philatelic Bulletin - however, it is quite likely that one of the letters will be changed, maybe to MRIL, maybe not!) 
Keen observers will note that the 1st & 2nd class Large Letter booklets with source code MA10 should also be added to this list, having been found in Royal Mail's stock on 8 May.

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To hold all these products there will also be 
- a London 2010 Album binder at £12.95
- slipcase for the above at £9.00
- inserts for George V - £4.99
- inserts for The King's Stamps - £4.99
- inserts for Exhibition items - £4.99
- inserts for Britain Alone - £4.99