Star Wars - a bit of a let-down, but also a relief!

Readers will recall that among the many Star Wars products (see our website) Royal Mail included 'Character Stamp Sets'. 

Without precise technical details we were not sure whether these would be strips of 5 or blocks of 10 - in which case they would have to be from different sheet printings, or whether they would be torn from the vertical strips of 5 that make up the counter sheets of 60.  Although it looked like separate stamps, we can never be sure how accurate Royal Mail publicity pictures are.

I'm pleased to say that the actual sets do not appear to contain stamps from a separate printing - although I'm willing to be corrected by somebody with better eyes or reliable information!

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Royal Mail supports 'Get Safe Online' with another slogan postmark.

Royal Mail has announced that it is supporting this week’s ‘Get Safe Online Week’, from Monday 19 to Saturday 24 October, with a special slogan postmark. The postmark follows the publication of Royal Mail research around the risk of ID fraud when home moving. 

The research, involving 12,000 home movers, found that more than 1 in 10 (15%) had received in excess of 20 items of mail addressed to a former resident during the first month in their new home. Worryingly more than half (52%) had received sensitive financial mail. The findings are even more shocking given the recent announcement from the Office of National Statistics that application fraud – which is linked to ID fraud - has increased by 14% in the last financial year.

Get Safe Online, which is in its tenth year, is a joint partnership between the Government, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Ofcom. This year’s week centres on the theme of ‘It’s Always Personal’. The campaign aims to educate, inform and raise awareness of internet security issues in order to encourage confident, safe use of the internet.

Royal Mail’s postmark will be applied to millions of UK stamped mail nationwide from Monday 19 to Saturday 24 October. It reads “Get Safe Online Week getsafeonline.org“.

UPDATE 20 October
Here's an example from Greenford/Windsor Mail Centre on 17 October.  As expected the dates given by Royal Mail are expected delivery dates :

UPDATE 22 October
Thanks to Richard for an example of the other format, from Jubillee Mail Centre on 19 October

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Lunar New Year - Year of the Monkey Generic Sheet

The fifth in the series, following on from the 2015 Year of the Sheep last year , Year of the Horse sheet in 2013, Year of the Snake sheet in 2013 and Year of the Dragon sheet in 2012. The sheet features 20 Firework stamps from the Smilers range alongside the five elemental Sheep types Water, Wood, Fire, Earth & Metal, celebrations of Chinese communities from around the UK and imagery associated with the celebrations.

The special postmark is available for use on the day of issue from the London Special Handstamp Centre at Mount Pleasant..

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Royal Mail Stamp Publicity Returns to Post Office Branches

It's been some years since Royal Mail abandoned all attempts to get Post Office Ltd to advertise new stamp issues in branches.  There simply isn't enough space for an A4 poster among all the adverts for Holiday Money, Car Insurance, Current Accounts and other financial products.

Imagine my surprise, then, to find a change of tack in our village branch this morning.  I suppose I should not have been surprised given that Royal Mail want to maximise their income from this issue, but it was still a pleasant surprise.

Our branch had one A4-size (approx) single-sided stand-up card:

and one double-sided A5 (approx):

As you can see, the A4 shows the Rey stamp, and the A5 shows Rey on one side and Finn on the other.

Are these the only designs, or would it be possible to collect a set of 12!?

UPDATE: two reports of other similar material.  Larger offices have free-standing 2m-high advertising material, probably similar to that used for the Andy Murray miniature sheet.  There is also a double-side window sticker, which has adhesive on one side. This was reported from a Scottish island.

UPDATE 27 October:
I understand that some similar material has been listed on the eBay auction site, and that the sellers have been contacted by another eBay user (with zero feedback) claiming to represent Royal Mail's lawyers, and demanding that the listings be terminated.   These are apparently genuine, although eBay has a well-established procedure (VeRO) for dealing with intellectual property infringement.  It seems that the only reason for this demand is that the posters were not supposed to be sold or given to members of the public, rather than any actual copyright infringement.

Perhaps somebody should have told employees of Post Office Ltd that these should have been destroyed if not used.  Perhaps Royal Mail would have more credibility on this if they had taken similar action over the thousands of posters for stamp issues over the past 30 years or more that are in collections, listed on eBay, and the subject of a catalogue by a well known dealer in Presentation Packs and PHQ Cards. 

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New Horizon Labels explained

Several people have sent examples of the New Horizon labels and their treatment, and I've been watching eBay to see what variants have been offered.  Now a press release from Royal Mail explains the situation so far.

Press Release 15 October 2015:

Following the successful initial trial to add more 2D barcodes to parcels going through the Post Office network, additional branches have now been added to the trial.

210 Post Office branches, predominantly in the South West, will now put 2D barcodes on Large Letters and Parcels. 

Additionally, all post office branches will now produce 2D barcoded posting labels for Royal Mail Signed For, Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed and International Tracked, International Signed and International Tracked and Signed products.

Over the past few months, we have been asking many of our parcels customers to change the way they label their parcels. We want them to use a 2D barcode (pictured), rather than 1D, or no barcode at all.

We’re asking them to do this as part of our plans to track significantly more parcels by the end of the year.

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However, the evidence is slightly different to the stated position in paragraph 3.  A correspondent in Glasgow reports that a Special Delivery 500g packet required a label with the 2D bar code, but a Special Delivery 100g letter had a traditional label with no bar-code.


