Celebrating Britain Collector Sheet: Morecambe and Wise 14 May 2026

Royal Mail's second 'Celebrating Britain' Collector Sheet has been announced as celebrating the comedy double act Morecambe and Wise, and will be made available on 14 May 2026.  The first, issued in November 2025, celebrated author Jane Austen.

Information provided 

Morecambe & Wise—Eric Morecambe OBE (1926–1984) and Ernie Wise OBE (1925–1999)—were Britain’s most iconic comedy double act, celebrated for their work in variety, radio, film and especially television. They met in 1939 while working for impresario Jack Hylton and soon toured together in Youth Takes a Bow, forming a close friendship. Encouraged by Eric’s mother, they debuted as a double act in 1941, later adopting the name Morecambe & Wise.

After years perfecting their act on the variety circuit, they launched their first BBC series, Running Wild, in 1954. Their breakthrough came in the 1960s with ATV’s The Morecambe & Wise Show/Two of a Kind, followed by three feature films. In 1968 they moved to the BBC, where, alongside writer Eddie Braben, they created nine hugely popular series and legendary Christmas Specials, peaking at a record 28 million viewers in 1977. Stars such as The Beatles, Glenda Jackson and André Previn queued to appear.

Awarded OBEs and the Freedom of the City of London, they returned to ITV in 1977 for further series before Eric’s death in 1984. Ernie passed away in 1999. Their legacy endures through documentaries, rediscovered footage, stage tributes, statues, and centenary celebrations planned for 2025–2026, ensuring future generations continue to enjoy their timeless comedy.

Morecambe and Wise Collectors Sheet 

The sheet contains 10 x 1st class Union Flag stamps and is priced at £19.20.

No technical details were provided but we expect that this will be self-adhesive and printed by Cartor Security Printers.

 

 

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Celebrating Britain - 250th Anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen Collector Sheet - 16 December 2025

As forecast due to the information shared with Post Office Limited, and as already seen on a well-known auction site, Royal Mail will indeed issue a new sheet similar to the Commemorative Sheets abandoned in 2018.

The Celebrating Britian - Collector Sheet series will feature 10 x 1st Class Union Flag Stamps with labels for key Anniversaries. Royal Mail are saying at present that they expect to issue just one per year.

Image taken from the internet, not provided by Royal Mail

Marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of Britain’s most beloved literary figures, this exquisitely designed Jane Austen Collectors Sheet is a tribute to her enduring legacy. The thoughtful design reflects the elegant world she so brilliantly captured in her novels. Austen’s wit, insight, and cultural influence are beautifully honoured in this special edition.

• A stunning special-edition collectible marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and honouring her extraordinary contributions to Britain’s literary legacy.

• As the first Collectors Sheet in our new series Celebrating Britain, this fascinating keepsake features Union Flag stamps alongside self-adhesive labels, showing Austen’s treasured Hampshire cottage, now a popular museum, and fascinating personal artefacts including letters and recipes.

• The stamps and labels are set against a striking graphic featuring a handwritten letter from Austen surrounded by delicate illustrations of leaf garlands, taken from the replica wallpaper in Jane Austen’s House. 

Royal Mail product code AT176 - Price £18.20 - available 16 December 2025.

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The Postal Museum: Final throes of Post and Go

The Postal Museum Press Release:

Following the announcement made by Royal Mail earlier this year, November and December will be the final months that visitors and collectors will be able to make purchases from The Postal Museum’s two Post & Go machines. Please find the final schedule of Post & Go at The Postal Museum below.

Mail Rail Lest We Forget additional inscription for 2023.

UPDATE 24 November - Revised and accurate position*
From 10am Wednesday 8^th November to 5pm Thursday 30^th November:

• A001 reel 5: Poppies to replace Union Flags with the overprint “The Postal Museum/Lest we Forget ‘23”
• A013 reel 3: 1^st Class Machins replaced by Poppies with the overprint “Mail Rail/Lest we Forget ‘23”

 
From 10am Friday 1^st December to 5pm Sunday 31^st December:

• A001 reel 1: Winter Greenery 1C to replace 1^st Class Machins
• A001 reel 3: Winter Greenery 2C to replace 2^nd Class Machins
• A013 reel 3: Winter Greenery to replace Poppies in A013 reel 3 (but only until 27^th December)
• A001 reel 5: Mail Coach (The Postal Museum exclusive) stamp to replace Poppies.

