The postmark designers have come up with some good ones for the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home issue. Here are just a few, click here for the rest of the stamps, and all of the postmarks so far.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Special handstamps with the aaah! factor
The postmark designers have come up with some good ones for the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home issue. Here are just a few, click here for the rest of the stamps, and all of the postmarks so far.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Abandoned orders - unsatisfied customers and puzzled sellers!
If you use an online system to order stamps and you don't receive a response from the website, how does it make you feel? Probably you go somewhere else to get your stamps, and who could blame you! But do you check all your incoming emails?
Many email systems, especially web-based ones like gmail and hotmail, operate sophisticated spam filters and dump alleged spam messages into a special spam folder - it may have a different name on different systems but that's what it means. But these systems are not infallible, and sometimes good mail gets treated as spam.
I check our gmail spam folder now and then and almost always find at least one message which is a 'good' one and needs a reply or action. Soemtimes somebody wants to buy, sometimes they are chasing an order. Do you check yours?
Our e-commerce site sends an automated 'thank you' response to every order. And because we have not yet automated payments system we also send a second email detailing payment options. Yet for some of these we don't receive a follow-up, neither a payment nor an enquiry. For some I will create a PayPal request, and often that is paid, with the customer confirming that they did not receive any emails. Of course if they register on our site with the wrong email address, then they will never see anything from us - including their stamps!
I understand why we don't hear from them again - they think we are ignoring them - but this is far from being the case!
Then there are the letter-writers. This week we received a letter from Nova Scotia, Canada, seeking stamps, a presentation pack, FDC and stamp cards. The customer includes her full credit card number, expiry date and security code, together with her name and address - and notes our address and email address on her request. But no contact details apart from the address! If I had an email address I would write; I don't have all the stamps - certainly not at the new issue prices she quotes. It will cost a minimum of 90p postage to answer this: what would you do?
So, if your initials are JH and you have a PO Box in New Glasgow NS - send me an email, and you'll be certain to get a reply.
Many email systems, especially web-based ones like gmail and hotmail, operate sophisticated spam filters and dump alleged spam messages into a special spam folder - it may have a different name on different systems but that's what it means. But these systems are not infallible, and sometimes good mail gets treated as spam.
I check our gmail spam folder now and then and almost always find at least one message which is a 'good' one and needs a reply or action. Soemtimes somebody wants to buy, sometimes they are chasing an order. Do you check yours?
Our e-commerce site sends an automated 'thank you' response to every order. And because we have not yet automated payments system we also send a second email detailing payment options. Yet for some of these we don't receive a follow-up, neither a payment nor an enquiry. For some I will create a PayPal request, and often that is paid, with the customer confirming that they did not receive any emails. Of course if they register on our site with the wrong email address, then they will never see anything from us - including their stamps!
I understand why we don't hear from them again - they think we are ignoring them - but this is far from being the case!
Then there are the letter-writers. This week we received a letter from Nova Scotia, Canada, seeking stamps, a presentation pack, FDC and stamp cards. The customer includes her full credit card number, expiry date and security code, together with her name and address - and notes our address and email address on her request. But no contact details apart from the address! If I had an email address I would write; I don't have all the stamps - certainly not at the new issue prices she quotes. It will cost a minimum of 90p postage to answer this: what would you do?
So, if your initials are JH and you have a PO Box in New Glasgow NS - send me an email, and you'll be certain to get a reply.
Friday, 12 February 2010
Another report of MRIL coil stamp on junk mail.
We've been told of another mailshot stamped with a coil 2nd class MRIL stamp. This one came from the Sunday Times Wine Club so all those members of the club should check their mailshots. (The first was from the MIND charity in December.)
Never was 'junk' mail so inaptly named - almost makes it worth filling in lots of coupons just to see what comes in the mail.
Never was 'junk' mail so inaptly named - almost makes it worth filling in lots of coupons just to see what comes in the mail.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Festival of Stamps London 2010 - A retro bonanza of good stamp design
Royal Mail has announced a number of stamp issues in connection with the London 2010 Festival of Stamps.
The first miniature sheet will be on 6 May - the 170th anniversary of the issue of the Penny Black, and the Centenary of the Accession of King George V. The sheet contains two stamps:
- a 1st class orange bearing the Machin head of Queen Elizabeth II and the profile head of George V as used on stamps from 1912.
