Music GIants III - 3 September 2019

Royal Mail is issuing a set of stamps and Miniature Sheet to celebrate one of the UK’s greatest music legends on the 50th anniversary of his first album and as he continues his final tour – Farewell Yellow Brick Road. 

Total sales of Elton John’s records worldwide are estimated between £275m and £300m which makes him one of the biggest selling artists of all time. A re-written and re-recorded version of ‘Candle in the Wind’ released in 1997 remains the biggest-selling single since the charts began in the 1950s and he is the most successful artist of all time in the US charts after the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

Elton John has achieved 38 gold and 27 platinum albums and has been awarded 12 Ivor Novellos, 5 Grammys, 4 BRITS and an Oscar. He has also written the award-winning and much acclaimed soundtracks to the Lion King and Billy Eliot. In recognition of his contribution to music and for his charity work he was knighted in 1998, having been awarded a CBE two years previously.
   
The issue consists of a set of 8 stamps, 4 x 1st class and 4 x £1.55 (total £9), and a miniature sheet of four stamps (£4.50).  There will also be a retail booklet containing two of the 1st class stamps and 4 x 1st class definitives (£4.20).


 

1st class se-tenant strip - Honky Château, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, and Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy

£1.55 se-tenant strip - Sleeping with The Past, The One, Made in England, and Songs from The West Coast

The retail booklet contains the Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantsatsic stamps; these will be self-adhesive and so have separate catalogue numbers from the gummed stamps shown above. The definitive stamps will be coded M19L MCIL, and the booklet is printed on SBP2.

 

Minisheet:  1st Class Madison Square Garden 2018, 1st Class Buckingham Palace 2012;

£1.55 Hammersmith Odeon 1973, £1.55 Dodger Stadium 1975.

Background Image Elton John Peacock based costume from 1974.

The album stamps in detail
1st Class Honky Château: Recorded in the Château d'Hérouville near Paris, Honky Château was Elton John’s breakthrough pop album, home to ‘Rocket Man’ – one of three songs he composed on the morning of the first day of recording.

1st Class Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: A double album that perhaps represents the artistic
pinnacle of Elton’s 1970s’ career, a teeming, eclectic song writing masterclass that features ‘Candle in The Wind’, ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’ and ‘Bennie and the Jets’.

1st Class Caribou: His fourth consecutive US number one album, Caribou, is best-known for ‘The Bitch Is Back’ and the epic ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, but its most striking moment might be ‘Ticking’, the eerie saga of an armed siege in a bar.

1st Class Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy: A concept album on which lyricist Bernie Taupin recounts the early days of his and Elton’s career, complete with a vivid depiction of Elton’s 1968 suicide attempt, ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’.

£1.55 Sleeping with The Past: The last album Elton John made before going into rehab was intended as a homage to the soul and R ‘n’ B music that had inspired him in the 1960s: in ‘Sacrifice’, it produced his first UK solo number one single.

£1.55 The One: The cover designed by Gianni Versace, its lyrics haunted by the unfolding AIDS
crisis and Elton’s battle with drug addiction, The One re-established the now clean and sober Elton John.

£1.55 Made in England: Largely recorded live in the studio, Made in England’s upbeat title track – a hit single in 1995 – masks the rest of the album’s mature mood, which features reflections on ageing both positive and negative.

£1.55 Songs from The West Coast: “Going backwards to go forwards”, as Elton put it, Songs from The West Coast returned to the warm sound of his early 1970s’ albums and offered his and Taupin’s strongest collection of songs in years. A latter-day triumph.

Designs and acknowledgements
Set: Royal Mail Group Ltd, based on an original design by Studio Dempsey Photography of album covers by John Ross; all album covers © Mercury Records Limited


MS: Royal Mail Group Ltd.  Background image – Elton John performing in 1974 © Sam Emerson,
courtesy of Rocket Entertainment; Christmas show at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, 1973 © Michael Putland/Getty Images; Dodger Stadium concert, Los Angeles, 1975 © Terry O’Neill/Iconic Images; Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, London, 2012 © Dan Kitwood/Staff/Getty Images; Madison Square Garden concert, New York, 2018 by Ben Gibson © HST Global

Technical details
Printed by International Security Printers, size 38mm(w) x 31mm(h) in sheets of 48, 12 se-tenant strips of four per sheet.  Litho, PVA Gummed, Perforations 14 x 14

Miniature Sheet Size 146mm x 74mm, with stamps 41mm(w) x 30mm(h), perforated 14.5 x 14.