 
From 10am 27^th December to 5pm 31^st December:

• A001 reel 1: Anniversary Machins to replace Winter Greenery 1C with the overprint “End of Post & Go at/The Postal Museum”
• A001 reel 6: Union Flag to replace PO London Railway with the overprint “End of Post & Go at/The Postal Museum”
• A013 reel 3: 1^st Class Machins to replace Winter Greenery 1C with the overprint “End of Post & Go at/Mail Rail”

Date	Currently	Friday 1 Dec – Saturday 23 December	Weds 27 – Sunday 31 December (5pm)
A001 Reel 1	1st class Machin R20 The Postal Museum	Winter Greenery 1st The Postal Museum  §	Anniversary Machins End of Post & Go at The Postal Museum
A001 Reel 3	2nd class Machin MA15 The Postal Museum	Winter Greenery 2nd The Postal Museum §	<<<<<
A001 Reel 4	Mail by Bike The Postal Museum Dressed to Deliver	<<<<<<	<<<<<
A001 Reel 5	Poppies MA15 The Postal Museum Lest We Forget '23	Mail Coach The Postal Museum	<<<<<
A001 Reel 6	PO Underground* The Postal Museum	<<<<<<<	Union Flag End of Post & Go at The Postal Museum
Mail Rail
A013 Reel 1	PO Underground* Mail Rail	<<<<<<<	<<<<<
A013 Reel 3	Poppies MA15 Mail Rail Lest We Forget '23	Winter Grenery 1st Mail Rail §	1st class Machins End of Post & Go at Mail Rail

In both cases Reel 2 produces receipts.

§ Malcolm confirms that Greenery this year will be R19YAL and CL17S into A001 with R17YAL into A013.

 
*Further information:
Please note that the final overprint wording may still be subject to change. As these are the museum’s final stocks, availability is subject to demand and may run out before the dates listed above.
 

Although it may seem logical for the End of Post & Go inscription to be on all reels at present Royal Mail have limited it to those three shown.  It would certainly produce more revenue - which would go straight to the bottom line - if all 7 reels were treated alike.   Watch this space.

* I suggested the above to Royal Mail but by the time they had considered it they decided they should not change!

UPDATE 29 December

Show on the "Post and Go 2023" post in January a 'Last Overprint' at FAAM has been in use.

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The new monarch - beyond the definitives.

With the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth this post looks forward beyond the issue of King Charles III definitives.

Whilst there is no postal stationery all these will need to change.

 

"Digital Stamps" - or pre-printed stamps used for bulk mailings.

Direct Mailers believe (or have been told) that 'stamped' mail gets a better response than that with a different Postage Paid Impression.  As these are printed as required for each client customer, it seems likely that there would not be much difficulty in replacing the Queen Elizabeth Machin design wit another showing King Charles III.  And this is likely to be in green, of couse.

 

Post and Go stamps at Museums and Self-Service Kiosks in Post Office branches

As with Machin definitive stamps, we are likely to see these used to exhaustion - and there will be all sorts of stocks held in branches across the land.  The 2nd class base stock should appear in green and the 1st class in (probably a light) purple with the head of King Charles III.  I would expect these changes to be made this year, but for the old stamps to be used in parallel initially.

Whilst it is unlikely that there will be any totally new designs for pictorial Post and Go stamps, there are many pictorial stamps available for use at specific locations or on specific occasions.  These will eventually be produced with the profile/cameo head of King Charles, probably as used on the forthcoming Garden Flowers special issue stamps.

1.  Union Flag - for Naval anniversaries and patriotic occasions.

2.  Poppy - leading up to Remembrance Day in November.

3.  Winter Greenery - leading up to Christmas.

4.  Mail by Rail: Post Office Underground Railway single design - used at The Postal Museum.

5.  Other 'Mail by...' issues used at the Postal Museum in conjunction with their exhibitions

Any others?