- the second stamp is a £1 in brown showing both Downey and profile heads used on British stamps of his reign.
To the left of the stamps is the design of St George slaying the dragon, from the 1929 Postal Union Congress £1 stamp. As far as we know the sheet will be sold for face value - £1.42. It is printed by Cartor Security Print in litho.
The 1st class stamp will also be issued in conventional (counter) sheets and will - one imagines - replace the 1st class gold and country stamps for a short period. (No indication at this stage whether this will also be litho, and publicity images do not have elliptical perforations.)
The second miniature sheet will be issued on Saturday 8 May, the opening day of the London 2010 Exhibition at the Business Design Centre in Islington.
This sheet has four stamps depicting stamps from the reign of King George V.
2 x 1st class depict the 1924 British Empire Exhibition set, and
2 x £1 depict the 10/- blue and £1 green Seahorse definitives.
The sheet is printed by Joh Enschede in lithography and intaglio.
A prestige stamp book will issued on the same day, the cover design is taken from the 1935 Silver Jubilee booklet design:
This will contain one pane containing the two Seahorse stamps, one pane of 4 Empire Exhibition stamps, and one or more panes of Machin definitives, details in due course. The book is produced by Cartor, with intaglio panes printed by Enschede.
A third stamp issue will appear during the London 2010 Festival on 13 May, consisting of a set of 8, a miniature sheet and a further prestige stamp book.
Entitled 'Britain Alone' the issue recalls the dark days of World War 2 including the evacuation of British forces from France at Dunkirk followed by the Battle of Britain. Indeed 'Britain Alone' is the title of at least two books on the period.
The preliminary designs for the stamps are:
1st class - Churchill and Troops; Land Girls
56p Home Guard; Evacuees
62p Air Raid Wardens; Women in factories
90p Royal Broadcast by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret; Fire Service.
The miniature sheet recalls the Evacuation from Dunkirk, including a quotation from Winston Churchill, with 1st class, 56p, 81p & 90p stamps showing the evacuation by the flotilla of little ships.
The Prestige book will contain the Dunkirk miniature sheet, two panes each with 4 Britain Alone stamps, and a pane of mixed Machin definitives, details to be announced.
The set, miniature sheet and PSB will all be printed by Cartor in litho.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Security Machins - PART missing security print layer!
In September 2009 we reported on the appearance on internet auction site eBay of the security version of the 1st class gold Machin stamps with no security 'overprint'.
The pair, postmarked Devon & Exeter, were found in kiloware and aroused suspicions from expert collectors and dealers, but none could find a way to remove a properly printed security overprint without damaging the stamp. No copies were found mint, but before long further copies were found not only with no security print but with 4 security slits! These were postmarked Plymouth Devon. The 2nd class with four slits was reported in December. All these came from kiloware, but there have been reports of the 2nd class being found mint - we've not had photos of these supplied yet.
Now a new development from California, reported in influential American weekly philatelic magazine Linn's Stamp News. Reader Michael Ward of California received a Christmas card from a friend - in Exeter - bearing 2 x 2nd class security Machins partially missing the security print layer.
[Image ©2010 Linn’s Stamp News (www.linns.com), used with permission.]
The stamp on the left has the security layer only at the extreme lower left of the stamp; the other stamp has only a stripe at the left of the stamp - giving all the appearance of being where the phosphor band would be on a 1st class stamp.
Collectors here who saw the report questioned the use of inland 2nd class definitive stamps - 2 x 30p is insufficient for even a 10gr card, so there must have been more stamps. Maybe there were three which make 90p, exactly the 20gr rate? Maybe the card was contained in a packet (the stamps seem to be on heavy manilla rather than ordinary envelope stock) with a selection of other stamps.
The stamps reported earlier were found on kiloware consigned to Singapore. It's interesting that with all the Machin collectors sorting through competition entry envelopes and kiloware that none of these have yet been reported as found in the UK. Watch this space for more reports, and if you find any, wherever you are, our readers will be interested!
The pair, postmarked Devon & Exeter, were found in kiloware and aroused suspicions from expert collectors and dealers, but none could find a way to remove a properly printed security overprint without damaging the stamp. No copies were found mint, but before long further copies were found not only with no security print but with 4 security slits! These were postmarked Plymouth Devon. The 2nd class with four slits was reported in December. All these came from kiloware, but there have been reports of the 2nd class being found mint - we've not had photos of these supplied yet.
