First new counter sheets printed in February

The first Machin definitive reprint with M19L coding is the 20p counter sheet, which join the new tariff stamps printed in January. The other M19L stamp issued so far is the 1st class red MCIL from the Marvel Comics mixed retail booklet.

The Marvel Comics stamp (Norvic 2936aC.9) was shown earlier, but the 20p (3020.9) was actually found in Post Office branches before that was issued.

 

  

The printing date for the 20p is 19/02/19, and the backing paper is suLUsiLI.   

Full list of M19L stamps so far:

Counter Sheets

3020.9 - 20p green reprint, first on 19/02/19

3135 - £1.35 orchid mauve
3160 - £1.60 amber yellow 

3230 - £2.30 gooseberry green
3280 - £2.80 spruce green  
3345 - £3.45 dark pine green 
3360 - £3.60 bright orange

Booklets

2936aC.9 - 1st class MCIL from mixed booklets, Marvel Comics 14.3.19 and Birds of Prey 4.4.19.

A new version of the Norvic Machin Checklist will be published soon.

---

First suggestion for 2020 Stamp Programme

According to The Mirror, who have their story from Talk TV, the 60th Anniversary of TV soap Coronation Street will be marked with a set of stamps next year, 2020.

Talk TV can exclusively reveal ITV bosses are in talks with Royal Mail over the anniversary collection.

Likely to be featured are iconic couple Jack and Vera Duckworth - who were played by the late Bill Tarmey and Liz Dawn.

And Corrie icon Hilda Ogden - who arrived on the street in 1964, played by Jean Alexander - is also in line for the accolade.

“It’s a huge honour,” a source tells me. “The collection would be an acknowledgement of how beloved Corrie is in this country.

Whether ITV is talking to Royal Mail, or to Isle of Man Stamps or another producer, none of the postal operators has made any comment yet.

A set of Coronation Street cinderella 'stamps' was produced in 1995 for one of the Scottish islands, and the programme was left out of the Royal Mail ITV anniversary commemoration in 2005.

---

Birds of Prey have flown early - at old prices?

It's a while since anybody has reported the early release of any of our special stamps, but DB has provided a picture of this torn off corner of an envelope showing one of today's new Birds of Prey stamps.

Of course it could have been as recently as this week if one of the Mail Centres was still using the Red Nose Day slogan in error. 

But it seems more likely that this was used in the week 9-15 March, nearly a month before the issue date, and presumably sold at the old price!

---

April Slogan Postmarks

Royal Mail has started early with a new slogan on 1 April. 

World Autism Day is marked today on 2 April and we have received the first example on our mail today from Jubilee Mail Centre on 1 April.

World Autism

Awareness Day

2 April 2019

---

UPDATE 8 April:
I've added some more to March's post, and MM has also sent this for April.  Yesterday (7th) was UN/WHO World Health Day and this slogan was used at Tyneside MC on 4 April

World

Health Day

7 April 2019

---

UPDATE 24 APRIL
A reminder, as we've received one, that the default slogan is Action for Children which is Royal Mail's chosen charity for this year and last.  Here is a reversed one on square envelope from South East Anglia, dated 10/04/2019

While we were away the Happy Easter! slogan was used.  Here are examples from South East Anglia dated 17/04/2019 and a reversed one from North & West Yorkshire probably dated 16 or 18 April.

Happy

Easter!

---

Although not relevant to April in the UK I though I would show this one that I received in the same batch, which is one of the Netherlands Christmas slogans, still in use on 4 January.  I think it's rather attractive in it's simplicity, and is multi-faith as well.

---

As usual we will add further slogans as received or reported to us!

---

New Tariff FDC coil stamps not as different as last year

Royal Mail's standing order first day covers have stamps affixed from coils rather than sheets: these coil stamps are not available to collectors except on the FDCs.  Regular readers will recall that in 2018 the coil stamps (allegedly printed by ISP/Walsall as were the sheet stamps) were quite different in having much larger gaps in the U-shaped cuts.  (See here.)

This wide gap isn't present on the 2019 tariff stamps, but they are still different.  I don't know whether it is because of a different direction of print (coils are nearly always printed from right to left or vice versa) or slightly more/less ink, but to the naked eye they just look different.  (FDC stamps above sheet stamps here).

And close examination shows that the shading is different in many places (sheet above FDC). As always, click on the images for larger versions.  Note also the face value is 'softer' on the sheet-printed stamps.

  

 

I'll only show two 'heads' but you'll get the idea; the colours are slightly variable (£2.30 and £1.60 especially) when seen in close-up - click on to see the each stamp on its own.)

  

So, are they different?  Well not different enough for basic catalogues, and not for intermediate-level specialism.  But if you want the stamps on the FDC, then please let me know by email to ian@norphil.co.uk.  They will cost £20 due to the high face value, plus postage and I can add them in to any other order, or they can wait for more stamps that you want.

---

Birds of Prey stamps, 4 April 2019

Royal Mail have now opened their shop up for orders for the 4 April Birds of Prey stamps, so I have no problem with showing them here.