Postmarking arrangements.
Music Giants III Stamp Issue – Postmarking Extension
In order to give customers sufficient time to prepare their covers and postcards as well as submit sponsored postmark requests Royal Mail is extending the availability of all postmarks relating to the Music Giants III stamp issue by 28 days from the First Day of Issue (3 September). All items requiring a Music Giants IIII related postmark should be received by Royal Mail Special Handstamp Centres by 8th October. 

Any sponsored postmarks received after publication of this [September] Postmark Bulletin will appear in the October edition and customers will be able to have these postmarks applied to covers up to and including 5th November.

Official first day Postmarks.

Other products
Presentation pack with set and MS (£14.30); two first day covers; Stamp Cards; Press sheet of 15 miniature sheets, an edition limited to only 300 and priced at  £74.25.

Products not aimed at the philatelic market include 'Fan sheets' containing four identical stamps in a surround of the same design.  (The similar David Bowie sheets contained five stamps.)  The stamps are "the same as those in the ordinary set" according to Royal Mail and whether the phosphor is different we don't know.  But these sheets do enable se-tenant horizontal pairs and strips of the designs.

 

There are also many other souvenirs and framed print and stamp combinations all of which are on Royal Mail's website. 

Fan sheets will be available for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy stamps, with a third one having all 8 stamps in the set against a montage of the album covers.   The individual sheets are £7.50 and the sheet showing the set is £10.20 (the last is a small mark-up on face value but still not guaranteed to get a full catalogue listing).

As usual, we shall not be stocking these.

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ICC Cricket World Cup Winners stamp issue - 26 September 2019

The long-drawn out process of obtaining permissions, chosing photos, designing the miniature sheets and getting them printed has now been completed and Royal Mail have launched the products today (or yesterday maybe if you saw Royal Mail's website!).

Miniature Sheet for 2017 Women's World Cup Winners

Stamp designs and acknowledgements:

1st class  – the England team posing for a photo after their victory, photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images;

1st class  – England players congratulating Anya Shrubsole, photo by John Walton © PA images;

£1.60  – England captain Heather Knight and team-mates celebrating their win, photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images;

£1.60 – the England side celebrating on the balcony at Lord’s Cricket Ground, photo by Harry Trump-IDI/IDI via Getty Images TM ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2018.



Miniature Sheet for 2019 Men's World Cup Winners

Stamp designs and acknowledgements:

1st class – England Captain Eoin Morgan lifting the Cricket World Cup Trophy, photo by Stu Forster-IDI/IDI via Getty Images;

1st class – Eoin Morgan and team-mates celebrating, photo by Philip Brown/Popperfoto via Getty Images;

£1.60 – England players celebrating their win, photo by Gareth Copley-IDI/IDI via Getty Images;


£1.60 – England players congratulating Ben Stokes, photo by Philip Brown/Popperfoto via Getty Images

Official licensed products of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Manufactured and sold under licence by Royal Mail Group Ltd. The Three Lions and Crown Logo and We Are England Cricket Logo are registered trademarks of the ECB. © 2018 England and Wales Cricket Board Limited. All rights are reserved.

Technical Details:
Printed by International Security Printers (ISP) in litho, the sheets are 192 x 74 mm, with stamps 60 x 30 mm (Olympic landscape size).    Product codes MZ150 (Men's), MZ151 (Women's).

Products
Miniature sheet, two first day covers, single presentation pack.
No stamp cards will be produced for this issue.

FDC Postmarking:  Special postmarks will be available for 28 days after issue date to allow collectors to choose which postmark to use.  Special Handstamps will be shown on Royal Mail's Postmark webpage when they have been proposed by sponsors and approved.

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Ships of the Royal Navy - 19 September 2019

As already mentioned Royal Mail's main September stamp issue features ships of the Royal Navy.  We cannot supply details until the week before, but the first day cover producers are already showing their products on their websites.

Here's a link to the Adrian Bradbury product; Buckingham have emailed their customers with pictures of their cover but I can't see it on their website yet.  The picture on the emails shows a rather plain drawing of HMS King George V.

However, what these do show is a set of 8 stamps in se-tenant pairs all apparently depicting paintings.  The two first class stamps are also shown in a retail booklet of 6 in the standard format.