IF what Royal Mail is aiming for is that all mailpieces which are not basic letters will have a barcode, while basic letters will not, then the Glasgow situation is logical.  (There is no distinction with Special Delivery 100g between ordinary and Large Letters: SD is only by weight, and of course over 100g must be at least a Large Letter and maybe a Small Packet.)

I will be asking outside the UK for examples of the International mail with new barcodes, to find out what the top-line text is, and what is entered for the addressee details.   I'll add more pictures here to this post when I get them.  For now, though, I think we can say that the short IDs that we have been used to - IS, ITS, SD9 , are on their way out!

UPDATE 25 October
Courtesy of a customer in Australia I can show this IT International Tracked label, also with S in the lower corner for a (small) letter.

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New slogan postmark marks another non-British success.

Royal Mail is again marking the Man Booker literary prize event with a slogan congratulating another non-British winner of this prestigious award.  Last year it was Australian Richard Flanagan, this year it is Jamaican Marlon James.

From the press release:

Royal Mail is celebrating Marlon James’ being named the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize with a special postmark.

Marlon received the prestigious award for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings  from HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.  The book is about the fictional attempted assassination of Bob Marley.

The postmark will be applied to stamped mail from Wednesday 14 October to Saturday 17 October 2015.  The postmark reads ‘‘Congratulations to Marlon James winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize”

UPDATE 17 October
Thanks to Bob for this picture from Croydon Mail Centre.

And from Stampboards member peterh, a similar postmark from South Midlands Mail Centre, but with a glitch in the size of the winner's name!

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British Post Office Strikes Back - Star Wars Early Release

One thing we can be surer of with the ink-jet postmarks applied by Mail Centres, they tend not to make errors with the dates as used to happen with handstamps and the Universal machine postmarks.

So I think we can say with a strong degree of certainty that at least one Post Office branch has sold Star Wars stamps already!  This clearly shows the Cornwall Mail Centre postmark of 09.10.15.

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New Machin Security Stamps - and an apology!

Back from a week in sunny(?) Nottinghamshire, with a general apology for not announcing my absence, here on the blog and for not setting my 'out of office' message on my emails.  I thought I had done that, and tried to do it on the phone, but failed somehow.  So I'm not ignoring you: I will get round to answering emails.

In the meantime thanks for all the comments on the autumn's Post and Go programme - that certainly set off a lively debate, not least about the ethics of obtaining and selling blank strips!  More of that later.

The important news for now is that stocks of the 1st class x 12 booklets have at last appeared across the country and we have them in our shop, both as single stamps and whole booklets, including cylinders. 

The cylinder numbers - W7 red, W1 iridescent, and a new (?*) W2 phosphor - are, as usual this year, hidden by the front cover.  But the packing date cannot be relied upon as an indicator of the year code on the booklets within the pack.  Our stock of booklets with M15L stamps has a packing date of 30/03/15, but we have reports that packs with April 2015 packing dates have M14L stamps in.
(* See 'Comments' for discussion on whether this is a new W2 cylinder or the old one with the number repositioned.)

We also have the 2nd Large MA15 booklets in stock now.

Aside from any sheet stamp reprints, this probably means that the only Machin definitives still to appear this year will be the MPIL M15L 1st and 2nd class in the Star Wars Prestige Stamp Book. And we still don't have firm details on whether these will be gummed or
We now know that these will be self-adhesive, and we are reasonably certain that the 1st class will be red. 
 

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This FDC of Penny Black miniature sheet is not A miscut sheet ...

It happened with the Diamond Jubilee miniature sheet in 2012 and I thought it might happen with the Penny Black (and might still happen with Long To Reign Over Us.)

This first day cover has a full set of stamps - indeed all the elements of the miniature sheet - but in the wrong order.

This cover has been cut from a Press Sheet - the person who produced it has carefully cut across the middle of two of the miniature sheet impressions and divided the stamps, providing a 'miniature sheet' which has been miscut, but it is not a miscut in the accepted sense of the words.

A miscut - as in booklets from the 1980s - results from an incorrect machine setting which divides the stamps which are in two vertical columns or horizontal rows in the centre position instead of the correct positions.  Or the Sheep Post and Go Faststamps which resulted in various different Sheep appearing at the top of the strip in presentation packs.

This is a deliberate novelty cut from a press sheet which results in spare stamps at the top and bottom of the sheet, stamps which can only sensibly be sold as individual stamps or used as postage.

I expected to see some of these on eBay as we did the Diamond Jubilee MS fdcs.  I haven't seen them on eBay but spotted this one at a local fair.  The dealer acknowledged it for what it was, and said that he hadn't produced it.

Buy one if you like it, as a novelty, but not as a print-factory-produced miscut.

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We don't mind anonymity but.....

Many people choose to remain anonymous when posting their comments on blogs, and of course that is fine - absolutely.  Some may be dealers who want to just sow some seeds of thought, some may work for Royal Mail or Post Office Ltd, or others with inside information, others may work for companies that it might be better not to associate with online activity.

But sometimes with long threads with a lot of comments there are many comments from 'Anonymous' - and they are not all the same person!!  That may lead to confusion among other readers and those who are referring to the posts by 'Anonymous'.

So it would be really useful if readers could use a name - as White Knight does, for example.  You can choose any nom-de-keyboard, initials, etc, that you wish, but it would help to use the same 'name' for all comments. 

Comments welcome - and remember, even if you use a pseudonym you are still Anonymous unless it is one that you use widely elsewhere!

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