  

The set is of 10 x 1st class stamps, and there is also a retail booklet containing two self-adhesive birds stamps and 4 x 1st class MCIL M19L stamps.   Click on the lower-right image to show the identities of all the birds.

UPDATE 3 April
The Royal Mail Postmark Bulletin for this issue has been posted but has not yet been added to the website.  We've reminded them (a) that handstamps are supposed to be added to the website as available, and (b) that the Bulletin should also be updated.  I've also asked via Twitter when this will be done - no reply at all.  So here are the handstamps; they are screen captures for my benefit so take them as they come.  14853/4 & FD1909PL are available from London SHC, 14850-2 and both FD1909 are available from Northern SHC/Tallents House, addresses in previous Bulletins.  The non-pictorial FD1909NP is not shown here.

 

 

 

---

Severe cutback in Stanley Gibbons product range

Stanley Gibbons have written to dealers and other trade customers with several announcements, one of which is that they will cease stocking a wide range of other suppliers' accessories.

They have also changed trade discount arrangements and introduced postage charges on small orders. If you buy direct you may need to find other suppliers.  If you buy from your friendly local stamp dealer you may find that any discounts you have been used to may have to be reduced.

---

The Verdict: Judge delivers devastating blow against Post Office in first trial.

 

The Bates v Post Office class action (more correctly known as Group Litigation Order or GLO) has now reached the end of the first stage. 

Former subpostmasters who have been sacked and/or charged and/or jailed for theft, fraud or improper accounting are claiming that the errors revealed by the Horizon computer system and audits were all due to errors within the system, and that there was no fraudulent activity.  The situation goes back at least as far as 2007.

The first trial, which started in November 2018, is known as the Common Issues Trial.  This centres around the relationship between Post Office Ltd and the individual Subpostmasters.  To borrow from Nick Wallis's excellent reporting on postofficetrial,

In very broad brush strokes, the JFSA appears to be saying that the Post Office is responsible for putting Subpostmasters in a horribly disadvantaged situation, which was so unfair as to be unlawful.

The Post Office appears to be saying it followed its contract with its Subpostmasters to the letter and didn't do anything wrong. It is particularly keen to deny its contract with Subpostmasters is "relational" or in any way "tortious".

On the claim form, which summarises the case against the Post Office, the claimants (mainly Subpostmasters, but including some Post Office employees and Subpostmaster assistants) say they "have been subjected to unlawful treatment by the Defendant causing them significant financial losses (including loss of their business and property) bankruptcy, prosecutions, serving community or custodial sentences, distress and related ill-health, stigma and/or reputational damage."

And Mr Justice Fraser has delivered a devastating blow to Post Office Ltd.  Patrick Green QC for the claimant calls judgment an "incredible vindication" of the Subpostmasters and a very important legal decision in the findings against the Post Office.  One lawyer called this a "clean sweep" for the claimants. The lead solicitor called this a "huge judgment in more ways than one".

If you have a few hours to spare, the entire judgement is now on the official judiciary.uk website here.

Meanwhile here are a few highlights:

"§1113.  "he Post Office is not entitled to act in a way that would be considered commercially unacceptable by reasonable and honest people.

"§1116. I find that the Post Office is not therefore entitled to rely upon the Branch Trading Statements, for any period in respect of which a SPM notified a dispute to the Helpline, as a settled account between agent and principal."

"§1117. Suspended SPMs were not paid for their period of suspension but in order to keep their branches open had to pay Temporary SPMs to run them. Even if reinstated, they had no right to be paid their remuneration for their period of suspension.  I find that the Claimants are correct and the Post Office was required to act in accordance with the implied duty of good faith in these contracts (as a result of their being relational ones) in exercising its power to terminate the contracts.

"§1119.  In [the new post-2011] contract the extent of contractual liability of a SPM was sought to be increased by the Post Office very substantially, and to entitle the Post Office to recover losses from SPMs regardless of any fault on their part.  I find that this clause fails the test of reasonableness in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, which governs these contracts, and the Post Office is not entitled to rely upon it."


Second trial
The Horizon trial is the second trial in the Bates and others v Post Office group litigation at the High Court.  It is being held between 11 March 2019 and 4 April 2019 at the Rolls Building in London. Mr Justice Fraser is again presiding.

This trial includes witness statements from Sub-Postmasters, employees of Fujitsu (who provided the Horizon system to POLtd), and Second Sight, the company that was engaged by POLtd to carry out a review of the system to identify problems, and which was sacked by POLtd before the report could be made public, and directors of which gave evidence to a select committee of MPs, as did POLtd managers and their Chief Executive Office, Paula Vennells.

Ah yes, Paula Vennells: CEO of Post Office Ltd who, in January 2019 was awarded a CBE and in February was appointed as a non-executive board member to the Cabinet Office.  At the end of February she announced she was leaving POLtd to join Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust as its Chair in April.  She leaves POLtd "fighting a class action which has the potential to sink it. Paula Vennells' award and the appointments have outraged dozens of former Subpostmasters who hold her ultimately responsible for what happened to them - variously sacked, criminalised and ruined." ( - Nick Wallis).

You can read more about the progress of the second trial here and follow daily reports live from the court, from Nick Wallis. 