Now a new development from California, reported in influential American weekly philatelic magazine Linn's Stamp News. Reader Michael Ward of California received a Christmas card from a friend - in Exeter - bearing 2 x 2nd class security Machins partially missing the security print layer.
[Image ©2010 Linn’s Stamp News (www.linns.com), used with permission.]
The stamp on the left has the security layer only at the extreme lower left of the stamp; the other stamp has only a stripe at the left of the stamp - giving all the appearance of being where the phosphor band would be on a 1st class stamp.
Collectors here who saw the report questioned the use of inland 2nd class definitive stamps - 2 x 30p is insufficient for even a 10gr card, so there must have been more stamps. Maybe there were three which make 90p, exactly the 20gr rate? Maybe the card was contained in a packet (the stamps seem to be on heavy manilla rather than ordinary envelope stock) with a selection of other stamps.
The stamps reported earlier were found on kiloware consigned to Singapore. It's interesting that with all the Machin collectors sorting through competition entry envelopes and kiloware that none of these have yet been reported as found in the UK. Watch this space for more reports, and if you find any, wherever you are, our readers will be interested!
Thursday, 28 January 2010
It's not always Royal Mail's fault - or ours - if we don't deliver on time!
Most dealers and some collectors will know that dealers registered with Royal Mail can obtain their stamps (etc) in advance of the issue date. This enables us to prepare first day covers ahead of time and generally have them ready for sale with a variety of handstamps soon after the issue date.
This facility extends to Prestige Stamp Books, and in this case we are supplied with unbound panes. That saves us taking them out of books (which is a time-consuming and sometimes damaging process), and of course saves them from being bound into books which presumably saves Royal Mail some money, saves some effort, and saves on waste (save the planet!).
For the Classic Album Covers we received the first full booklets just before Christmas - not many working days before the issue date of 7 January. The loose panes were even more delayed and finally arrived on 6 January with a big surprise: they were not full size! In fact it is quite possible that they had been produced by guillotining bound books and extracting the stamp panes that we wanted!
Whether this is true or not we may never find out. We can't fault the people at Royal Mail Tallents House: they got the stock in late, and they got it out as quickly as they could. As I acknowledged to them at the time, it wouldn't have ocurred to me to check them either!
And of course whilst we might have been forgiving and found it just about acceptable with any other PSB, the Album Covers PSB was different because the two special pane stamps were bound face to face. This meant that the rouletting line (which is where these were guillotined) actually passes through the caption on the Ziggy Stardust and Division Bell stamps. The upper part of the picture shows the short pane, and the lower part shows an undamaged pane, taken from a book. Clearly the 6-stamp pane 2 as delivered would not be acceptable on first day covers as the caption is missing from the stamp surround.
Our account managers at Royal Mail took immediate action to rectify this. I still don't know what the solution was, but the replacement stock was delivered on 22 January. Even then, the two Machin panes remain truncated, although this does not affect the design or the stamps to any great degree. It is not the best solution, and sets of 4 covers will have panes in two different sizes, but it does mean that we can now get our covers prepared and sent to the handstamp centres for cancellation. (The only 4-cover sets with full size panes will be those taken from booklets and they will have stitching holes.)
Of course this has had a knock-on effect on customer orders, not only those orders which include PSB fdcs. We have had to take time out from processing other orders to carefully fix the 100-odd panes to the FDCs and send them for postmarking, which we normally have done before the stamps were issued.
So apologies to all our customers who have not yet had their orders, and to whom we cannot spare time to write individually. We're back working on them as fast as we can, whilst also updating the website and blog to keep everybody informed.
This facility extends to Prestige Stamp Books, and in this case we are supplied with unbound panes. That saves us taking them out of books (which is a time-consuming and sometimes damaging process), and of course saves them from being bound into books which presumably saves Royal Mail some money, saves some effort, and saves on waste (save the planet!).
For the Classic Album Covers we received the first full booklets just before Christmas - not many working days before the issue date of 7 January. The loose panes were even more delayed and finally arrived on 6 January with a big surprise: they were not full size! In fact it is quite possible that they had been produced by guillotining bound books and extracting the stamp panes that we wanted!
