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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Cutting error on X-Men Prestige Book

It is some time since anybody reported an error on a Prestige Stamp Book and most of those were duplicated or missing pages.

This time it is a mis-cut, causing two stamps to be damaged, from the X-Men book.  This is a scan on a white background of a photocopy so apologies for the quality. 

The bottom row of stamps has been cut through, almost reaching the barcode and trimming off the lower perforations.  The white line at the top is where the cut should have been.  As the rest of the pages in the booklet were normal, this is a case of sheet of definitive panes being misaligned downwards.

Mis-cut definitive pane from X-Men Prestige Stamp Book.

UPDATE 29 November 2023 From the MBPC website:

Mark Botting has now purchased the book containing this error, and it has been discovered that the rest
of the book is also mis-severed.

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March 2023 Postmark Slogans and other interesting postal markings.

All slogan postmarks used in March will be shown here; please check for latest updates before spending your time scanning, but if you have something new or another format, then please do send it in for publication. 

The British Heart Foundation slogan has continued this month, here's a one from Chester & N Wales (Caer a Gog Cymru) which is on a silver envelope, so not too clear.

BHF slogan, indistinct, Chester 01/03/2023

A better example from last month.

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The first new slogan for March marks International Women's Day which is 8 March.  My thanks to JE for this very clear example from Preston (Lancashire and South Lakes) 06/03/2023

International
Women's Day
8 March 2023
#IWD2023
#EmbraceEquity

International Women's Day slogan Lancashire and South Lakes 06/03/2023

 

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As expected with Mothering Sunday fast approaching Royal Mail provides another slogan for the greetings card industry.  This example (thank you JE) is from the iLSM at Croydon and 14-03-2023 is probably the first day of use.  The only other one I've seen is a poor one from (I think) Peterborough.

Thanks also to JG for the alternative layout from SE Wales on 15/03/2023, and from JE the Preston one.

 

Remember
Mother's Day
19 March 2023

Mother's Day slogan postmark Croydon Mail Centre 14-03-2023

Mother's Day slogan postmark SE Wales Mail Centre 15/03/2023

Mother's Day slogan postmark Lancashire and South Lakes (Preston) Mail Centre 15/03/2023

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If you have any other slogans used this month, or any other interesting postal markings, please send them to the email address in the top right of this blog.  Thank you.

Remember, all postmarks appearing in March will be added to this post, so check here before you spend time scanning and emailing.  I'll try to add new ones as quickly as possible.

 

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King Charles III Definitive stamps - first issue - 4 April 2023.

The passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 has ushered in a new era of philately with her son and heir King Charles III appearing on British postage stamps from 4th April 2023.

A new effigy for a new monarch

Since the release of the world’s first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, in 1840, there has been a close association between British coins and definitive stamps. The portrait of Queen Victoria on the Penny Black was based on that designed by William Wyon, chief engraver at The Royal Mint, for the ‘City’ medal of 1838, which commemorated Queen Victoria’s first visit to the City of London the year before. During successive reigns, many artists worked on both coins and stamps or had their designs for the former adapted for use on the latter. In the 1960s, Arnold Machin created an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II for decimal coinage and then designed new definitive stamps, which became an iconic symbol of the United Kingdom around the world, reproduced billions of times. The new definitive stamps are a continuation of this long tradition: they feature a portrait of His Majesty The King created by Martin Jennings for the obverse of the new UK coinage and subsequently adapted for use on stamps.

Studio mock-ups of King Charles III NVI definitives - 2nd, 1st, 2nd Large, 1st Large.

The complete set of Non-Value Indicated stamps featuring the new portrait of His Majesty King Charles III The King’s effigy appears alongside a 2D barcode printed in matching colour alongside the main body of the stamp, separated by a simulated perforation line.

Technical detail

Set of four includes 1st and 2nd class letter and large letter stamps. The colours for all four values are retained from the Machin stamps.  The 39 x 39 mm stamps are printedin gravure by Cartor Security Printers and perforated 15 x 14.5.

The stamps feature a portrait of His Majesty The King created by Martin Jennings for The Royal Mint for the obverse of the new UK coinage and subsequently adapted by Royal Mail for use on definitive stamps. Stamp designs © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2023. Stamp artwork preparation by Endhouse Studio.