Horizon Labels at Post Office Counters and similar labels at Self-Service Kiosks in branches.  

These are produced in one colour similar to that of the 1st class Post and Go stock, even though they are used for 2nd class, 1st class and ParcelForce transactions.  Again replacement will depend to some extent on existing stocks.

For the present I can't think of anything else postal - although other Post Office products such as Postal Orders do bear a portrait of the monarch will need to be replaced as well.

My thanks to John E for reminding me of these products which will need changing.

If anybody makes a mock-up of any of these with the new head and colours I will be pleased to add them here.  

And if anybody can think of anything I have forgotten - please remind me!

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New Checklist, new Sales list, and only one prize.

Yes it is prize time, because the magic 5,555,555 page views has been reached - and well passed, so I think a lot of people must have been looking - bad luck to those who missed it.  More about this at the foot of this report.

New: Checklist version 2.6.5

Now that the last of this year's Machin definitives has appeared - and maybe the last of all - I've prepared a new checklist.  However this won't be the last because of errors in Stanley Gibbons' allocation of numbers for some of the stamps issued in Prestige Books.

It's all explained in detail in the list, and I can't begin to guess what Gibbons might do because they need three new tables or sub-tables in the Barcoded section, the V numbers.  Download or view the latest pdf version here or come back later to the usual link in the right-had 'LINKS' table.

New: Sales list of Country Definitives

We've at last had time to prepare a list of Country Definitive stamps, from the very first with no white borders, up to but excluding the change of typeface issue.  This includes self-adhesive singles from Smilers sheets - and there are three versions of some of those - and singles & panes from Prestige Stamp Books.

Also in the list are national flags and decimal Wildings which are not subject to invalidation under Royal Mail's scheme.  

CORRECTION:  W99 xa is Cartor not DLR.

Quantities are shown in many cases: this is to give you an idea of how quickly you might need to order as for some stamps we have very few in stock.  There are many where we have no singles only cylinder and/or date blocks but if you require these, please include them in your lists and we will break the blocks.  Likewise there are no numbers for the Wildings but they are available. These of course you can delay ordering.

Everything unsold will be traded in to Royal Mail for a quantity of barcoded stamps which we shall find difficult to use, so discounts are available for large orders, and we're open to suggestions on prices for quantity purchases.  And remember if you buy at under current face you now have until 31 July 2023 to use them for postage!

Prize Time - 5 is a magic number.

Congratulations to CB of Solihull who successfully captured the roll-over to 5,555,555 page views on the blog, and send it at 2.16 am, and commiserations to everybody else who thought they could wake up at a sensible time and claim the prize!

Click on the image to see it full-size.

Your prize will be on its way during next week and with luck you will get it before Christmas. Thanks for taking part.

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Postal Museum Post and Go Update - Exceptional Opening!

I wrote about The Postal Museum re-opening here, and several people have written or commented that with the museum only opening Thursday to Sunday the Winter Greenery could not be on sale on Tuesday 3rd November as announced.

I have now heard from MB as follows:

From TPM IT & System Manager Ian Tolley:

Just a quick note to confirm that the Postal Museum welcome space will be open from 10:30am on Tuesday for Post & Go purchases if you are thinking of coming in for the Winter Greenery on A001.

So money talks.  It will certainly make it easier for collectors (and dealers) who know in advance,  to not have members of public wanting access as they might at other times.  But it is pity that nobody at the TPM thought to look at the calendar and provide this information with their general press release earlier this week.  It's certainly like a weekend afterthought, but I suspect it's just a case of "oh we always intended to do this, was it not clear in the information provided?"

 

Machines and locations

Stuart Leigh reports that the Mail Rail kiosk has not moved across the road as TPM said it would be. Instead A012 (last used at Autumn Stampex 2017) has been installed in the Postal Museum entrance hall and re-designated Mail Rail.  But more interestingly on the Underground Railway stamps being dispensed from it have a date code of MA18, whereas the Postal Museum kiosk has R19YAL. Also the stock could be digitally produced (clarification awaited when they have been examined).