Bradbury's covers feature the Mary Rose and HMS Victory, and a full list is of the designs is provided:

1st Class Mary Rose

1st Class HMS Queen Elizabeth
£1.35 HMS Victory
£1.35 HMS Dreadnought
£1.55 HMS Warrior
£1.55 Sovereign of the Seas
£1.60 HMS King George V
£1.60 HMS Beagle

Postcrossers will be pleased to see a pair of stamps for the AIrmail 20g Europe / 10g World letter / Postcard rate of £1.35.

The first, but by no means all, of the special handstamps are shown on Royal Mail's Postmark webpage together with the Stampex postmarks for the week before.  This is the first time for many years that there is no first day postmark at Stampex.

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Would a more conservative stamp issuing policy be better for us all?

Unless you collect the stamps of the country represented by this logo, or you are familiar with the language, you probably won't guess which country it is.

It's a small country in terms of size and population, although it attracts many tourists - about 6.5 times as many people who actually live there.  They don't issue many stamps - 25 this year - and those are singles, miniature sheets of 2, or sets of 4 at most.  It's a good issuing policy, although because postage rates are quite high the cost of the stamps alone is about £52, but again that's not too bad.

Here are their Europa stamps for this year (national birds):

By now you will have worked it out, and those who knew anyway may well have thought - "just a minute, their logo is red, not black."  Well, today it's black here, because this year's Christmas stamps might almost be the last ones, or at least the last ones which are easy to get:

Why? Because their Stamp and Philatelic Department (Postphil) will be abolished at the end of this year. Here's the announcement from their Head of Philately, VILHJALMUR SIGURDSSON.

Dear Friends

Iceland Post, Stamp and Philatelic Department (Postphil) will be abolished at the end of this year after about 90 years in operation.

We still have two stamp issues left this year, on September 12th and October 31st, but when they are done the department will be closed down for good and will stop serving stamp collectors, domestic and foreign, altogether.

The fact that the number of our philatelic customers have constantly been decreasing year after year has lead to years of deficit for Postphil.

Iceland Post has got a new CEO Mr. Birgir Jonsson, who is cutting down everything that is not profittable in this company, including Postphil, and that is due to the fact that Iceland Post currently has severe operating difficulties.

Today, August 20 Iceland Post is laying off about 50 people throughout the company.

The current management of Iceland Post Ltd., prefers if possible to stop issuing new stamps altogether, but on the basis of current law, Iceland Post cannot unilaterally decide to do so.

However, there is some uncertainty as to how these matters will be handled in the future and the company is waiting for answers from it´s owner, the Icelandic state.

If the company must keep on issuing new stamps in 2020 and onward the number of new stamps will be very few each year and there will be no service for stamp collectors.

According to CEO Mr. Birgir Jonsson this task of producing and issuing new stamps could be given to outside contractors.

I will leave Iceland Post Ltd, in September after 20 years in charge of Postphil.

From October to December there will only be 3 people working at Postphil so operations will be at minimum

Kind regards,

VILHJALMUR SIGURDSSON

HEAD OF PHILATELY    POSTPHIL | ICELAND POST

TEL: +354 580 1050 | DIRECT: +354 580 1051 | MOBILE: +354 825 1051 | STAMPS.IS | facebook.com/icelandicstamps | vilhjalmurs@postur.is
STORHOFDI 29 | 110 REYKJAVIK | ICELAND | TEL: +354 580 1000 | FAX: +354 580 1059 | POSTUR.IS |

So there you have it.  A conservative stamp issuing policy doesn't guarantee success if you don't have enough customers - philatelic or otherwise.  Of the 2.3 million tourists who visit each year many do so for weekend or 5-day breaks, as we did in January.  We sent no postcards, although there are many on sale and we bought a few.  With the cost of postage being £1.65 (US$2, €1.80) that was a step too far.

The country is hi-tech. We didn't use any cash, and bought all meals and coffees (and postcards) using a credit card (debit cards also welcome).  I think it's safe to assume that the population is equally as happy to use email and text messaging (and social media) for social and business communication wherever possible.  Last year the postal service tried a 'next day delivery' service for letters which cost nearly £4 for a 100g letter.  It ceased after 10 months.  With a population of less than 340,000 (and that's all of them including the children) I guess they don't need very many stamps: you can drive from one side of the country to the other in 10 hours (weather permitting).


It's something to think about.  Sure, in the United Kingdom with a much bigger population there will always be a postal service that needs stamps.  It's just not that easy to get from Tresco to Haroldwick (about 36 hours by road/sea: your letter will do it in the same time for 70p).  So there will always be a need for some method of showing that postage has been paid.