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Although no details have been provided yet, we expect these to be issued in counter sheets, business sheets and booklets of 8 and 4 as before.   A production video shows a book of 8 x 1st class with the cylinder number apparently W1.  The stamps are coded M23L of course.

The information provided so far is that products available will be:

FDC, Presentation Pack, Stamp Books 1C and 2C plus Succession products – all pre-sale from 3rd March 2023.

I've no idea what 'Succession products' refers to.

UPDATE 3 March

A new £2.20 stamp has been announced for the new All-World airmail rate for letters - see Tariff

Products will be: FDC x 2, Presentation Pack x 2, Stamp Books (5), Business Sheets (4), plus Succession products.

1st Class	Plum Purple (£1.10)
2nd Class	Holly Green (£0.75)
1st Class Large	Marine Turquoise (£1.60)
2nd Class Large	Dark Pine Green (£1.15)

Definitive £2.20 stamp for All-World airmail letters to 100g, to be issued 4 April 2023.

 

It does seem rather odd that this stamp will be issued the day AFTER the rate comes into effect.

UPDATE 31 March

I've received the basic sheet stamps (all 5 values)  and three booklets, excluding the 1st x 4.  Given the rate at which they are sending these out on the swap-scheme instead of sheet stamps, I would expect that these would have been reprinted by now and I'm expecting them any day.

 

NVIs and Airmail tariff stamp will be treated separately, with two FDCs and two Presentation Packs.  All the retail booklets will be replaced, therefore 8 x 2nd, 8 x 1st, and 4 x 1st, 2nd Large and 1st Large.

Business sheets of 50 will be issued for all four values.

'Succession products' are a series of covers and framed stamps bearing the new NVI stamps and the equivalent Machins. This is the cover, which costs £19.99; 20,000 have been produced.

Succession cover with 4 x Queen Elizabeth and 4 matching King Charles stamps.

As Simon has put a comment on the relative size of UK and German barcodes, I'll repeat the Scotland gummed stamp with German barcode mock-up here.  I think Royal Mail's equipment probably needed different sized code, or they were afraid that German stamps would be used (joke!).

UPDATE 13 APRIL

King Charles III Business sheets are now showing on the 'buy definitives' section of Royal Mail's shop with the warning that 

***Please note, to minimise any environmental impact, existing stocks of definitive stamps that feature Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth will continue to be distributed and will remain valid for use. Please be aware that the stamps you receive may feature an image of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, rather than King Charles as shown, depending on stock levels and usage.***

Product codes for the new business sheets are shown below

1st Class King Charles Definitive Business Sheet	DS1654	£55.00
50 x 2nd Class King Charles Definitive Business Sheet	DS1655	£37.50
50 x 1st Class King Charles Definitive Large Letter Business Sheet	DS1656	£80.00
50 x 2nd Class King Charles Definitive Large Letter Business Sheet	DS1657	£57.50

UPDATE 25 April

In reply to petemk's dealer (see comments) these are the real stamps.  ALL were available on the day of issue, so I can only think he/she was referring to a particular format, say Business Sheets.  And as they are available to order with the numbers above, I think some have been printed.

Mind you, it could be a very small run, like the 2nd Large 2010 sheet which wasn't widely found.

Scan of actual stamps and Large booklets

UPDATE 26 April 

I have confirmed that the 1st class Large Business Sheet is at the printers, is not yet in stock with Royal Mail, so as has been mentioned in Comments, this cannot be ordered yet.  The code will not be activated on the RM computer systems until stock is held.

Later Update

It was later confirmed that with plenty of Queen Elizabeth 1st Large business sheets in stock Royal Mail had decided not to print the King Charles one for the time being.

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Big Price Rises from 4 April will recoup money lost hrough strikes, but only if people use the service.

Word has reached us of prices rises effective 4 April, 2023, although these have not yet been confirmed by Royal Mail.

UPDATE: Prices are now confirmed and stamp rate card can be downloaded here.

The 1st class inland letter rate is expected to rise from 95p to £1.10

The 2nd class rate is expected to rise from 68p to 75p.