Opening Day

I would have a picture but...  MC sent a report of his less than happy experience on day one.

The perfect set I had I have put on a FDC.

What I do have as a mint set is a strip made up of 8 stamps with the first one being a bit screwed up and not printed fully, the second stamp has the 'technical' data line missing as the print has 'slipped down', three & four are blanks, and 5-8 are as per expected.  This was seemingly a 'problem' throughout the period I was there which the Museum staff member was unable to fix. I don't necessarily think it would be a good idea to put a copy (at least of mine) on the web!

The big surprise to most, if not all, attendees was that the 'Mail by Air' issue has been replaced with Flags.

Year codes are - Mail Coach = MA16, Underground Railway (UR) = R19, 1st = MA14, 2nd = MA15, Flag = None? (I certainly cannot see one!)  

The other kiosk had UR = MA 18 & 2nd Machin MA14.

UPDATE 3 November

My thanks to MB for providing these pictures of Post & Go stamps from the Postal Museum.

The Postal Museum Machine A001 Machin and Mail Rail Post & Go stamps.

The Postal Museum Machine A001 Union Flag and Mailcoach Post & Go stamps.

The Postal Museum Machine A012 Machin and Mail Rail Post & Go stamps.

 

Winter Greenery 3 November update

My thanks to MC for these pictures from today's events at the Postal Museum.  

The Postal Museum machine had Winter Greenery in A001:  1st is R17 & 2nd is CL17 (Machin is MA16, Mail Rail is R19 & Flag has no date).

The Mail Rail kiosk A012 did not have Winter Greenery so Mail Rail is MA17 & Machin MA14.

The Postal Museum/Postcard 150 inscription on Mailcoach, and Winter Greenery stamps from machine A001.

 

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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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Autumn Stampex report

As usual I went to London Stampex in Islington on Thursday.  It was moderately busy with several people looking at the exhibits - there were many displays of postal history, and some good examples of Machin decimal covers, which it is always good to see as more attention is being given to modern material.

The Royal Mail stand was reasonably busy with the relatively new Royal Mail staff from Sunderland who have thereby met the collectors face-to-face and thereby learned more about their idiosyncrasies!

As far as I know - and I've had few reports - there have been no Post and Go errors. A steady dribble of people were buying some of the stamps, but it is no longer a battle.  If you left a credit card in the machine you wouldn't now find the next buyer rushing over to give it to you, but could go back a few minutes later to collect it!

Left to right: Machin Anniversary with Autumn Stampex 2017 inscription (only 1st class)
Poppy MA15 with WWI Battle of Passchendaele inscription (6 values)
Mail by Air collectors set of 6 values.

Jersey and Guernsey both had Prince Philip inscriptions on their flag stamps, with Jersey selling their new Fruit and Berries set and Guernsey continuing the Lighthouse stamps issued in February.

(As in all cases, click on the images for larger views)

The Post and Go offerings from Gibraltar Post were a surprise as I hadn't seen any publicity about them before Stampex, and can't find anything on the official or IAR website.

The Year of the Rooster stamp, issued earlier in the year and available at Spring Stampex in the usual strips of 4, was this time sold with the additional inscription Autumn Stampex 2017, and the collectors strip, this time of of 6, consisted of Local 50g, Spain 50g, UK 20g, EU 20g, Worldwide 20g and Worldwide 40g stamps.  The other reel dispensed what I think is a new issue - not mentioned on the Gibraltar Post website.

These were available in the same Collectors Strip values as the Year of the Rooster shown below.

As for the rest of Stampex, I don't go intending to buy much and this time ended up with far more modern British postal history than I expected!  I'll report on them on my other blog in due course.

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Post and Go News: Postal Museum, Guernsey, Jersey, and others

Press Release:

Change of Overprint and New Post and Go Stamps at The Postal Museum

LONDON, 16 August 2017 – The Postal Museum has announced today that its ‘Official Opening’ inscription will end on all designs on Tuesday 12 September. It will be replaced with the words ‘The Postal Museum’ (without the organisation’s envelope logo) across all designs the following day, Wednesday 13 September.