UPDATE 22nd March.   I can best relate yesterday's happenings by a verbatim copy from Nick Wallis's blog today:

What a week. A blistering judgment, revelation after revelation, and then this: the nuclear option......

Right now we're still reeling from the Post Office's attempt to have the judge recuse (sack) himself on grounds of apparent bias. It seemed to come as a surprise even to the Post Office's own QC, Anthony de Garr Robinson.

At 2.02pm, after the usual lunch break, the judge walked into court and said: "I have received an application,
 Mr De Garr Robinson.  Do you know about it?"

Mr de Garr Robinson replied: "My Lord, I know that there has been an
 application, that is almost all I know."

The judge explained: "It is
 an application for me to recuse myself as being the managing judge in these proceedings which means
 effectively.... for this trial to stop.
 Although the application says "adjourn the trial",
 I think it really means start it again with another
 judge.
"

To say this is beyond extraordinary barely touches on it. The judge rose to give Mr de Garr Robinson a chance to try to work out what was going on. He returned ten minutes later to be told that Lord Grabiner, not Mr de Garr Robinson, would be acting for the Post Office in the application.

 Read Nick's Day 8 summary here, and today's write-up with comments from people affected here -

Horizon trial: Je recuse

I've been thinking about what it means going forwards, and this application does several things (even if it is unsuccessful), all of which favour the the Post Office.

First of all it buys them time to work out what their strategy is going to be in the face of the first judgment, which they clearly haven't got straight yet (which suggests the judgment was a big surprise).

It massively ramps up the cost for the claimants and, I think, most importantly it means that any eventual settlement in favour of the claimants will be less than it might have been before the recusal application was put in.

Now - since I tweeted something similar yesterday a few people have suggested I am wrong about this, but I had a lengthy conversation with a couple of legal types near the Rolls Building yesterday (chuck a brick round there and you're almost guaranteed to hit a lawyer - and sued), who helped me with my working out.

This is how I came to my conclusions: the claimants are funded by a group who, if successful will want a return on what their risky and very large investment.

---

The real new tariff stamps, colours as expected

Now that we have our own supplies of the new tariff stamps previously mentioned here, I can show the actual stamps compared with the pre-issue publicity image supplied by Royal Mail, and the last use of the same colours, rescanned for comparison purposes.

£1.35 orchid mauve (previously used for £1.52)
£1.60 amber yellow (previously used for £1.33)
£2.30 gooseberry green (previously used for £1.05)

 

£2.80 spruce green (previously used for £2.45)
£3.45 dark pine green (previously used for £1.40)
£3.60 bright orange (the 87p was just 'orange')

So, as predicted, the £2.30 and £2.80 stamps are nothing like the publicity pictures which makes you wonder why Royal Mail can't be bothered to get it right.  Who are they producing these pictures for? Not for the general press which really can't see past 1st & 2nd class rises (which is what their readers are really concerned about).  

So it must be for the philatelic media and trade, in which case what is provided is useless for that target audience.  As a philatelic service, Royal Mail really don't come up to scratch, not for collectors who are consistently short-changed as to what they can and can't buy from the part of the organisation previously referred to as the Philatelic Bureau.  And not for dealers who get a better service, and publishers, who both deserve to have accurate information and correctly coloured pictures.  

What the actual stamps do show is that the colours of all but the £2.30 and £3.45 are actually pleasantly bright.

All are printed by ISP Walsall on SBP2 paper with small text above Large, known by some as SBP2i.  The phosphor is blue (I'll need darkness to tell how bright) and there is no yellow fluorescence.  Last year we had reprints in February and further reprints for some values as needed.  Many of these produced different variants which we hope, for the sake of collectors' pockets, is not repeated this year!

First printing dates are confirmed as

£1.35 07/01/19

£1.60 07/01/19

£2.30 08/01/19

£2.80 09/01/19

£3.45 09/01/19

£3.60 09/01/19

These are counter sheets of 25 on each primary sheet for each value, meaning a grid of 2 columns of 4 rows.  As you can see the Queen's head is, as last year, the wishy-washy flat version lacking the detail shown in the publicity pictures and on earlier stamps.

The stamps will be issued at Post Office branches and from Royal Mail on Tuesday 19th March for the new rates commencing Monday 25th March.  So for variety you could use some of the lower values to send airmail letters at the old rates, for example the new £1.35 + 20p to make up the European over 20g rate.

---

Another decorated postbox, in London, for Comic Relief

In the run up to Comic Relief Red Nose Day on 15 March, Royal Mail has unveiled a special edition ‘laughing’ postbox, which responds to posted mail with a variety of jokes from stand-up comedian Hal Cruttenden.

The postbox is situated on Langham Place, close to Broadcasting House. It will be in place from 8 March until 22 March 2019.

Update:
"There will also be a special Red Nose Day postmark that we will be distributing across stamped UK mail, driving awareness in the lead up to the Red Nose Day 2019 programme which will be broadcast live on BBC One on Friday 15 March. "

Unfortunately it doesn't say the start date, but look out for it tomorrow (9th).  [See Slogan Postmarks]

---