	1st		2nd
Letter	95	1.10	68	0.75
Large Letter – 100g	1.45	1.60	1.05	1.15
- 250g	2.05	2.25	1.65	1.85
- 500g	2.65	2.95	2.15	2.40
- 750g	3.30	3.30	2.70	2.70
Small Parcel 2kg	4.45	4.19	3.35	3.49
Medium Parcel 2kg	6.95	6.29	5.35	5.49
- 10kg	7.95	7.99	6.95	6.99
- 20kg	12.95	11.99	10.45	10.49

There are no increases in 1pm Special Delivery rates.

As before, there is no single premium for Signed For. It's £1.50 for 1st class Letters and Large Letters and £1.20 for parcels.  

Cost of Post Office Boxes increases by 10% from £300 to £330 pa.

INTERNATIONAL CHANGES

The major change is that there is now only one price for letters worldwide, £2.20.  This means that there is no Worldwide 20g rate (previously £1.85), but the Worldwide 100g rate is reduced from £2.55.

Postcards will also be £2.20 - bad luck for Postcrossers.

The 100g rates for Large Letters in Europe and Rest of the World remain unchanged at £3.25 and £4.20 respectively, but rates for over 100g increase by around 16% Europe and 11.5% Rest of the World.

Lowest rates for Europe Small Parcels will increase by around 30%: given that some of this must be for the profit-making GLS wing of International Distribution Services this seems extreme. There are lower (12-16%) increases for heaver parcels.

Increases for lightest Worldwide Parcels to Zone 1 are up to 39% but to Zone 2 only 21%; increases for heavier parcels are only 6%.

ROYAL MAIL NEWS RELEASE

From 3 April 2023, the price of a First Class stamp will increase by 15p to £1.10p, and the price of a Second Class stamp will increase by 7p to 75p to ensure the one-price-goes-anywhere Universal Service remains sustainable.

These changes have been subject to careful consideration by Royal Mail in light of the 25% drop in letter volumes since the pandemic, increasing costs and the highest inflation rates for a generation.

Royal Mail’s First Class stamp prices remain competitive compared to other major European postal operators. Across Europe, the median price for the equivalent of a First Class letter service (0-100g) is £1.25p.

Royal Mail remains committed to the Universal Service, providing the one-price-goes-anywhere service to approximately 31 million addresses across the UK. However, as customer behaviours change, and the number of UK addresses continues to grow, the costs of delivering the Universal Service are increasing. Letter volumes have decreased from more than 20 billion letters a year in 2004/5, to approximately eight billion letters per year now, while the number of addresses has risen by four million in the same period. 

Royal Mail is currently expected to report an adjusted operating loss of £350 million to £450 million for the full year. In light of changing consumer needs, and the company’s materially loss-making position, last year Royal Mail requested that the Government amends the Universal Service Obligation from six days a week to five for letters.

Ofcom’s research shows that a five day letter service (Monday to Friday) would meet the needs of 97% of consumers and SMEs. Being required to provide a service that consumers have said they no longer need, at significant structural cost to Royal Mail, increases the threat to the sustainability of the Universal Service.

Despite this Ofcom refused to allow Royal Mail to cut delivery to 5 days a week.

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Centenary of the Flying Scotsman Locomotive - 9 March 2023

In 2023, the British locomotive Flying Scotsman is 100 years old. A national treasure of engineering and design, it can be admired on tour or at the National Railway Museum in York, conjuring up the golden age of steam travel.

In February 1923, the steam locomotive that became the Flying Scotsman, built to a design of Nigel Gresley, emerged from the former Great Northern Railway (GNR) works at Doncaster.  Initially known as No. 1472, this locomotive was the third of the ‘A1’ class to be built – and the first for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The ‘A1’ was an entirely new type of locomotive. Trains of this period had become heavier, following the introduction of more luxurious corridor carriages (with toilets) and restaurant cars, and required more powerful locomotives.

By 1924, locomotive No. 1472 had acquired a new number (4472), smart embellishments to its green livery, the crest of the LNER on the cab side and the name Flying Scotsman. (The locomotive was named in honour of the express train service that had run on the east coast route between London and Edinburgh since 1862, and this has caused confusion ever since with other locomotives bearing the headboard The Flying Scotsman.) 