Coinciding with the first day of Stampex, there will also be changes to the designs available from The Postal Museum’s A0001 machine. Royal Mail Heritage: Mail by Air (six designs – first class only) will replace the Union Flag (all values), which will no longer be available.

The following stamps will be on sale from Wednesday 13 September:

• Royal Mail Heritage: Mail by Air (six designs – first class only)
• Machin 50 Commemoratives (six designs - 1^st class only)
• Machin (2^nd Class only)
• Underground Railway (all values)
• Mail Coach (all values)

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Inscription Errors for Guernsey Visiting Liners

GM from Jersey writes:

The uptake on the current visiting cruise ship issues from Guernsey has not been great. My agent over there has picked up errors in the spelling of the ships names, most recently Sliver Spirit  instead of Silver Spirit, which was spotted and corrected on the day.  [See below §]


He also writes about various errors on Jersey Post and Go stamps, including

combinations of blank and correct printings

Battle of Hastings underprint with sword but no descriptive lettering.

half printed underprint lettering due to slipping within the roll of  stamps

error, underprint RAFA on endangered species issues.

Is Post and Go worthwhile for Jersey?  Apparently only if collectors buy the stamps, as GM also reports:

JE02  is very little used except by me. For example I have experienced the session numbers increase by only 1 or 2 over a period of 10 days!

For more on the dubious output of Jersey's Philatelic Bureau and that of the Isle of Man, take a look at the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion Blog.

§ I've had a response from the Head of Philatelic at Guernsey Post in response to the comments.

a. The error of Sliver for Silver is the only error that has been reported and was corrected on the same day.

b. "the uptake among the audience for which the products were primarily intended - cruise ship passengers -  were healthy and we are delighted to have supported the Visit Guernsey initiative by offering Post & Go products to passengers"

I'm happy to publish this response from Guernsey.
 

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The National Museum of the Royal Navy

Kiosk A002 in Portsmouth will have the following inscriptions starting Saturday 19 August and ending 18 September to celebrate the arrival of the HMS Queen Elizabeth in Portsmouth.

Union Flag

Royal Navy

QEII Carrier 2017

Machin

Royal Navy

Queen Elizabeth II Carrier 2017

These stamps can only be obtained from the Museum.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Chris for sending these images:

UPDATE:
As noted by the anonymous contributor, the inscription on these is incorrect as the carrier is actually HMS Queen Elizabeth - don't be surprised if there are changes here!

UPDATE 25 August
We have now been told that the inscriptions have changed to correct this error: I'm trying to find out when it changed.  But it was not changed until 1020 on 29 August!

Thanks to Chris H we can now show the stamps with the corrected inscription and receipt:

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As before, we will not be stocking these Post and Go stamps.  An announcement about Autumn Stampex will be made shortly.

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New inscription makes a mess of FAAM Post and Go.

As reported last month Post and Go machine A003 at The Fleet Air Arm Museum, based at RNAS Yeovilton Somerset, has been adapted to provide additional inscriptions in association with a new exhibition entitled ‘Cold War to Kabul’.

According to the IAR website, the kiosk will print ‘ZA298’ onto the Machin design and ‘ZD433’ onto the Union Jack design - referring to the Sea King HC4 (ZA298) and Harrier GR9 (ZD433) at the exhibition.

Unexpectedly, the additional printing also identifies the aircraft - which doesn't seem unreasonable until you see what a mess it makes of the stamps!   There simply is not enough room to accommodate so much additional text on the Flag stamp, and on the Machin the extended inscription overlaps the museum logo and includes the word 'Junglie'.

These are most unattractive and demonstrate that you can do just too much to a stamp by way of customising it.   Unless properly catalogued - and I'm sure Stuart Leigh will add them to his lists soon - in years to come collectors might even imagine that this is a private additional overprint, and a reject at that!

Thanks to RS for the pictures.