Something to think about 2.
Should you be wanting any stamps from Iceland, for example if you are collecting all the Europa stamps this year, or if you collect bird thematics, it might be an idea to put an order in now.  You may have to actually visit Iceland to get them after Christmas.

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Mechanised Mail Sorting in the 1990s, and meter marks.

Now that we have stopped stocking the Machin definitives for years after M18L, there is time to delve into our boxes and rediscover things which were put aside for investigation, or to form part of a collection or club display. 

But there aren't enough hours in the day, or indeed years left, to do justice to all the side-line unsorted collections so I'll be mentioning some here in case anybody is interested.  If you are, just sent an email to ian [at] norphil.co.uk and I'll give you more details.  Many of these will be at bargain prices, some just for the cost of postage.  The alternative is to put them into a club auction or go through the tortuous process of eBay listing - or just send them to recycling!

This first lot is a bundle of mostly office mail envelopes mainly from the late 1990s, all with more or less readable mechanised mail idents to Norwich, with a few older, and a couple to Sheffield or elsewhere. Most are blue dots in various shades, some are clear. Being commercial correspondence there are hardly any stamps, it is either meter-franked or has Postage Paid Impressons.  A few sample pictures - click on each to get a bigger view.

 

 

This lot weighs about 350gr for over 65 covers.   Postage will be at cost; if you are interested, please get in touch.

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New version of Norvic Machin Checklist - V 2.1.3

As a result of all the recent new stamps which have become available in various places but not all here, I have updated the Checklist and a new version is now on Dropbox.

Remember, there will only be a new version when we mention it in a new post, and it can only be found from this link on the right-hand side of the blog, down the page a bit.

As always, if you have any problems getting this, or if you find any errors, do please let us know.  This new version not only had all the latest stamps but also adds some Large Letter booklets that were missing from previous editions for some years!

Update 19 August
Thanks to Chris N we can now show the latest addition to this year's Machin stamps with the 1st class from booklets of 6 - MSIL M19L.  This is numbered 2936aS.9 in our system.

  

Update: This is version 2.1.3 dated 12 August, with the 2p M19L at the top.
Due to an aberration, the Latest Additions sentence shows wrong highlighting and should read:

Latest Additions and amendments are highlighted with green shading and the previous changes are highlighted with blue shading.

Additional information not available previously:

2931.9      2nd class booklet MTIL M19L was packed 21/02/19
2936a.9    1st class booklet MTIL M19L was packed --/02/19 & 12/03/19

2914aB.9 1st class business sheet M19L was printed  04/02/19
2916aB.9 1st Large business sheet M19L was printed 25/03/19

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Rock Legends and Rock Gardeners

No, it’s not “Music Giants III” although it could easily have been one of the choices of title Royal Mail considered when the series started.

This is a different sort of Rock Legend, and I’m showing it here to demonstrate to readers who only collect Great Britain stamps that some other postal authorities have, perhaps, more imagination and are better at marketing.

I rarely encroach on the specialist area of the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog, but when I saw this from New Zealand Post, I felt it deserved a mention.

It’s maybe not a subject that would necessarily get the juices flowing - although New Zealand has some truly magnificent landscapes - but the special layout of the sheet with its poster style captions are really rather clever.

If I was still adding to my worldwide collection, this would be in there!  You can buy it here for NZ$11.70 or from your favourite commonwealth dealer.

Postscript:  New Zealand's neighbours on the 'big island', meanwhile, issue stamps and collectables like a banana republic and at far greater cost than does Royal Mail.   Here's one of Australia Post's recent products marking the 30th anniversary of the television programme Gardening Australia. 

 

Like Britain's Smilers sheets this costs a little more than the face value, which isn't too exorbitant, but it's the sheer volume and subjects of products.

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Revised 2019 stamp issue programme from Royal Mail

Because of the addition of the Cricket World Cup issue to the 2019 programme, Royal Mail have revised some publicity dates which will affect when cover producers will have pictures on their websites, and when we will eb able to provide details here.

That said, the programme is still subject to change; there is no firm date for the Cricket sheet - it would be good to have it during Stampex (11-14 Sept. ) but that won't happen - and all these dates are subject to change.