Whether this is true or not we may never find out. We can't fault the people at Royal Mail Tallents House: they got the stock in late, and they got it out as quickly as they could. As I acknowledged to them at the time, it wouldn't have ocurred to me to check them either!
And of course whilst we might have been forgiving and found it just about acceptable with any other PSB, the Album Covers PSB was different because the two special pane stamps were bound face to face. This meant that the rouletting line (which is where these were guillotined) actually passes through the caption on the Ziggy Stardust and Division Bell stamps. The upper part of the picture shows the short pane, and the lower part shows an undamaged pane, taken from a book. Clearly the 6-stamp pane 2 as delivered would not be acceptable on first day covers as the caption is missing from the stamp surround.
Our account managers at Royal Mail took immediate action to rectify this. I still don't know what the solution was, but the replacement stock was delivered on 22 January. Even then, the two Machin panes remain truncated, although this does not affect the design or the stamps to any great degree. It is not the best solution, and sets of 4 covers will have panes in two different sizes, but it does mean that we can now get our covers prepared and sent to the handstamp centres for cancellation. (The only 4-cover sets with full size panes will be those taken from booklets and they will have stitching holes.)
Of course this has had a knock-on effect on customer orders, not only those orders which include PSB fdcs. We have had to take time out from processing other orders to carefully fix the 100-odd panes to the FDCs and send them for postmarking, which we normally have done before the stamps were issued.
So apologies to all our customers who have not yet had their orders, and to whom we cannot spare time to write individually. We're back working on them as fast as we can, whilst also updating the website and blog to keep everybody informed.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Tariff increases spring 2010 - new stamps
As has been widely reported, postage rates in the UK will rise on 6 April 2010. The rises, which have been approved by the regulator, mean an increase of 2p each for 1st and 2nd class inland stamps (to 41pand 32p) but no increase at all for franked and PPI business mail.
Increases in other inland and international rates mean rises of 8-10% for some, which will naturally increase the cost of special stamp sets, as well as require new Machin and Country definitives.
The new Machins will be 60p, 67p, 88p, 97p, £1.46.
New Country stamps will be 60p and 97p.
The current 40gr airmail booklets are to be discontinued and replaced with 20gr airmail booklets - at present we don't know whether these will be in similar or new designs, but they will be NVIs
All the new stamps including the booklets will be issued a week before the rate increase on 30 March, which means that the 20gr airmail booklets will initially be sold at £2.24 for Europe (56p each) and £3.60 for the rest of the world (90p each). From 6 April these will be £2.40 and £3.88 respectively.
Increases in other inland and international rates mean rises of 8-10% for some, which will naturally increase the cost of special stamp sets, as well as require new Machin and Country definitives.
The new Machins will be 60p, 67p, 88p, 97p, £1.46.
New Country stamps will be 60p and 97p.
The current 40gr airmail booklets are to be discontinued and replaced with 20gr airmail booklets - at present we don't know whether these will be in similar or new designs, but they will be NVIs
All the new stamps including the booklets will be issued a week before the rate increase on 30 March, which means that the 20gr airmail booklets will initially be sold at £2.24 for Europe (56p each) and £3.60 for the rest of the world (90p each). From 6 April these will be £2.40 and £3.88 respectively.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
So what do the sheet grid marks really mean?
Although many collectors may not know it, special stamps are still available from 'guttered' sheets. That is, printed sheets have (at least) two panes which are divided along the gutter for distribution to counters.
In recent years Royal Mail has copied the US practice of having a grid in the margin, divided into 4 or 6 squares, one of which has a dot in it, indicating the position of the pane in the overall sheet.
This is how some dealers are able to sell gutter pairs, although when the gutter is vertical between two different sets of 5 stamps, that makes for a long gutter strip! This is a view of part of three double-sheets:
It isn't easy to see in this but the grid positions are:
Upper sheet: position 2 - position 3
Middle sheet: position 3 - position 1
Lower sheet: position 1 - position 2
You can see it more clearly here:
Now, if the panes are printed in three positions horizontally, one would expect that one pane (say position 1) would be guillotined off for counter sheets, leaving the other two for philatelic distribution. As the print run would produce more double-panes than would be necessary for philatelic distribution, a large number of the pairs of panes 2+pane 3 would also be guillotined for distribution to post offices.