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Postal Museum Opens with a flurry of new Post and Go stamps

It's just a month until The Postal Museum opens in its new premises at Freeling House - a wonderful interactive playing space with informative galleries of historical events, although their website doesn't actually mention the collections of stamps of which it is guardian.

I suppose they needed to advance from the old National Postal Museum to appeal to a much wider clientelle, and as we have so much history attached to the creation of the postage stamp, and the establishment of the postal service, it is right that there should be more to it than stamp collections.  However, they have a 'Visitor Experience Team' - what agency dreams up these names?

Delve deep enough through their website - totally different from that of the BPMA - and you will eventually alight on the Collections area including the Philatelic Collections.  However the accessible collections of British stamps seems to stop at 1970.  We can only hope that they will eventually make available various aspects (including artwork and unadopted designs) of all modern British definitive, special stamps and even the full range of Post and Go stamps.

Which brings me to what many visitors will spend their money on, whether or not they go into the Museum itself, the Post and Go machine.  I suspect the Museum's income from this is no more than 5% of the face value of the stamps sold (other than the ones they 'buy' to sell as FDCs or packs through their shop), and they will probably make more money from the shop than from machine sales.

Press Release

LONDON, 28 June 2017 – The Postal Museum has announced today that it will be moving its Post and Go machine from Freeling House to its new home at The Postal Museum on Phoenix Place on 13 July.

As a result of the move the Post and Go machine will be unavailable from 13-24 July inclusive and again from 26-27 July inclusive.

From 1000-1700 on 25 July the museum will provide exclusive access to the Post and Go for one day only to give collectors an early opportunity to purchase its new ‘official opening’ overprint in advance of the public opening. The machine will be available 7 days a week once the museum opens in full on 28 July.

This marks a change from previous communications that stated the machine would only be unavailable 13-16 July and has been necessary due to delays in the planned opening of the new museum.

On 25 July, all designs available will change to feature a new ‘The Postal Museum’ inscription without the current envelope logo. The stamps on sale will be:

• Machin 50 Commemoratives - 6 colours (1^st class only)
• Machin (2^nd class only) (presumably than means 2nd and 2nd Large?)
•  
• Underground Railway (all 6 values)
• Mail Coach (all 6 values)
• Union Flag (all 6 values)

These stamps will feature two variations of an inscription commemorating the museum’s official opening:

- On Machin 50 Commemoratives and Machin 2^nd Class this will read ‘Official Opening 2017’. 

- For other issues it will simply read ‘Official Opening’.   

From 25 July, The Postal Museum will also be introducing a new permanent postmark.

All current stamp issues featuring The Postal Museum’s envelope marque overprint will finish on Wednesday 12 July.

The Post and Go machine will be available at The Postal Museum during normal opening hours. These will be made available shortly on the website www.postalmuseum.org.

Commemorative First Day Covers and Presentation packs will be available to purchase from The Postal Museum’s shop.  

UPDATE 13 JULY:
My thanks to BW for a copy of an email from the Museum clarifying the usage period of the 'Opening'  inscription:

My apologies if the release is unclear. The overprint will be in the machine for some time, most likely until Autumn Stampex. The 25th will be the first day of this being issued.

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According to WhiteKnight's Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog,

Therefore from 5 June to 25 July 2017 The Postal Museum will have had Kiosk A001 dispensing 32 labels and when the new inscription stamps are released without the "Opening" inscription this number will increase to 57 which seems rather a lot to me.

WhiteKnight also has these images:

He also points out that

It is worth noting that the Machin Head 50th Anniversary labels with Postal Museum inscriptions (with "envelope" marque) were only introduced on 5 June 2017 and that they will therefore have a short lifespan of less than 2 months.

The Machin Anniversary stamp with Postal Museum logo.

We shall not be stocking these, but there will undoubtedly be plenty available on dealers' and auction websites.

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Royal Mail Post and Go Update - Museums

Royal Mail's erratic updating of its Post and Go webpage continues.  Nothing about operational machines at Enquiry Offices, but this is the latest Museum news.