The programme is (updated 9 August, and this may not be the last change):

15 January:  Stamp Classics MS for the 150th Anniversary of the RPSL  (Details here)
13 February: Leonardo Da Vinci set of 12 plus PSB with M18L Machins
14 March: Marvel Comics
4 April: Birds of Prey
2 May: British Engineering
24 May: Queen Victoria Bicentenary
29 May:  Stockholmia 2019 Exhibition sheet (also marks RPSL 150)
6 June: D-Day
9 July: Curious Customs
13 Aug: Forests


 3 September - Musical Giants  - No information available before the issue date
  
19 Sept: Royal Navy Ships - detailed information available 12 Sept. Set of 6 & retail booklet.

26 September - Cricket World Cup - two miniature sheets

10 October - TBA - detailed information 1 October

5 Nov: Christmas - FDC producers info 8 October; general info release on date of issue but will certainly be usual set of 8, miniature sheet, and retail booklets.
 
26 November - TBA - detailed information 12 November


Postmarking arrangements. 
Music Giants III Stamp Issue – Postmarking Extension
In order to give customers sufficient time to prepare their covers and postcards as well as submit sponsored postmark requests Royal Mail is extending the availability of all postmarks relating to the Music Giants III stamp issue by 28 days from the First Day of Issue (3 September). All items requiring a Music Giants IIII related postmark should be received by Royal Mail Special Handstamp Centres by 8th October. 
Any sponsored postmarks received after publication of this [September] Postmark Bulletin will appear in the October edition and customers will be able to have these postmarks applied to covers up to and including 5th November.

Similar arrangements may be made for the 10 October and 26 November releases.  

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D-Day Minisheet to be reissued with Stampex Overprint

Royal Mail have announced this autumn's Stampex limited edition miniature sheet.

"To support attendance at the premier UK stamp show; London Stampex International, a numbered limited edition Minisheet will be on sale only at Autumn Stampex. The D-Day miniature sheet will carry a special Operation Overlord overprint along with the Stampex logo."

To ensure all visitors to the show have a chance to buy the show exclusive there may be restrictions on sales at the show to ensure that stock is available from the Royal Mail stand each day of the show.
 
Note: After considering customer feedback the show exclusive minisheet will be priced at face value of the stamps (£3.50), as such there is no pack and the minisheets will be supplied like all other mint Minisheets.

There will be only 7,500 of the sheets.

This has been announced in the latest Philatelic Bulletin and also in the latest information to dealers. Dealers will be able to pre-order for collection at the show, but there will be no supplies from Tallents House.  (Thank you to readers who have emailed the report from the Bulletin.)


As before, we are not going to Stampex this September.  If any customers would like one of these sheets I will ask my associates to try to obtain them for you.

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Music Giants III is coming, after the Cricket sheets.

We still have no news or details of the miniature sheets marking the winning of the two Cricket World Cup competitions.

I think we can assume that there will be just the two sheets in the squaring format (rather than the Olympic format used for Andy Murray), with a presentation pack and first day covers.  Considering the popularity of the subject Royal Mail might produce stamp cards - not that most collectors will want them, but they may appeal to cricket fans and cricket-thematic stamp collectors.

The third Music Giants issue will be 3 September and I would expect this to consist of a set of 6 self-adhesive stamps, a miniature sheet, retail booklet, presentation pack, two first day covers as before.  There should also be some framed products or prints aimed outside the philatelic market.

In our comments, Marcooni has written that "Elton John would be a worthy candidate for Music Giants III. Rocketman movie is out on Blu-ray in September."

C has just written:

Just received my advice note from RM for the next stamp issue on 03/09/2019 - Music Giants III. Issue includes Set of Stamps, MS and a Booklet of 6x 1st (UB423).

Music Giants 1 & II - Pink Floyd (2016) and David Bowie (2017)

UPDATE 6 August - Royal Mail have today told us that there will be no pre-sale or early promotion of this stamp issue.  So you can expect to find details only on the 3 September - unless, of course, the usual chaotic system for Post Office branches applies and you are permitted to see them by your friendly postmaster. 

News of September's Royal Navy set will be released on or about 22 August through cover producers, but not until around 12 September for the rest of us, although the August Bulletin does mention that the Framed Print and Stamp will be produced for Mary Rose & HMS Victory.

The October 'TBA' issue will be issued on 10th and details will be released on 1st.



And to those who think that the Cricket MS are on eBay (petermk), those are just pictures taken from the news sites.  Royal Mail have not yet published their pictures.

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