So why have we got all three possible combinations? We have -
Pane 1 + pane 2 (lowest)
Pane 2 + pane 3 (uppermost in this picture), and
Pane 3 + pane 1 (centre).
Is the cylinder circumference in fact 6 panes round, with positions 1, 2 & 3 duplicated?
Does the grid mean anything at all?
Should we revisit previous grid markings - including for definitive and country stamps - to review what they mean?
Please leave your suggestions as comments!
In the absence of comments I'll suggest a fourth possibility - in fact more like a probability:
There are three panes to a cylinder with a gutter between each, but they are cut into sheets of 2 panes - 1+2, 3+1, 2+3, 1+2 ... etc.
In recent years Royal Mail has copied the US practice of having a grid in the margin, divided into 4 or 6 squares, one of which has a dot in it, indicating the position of the pane in the overall sheet.
This is how some dealers are able to sell gutter pairs, although when the gutter is vertical between two different sets of 5 stamps, that makes for a long gutter strip! This is a view of part of three double-sheets:
It isn't easy to see in this but the grid positions are:
Upper sheet: position 2 - position 3
Middle sheet: position 3 - position 1
Lower sheet: position 1 - position 2
You can see it more clearly here:
Now, if the panes are printed in three positions horizontally, one would expect that one pane (say position 1) would be guillotined off for counter sheets, leaving the other two for philatelic distribution. As the print run would produce more double-panes than would be necessary for philatelic distribution, a large number of the pairs of panes 2+pane 3 would also be guillotined for distribution to post offices.
So why have we got all three possible combinations? We have -
Pane 1 + pane 2 (lowest)
Pane 2 + pane 3 (uppermost in this picture), and
Pane 3 + pane 1 (centre).
Is the cylinder circumference in fact 6 panes round, with positions 1, 2 & 3 duplicated?
Does the grid mean anything at all?
Should we revisit previous grid markings - including for definitive and country stamps - to review what they mean?
Please leave your suggestions as comments!
In the absence of comments I'll suggest a fourth possibility - in fact more like a probability:
There are three panes to a cylinder with a gutter between each, but they are cut into sheets of 2 panes - 1+2, 3+1, 2+3, 1+2 ... etc.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Whose shop did Royal Mail use for their Album Covers souvenir?
People who have bought Royal Mail's Classic Album Covers Souvenir Cover will probably agree that it is quite impressive - many buyers will be framing it for display.
But what about the insert? Informative and colourful, with the iconic Marilyn Monroe poster in the shop window, but where is the shop?
I don't suppose Royal Mail even know, as they use design agencies for this sort of thing. But the Norvic Sleuths have tracked it down to south London.
The shop, COLLECTIONS, is in Lewisham, at 70 Lee High Road.
Despite appearances on Google StreetView, the shop is still open for business (click on the name above the picture for their website) - and, no, they didn't know of their fame either!
(Update June 2014, the website is no longer working and from the new street-view picture above, the name has changed.)
But what about the insert? Informative and colourful, with the iconic Marilyn Monroe poster in the shop window, but where is the shop?
I don't suppose Royal Mail even know, as they use design agencies for this sort of thing. But the Norvic Sleuths have tracked it down to south London.
The shop, COLLECTIONS, is in Lewisham, at 70 Lee High Road.
Despite appearances on Google StreetView, the shop is still open for business (click on the name above the picture for their website) - and, no, they didn't know of their fame either!
(Update June 2014, the website is no longer working and from the new street-view picture above, the name has changed.)
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Album Covers stamps - interview and video at The Independent
Today the first set of stamps for 2010 is issued, the Classic Album Covers, and the London newspaper The Independent has a story complete with video.
The video includes interviews with Julietta Edgar, head of special stamps at Royal Mail, music journalist Anthony Barnes, and Rob O'Connor Creative Director of the Parklife album sleeve, together with film of the stamps being printed.
Click here to read the story and see the video.
The video includes interviews with Julietta Edgar, head of special stamps at Royal Mail, music journalist Anthony Barnes, and Rob O'Connor Creative Director of the Parklife album sleeve, together with film of the stamps being printed.
Click here to read the story and see the video.
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