Latest news

Royal Navy Submarine Museum - A004
Overprint ‘HMS Alliance 14th May 1947’ will be on both Union and Machin stamps from Friday 19th May until close Sunday 18th June. This marks the launch date of the submarine which is now at RNSM.

Explosion! Museum of Naval Firepower - A007
Overprint ‘Heligoland Big Bang 1947’ will be on both Union Flag and Machin from Friday 19th May until close Sunday 18th June.
This is to commemorate Operation ‘Big Bang’ on 18th April 1947 - the attempted destruction of all Germany’s military installations on the small island of Heligoland.

As usual, we will not be stocking these, and this is for information only.

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Post and Go M011 gets its logo

As predicted Post and Go Machine M011 at Ministry of Defence Abbey Wood Bristol has had the software updated today.   (See also here.)

A limited number of strips and single 1st class stamps will be available in our webshop when we actually have the stock.
Singles and Collectors Sets are now available in our webshop.   As with the earlier version without the logo, the Machin stamps are coded MA13.

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New stamps for sale, and a short holiday.

I am pleased to say that having dealt with most of the Stampex orders I have now had time to add those products and other items to our webshop, where you can find them easily under the 'Recent Additions' banner.  (Links below are to original blog posts.)


Post and Go items added:

Machin Anniversary inscription (Stampex)
Queen's Accession inscription (Stampex)
Mail by Rail (Stampex)
Guernsey Lighthouses (Stampex)
Isle of Man Triskelion
Machin and Union Flag machine M011 (Ministry of Defence Bristol)

First Day Covers:
Windsor Castle retail book self-adhesive special stamps.
Windsor Castle Machin definitives from retail and prestige books.

Machin definitives:
2nd class business sheet M16L with Type 2 Security Backing Paper
2nd class counter sheet M17L with plain backing paper

More will be added to the shop as soon as possible including the promised 'X' and 'Y' series Machins.

In the meantime our office will be closed from late Wednesday (1st) until next Monday 6 March.

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Unannounced new Post and Go BFPO Installation

Thanks to Trevor we can report that a further BFPO Post and Go machine has been installed.

M011 is now located at the Ministry of Defence offices at Abbey Wood, Bristol. 

Images provide so far show session 0007 session was on 2 February (last Friday) so it is quite possible that this was the first day of live operation.  Both Machin and Union Flag stamps are available but it isn't possible to see the year code from the images.

UPDATE 7 February
I'm indebted to JG for providing a photo of later output from M011 - session 013 rather than session 007 above which shows a much better receipt, with a graphic logo.  DES = Defence Equipment and Support.

And Anonymous tells us that the Machin is MA13 and the flag is undated.

Any customers who require examples of either, or just the 1st class, please let me know and I will try to help.

UPDATE 27 FEBRUARY:  Original stamps are now available on our webshop.  From today both types of stamps have the MoD DES logo - see here.

As we can see from the picture, this is one of the really slim machines.

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"All the picture stamps are put into the 2nd class slot" - Crown PO.

Shortly before we went on holiday one of our readers related the story of his trip to a Crown Post Office in SE England.

He found that they were dispensing Union Flag stamps from the 2nd class position on their SSK machines - but they thought that this was perfectly correct.

Staff tell me that this is not wrong despite assurances from me that they have mixed up the rolls.  In fact I was told by the (very unhelpful and belligerent lady) clerk that they “always put blue ones in the 2^nd and brown ones in the first – the flags are blue”.

Of course people in official positions don't like being told by customers that something is wrong in their system, but rude and obnoxious behaviour is no excuse when collectors - who nearly always know more about the stamps than Post Office staff do - try to avoid their possible embarrassment or censure.

I asked our contact if he was in the area again would he be brave and maybe get me a pair, which he duly did and they arrived last week.  Although a different member of staff was in attendance he met the same rudeness and the same story:

Again I was told that the stamps are not wrong as they tell me that when they get other picture stamps they are also put them in to the second class position!!  (I said – “so you mean you put any stamps in the 2^nd class position such as when you get, say, ‘flowers’ etc.” – their reply “Yes”).  I did try to explain at length the reasoning and the function, but it just fell on deaf ears and they were not interested.  In fact she told me that her husband was a postman and he knows everything about them…!!!! And clearly I was wrong.

The moral of the story is, if you do have occasion to be near a Post Office with SSK machines, venture forth and spend 55p buying a single 2nd class stamp - maybe from each machine.  You never know what you might find!  And if you do find something previously unreported and are prepared to buy some for me, give me a call.  [If this is at all likely and you would like my mobile number, please get in touch by email.]  Any such purchase will always be made worth your while, and will spread your good fortune to a number of other collectors.

UPDATE 6 December:
DP reports that Blackfriars Road also had and Union Flag in the 2^nd class printer and Ladybirds in the 1^st class printer, in September.

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More Post and Go Stamp news, Flags, Poppies, and Animals.

In the absence of anything new happening on the Machin definitive front, I can bring you some more news on the Faststamp or Post and Go scene.

John G has added to the news about the on-off Union Flags, introduced to coincide with the Rio Olympics.  John was pleasantly surprised to find them already installed in the Cambridge NCR Self-service Kiosks (SSKs), and even more so when he found that they had the year code MA13, as shown here:

John also took me to task about my comment (under the earlier post) that I was "less than enthusiastic about Post and Go these days".   He writes: "My guess it is the Royal Mail shenanigans that have put you and lots of others off Post and Go...", and I suppose he is correct in that.  Furthermore, as mentioned in another comment on that post, which I was too busy to grasp the full significance of:

... the MA13 Union Flag stamps hadn't appeared in NCR machines before, so there was a whole load of new material to obtain. And these are real Post and Go items dispensed for the public to use on letters and parcels, not the purely philatelic items dispensed by the Royal Mail machines! 

I can let you have images of various Open Value stamps - the most widely dispensed stamps from Post Office NCR machines - if you want to see them. These will be the items for postal history collections in the future - and very few people seem to be bothering with them!

Yes, I firmly believe in collecting modern postal history, and have most of the basic rate security

Machins on cover from all sources.  I do have a small collection of Post and Go stamps, some from SSKs, but very few Open Value, and the ones that I do have, from any source are nearly all from other collectors or from dealers.   I would certainly agree that to find and accumulate a comprehensive collection of 'used-on-cover' Open Values would be very worthwhile, and would definitely be a challenge.

So start looking for Open Value stamps on letters, cards and packet wrappers: I'll be happy to have scans of these to demonstrate that they do exist and have been collected - but please don't send them until November.  Remember, postal history is best if it is dated, and most Post and Go/NCR stamps going through the post is not postmarked.  In the Special delivery case pictured nearby, the sender is another dealer, so obtained the counter datestamp on it.

[Even collecting Faststamps from all the various Royal Mail 'event' machines would be a challenge, given that some of them have been used with no publicity, for instance at the political Party Conferences.   That news doesn't appear on the Royal Mail Post and Go News webpage.  I suppose the reason is that they are restricted events, but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that one of the delegates or volunteers is a collector, or is known to collectors and could actually obtain some.]

Which brings me to other news from Royal Mail's News page.

Trafalgar Day
Royal Navy Museum (except Fleet Air Arm and Submarine) machines will carry a ‘Trafalgar Day’ additional inscription on the Union Flag design from 23 September until 23 October 2016, when they will be replaced by.... 

Poppy
The Poppy design from the Symbolic Flowers Post and Go set will be re-introduced from 24 October until 13 November 2016. The stamps will be available from Post and Go post offices, The Postal Museum, Royal Navy and Royal Mail Enquiry office machines.

Hibernating Animals
Hibernating Animals Post and Go stamps will be issued on 14 November 2016. There will be two designs for multi-value reels and two 2nd Class designs. The 2nd Class designs will carry ‘2nd Class’ wording in the background text. Stamps will be available from Post and Go post offices as well as The Postal Museum and Enquiry Office machines.  (Pictures of these cannot be published until much nearer the time.)

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