In 1928, Gresley began to modify the A1s into an improved version, the Class A3. Flying Scotsman emerged as an A3 on 4 January 1947.   In 1946, the locomotive was renumbered twice by Gresley's successor Edward Thompson, who devised a comprehensive renumbering scheme for the LNER. 4472 was initially assigned number 502 in January, but an amendment to the system led to its renumbering as 103 four months later. Following the nationalisation of Britain's railways on 1 January 1948, almost all of the LNER locomotive numbers were increased by 60000, and 103 became 60103 that December.

The locomotive set two world records for steam traction, becoming the first steam locomotive to be officially authenticated as reaching 100 miles per hour (161 km/h) on 30 November 1934, and then setting a record for the longest non-stop run by a steam locomotive when it ran 422 miles (679 km) on 8 August 1989 while in Australia.

The stamps

Set of 8 stamps to mark the centenary of the Flying Scotsman locomotive, 9 March 2023.

The photographs and acknowledgements: 

1st class: No. 60103 at Pickering Station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, 2016, Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo;
1st class: The ‘Christmas Dalesman’ steam special in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 2019 © John Bentley/Alamy Stock Photo;
1st class: The ‘Cathedrals Express’ crossing the Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 2017 © John Bentley/Alamy Stock Photo;
1st class: steaming through the town of Blyth in Northumberland, 2016 © Alison Leddy;
£1.85: in a blizzard at Heap Bridge on the East Lancashire Railway, 2016 © Alan Padley;
£1.85: The ‘Cathedrals Express’ excursion crossing the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick-upon-Tweed, 2016 © Ian Rutherford/Alamy Stock Photo;
£1.85: at London’s Victoria Station, 2002 © PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo;
£1.85: close-up at Shildon, County Durham, 2019 © Clearview/Alamy Stock Photo; 

Unfortunately all, except one (Victoria Station), of the photographs used for the stamp issue are after its major restorations, when on enthusiasts tours, and none reflect the period when it was actually in service with the railway system. This postcard from the Alan Pegler period shows it still numbered 4472; still not in normal service but at least it shows the number than many people know. 

Picture postcard, Alan Pegler's privately preserved LNER No 4472
Flying Scotsman leaves Edinburgh Waverley with an enthusiasts special.

 

The Miniature sheet

Flying Scotsman Centenary miniature sheet showing railway posters 9 March 2023.

1st class: ‘Scotland by the Night Scotsman’ poster, artwork by Robert Bartlett, 1932 ©National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library;
1st class: ‘LNER train service to and from Scotland’ advertisement, designed by HL Oakley, 1923 © HL Oakley/Mary Evans Picture Library;
£1.85: ‘Edinburgh: Mons Meg’ poster, artwork by Frank Newbould, 1935 © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library;
£1.85: ‘Refuelling the Flying Scotsman’ poster, artwork by Frank Newbould, 1932 © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library;
Border featuring Pickering train station: wall © imagespace/Alamy Stock Photo and bench © Neil Setchfield, UK/Alamy Stock Photo.

Flying Scotsman licensed by SCMG Enterprises Ltd; Flying Scotsman® and designs © SCMG Stamp designs © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2023. 

Technical details

The stamps and miniature sheet, designed by Steers McGillan Eves, are printed by Cartor Security Printers in lithography with PVA gum.  The 50 x 30 mm sheet stamps are printed in four sheets of 60 in se-tenant pairs, perforated 14.  The 41 x 30 mm stamps in the 146 x 74 mm MS are perforated 14.5 x 14.

All the miniature sheets in the Press Sheet of 15 have barcodes in the illustration we were provided with.

Prestige Stamp Book (click on the images for enlarged versions).

 

Pane 1: the 4 x 1st class special stamps
Pane 2: the 4 x 1st class £1.85 stamps
Pane 3: the miniature sheet stamps in the same order but with a background showing the inside of a railway carriage
Pane 4: definitive pane with a £2 and 3 x 20p Machin definitives coded M22L MPIL.  This pane is printed in lithography.

The monochrome cover image, showing the locomotive numbered 4472, is of the special edition PSB.

Products

Set of 8 stamps, miniature sheet, 2 x FDCs, stamp cards (12), presentation pack, press sheet, prestige book, limited edition prestige book, coin covers (one with coloured £2 coin, although described on some publicity material as a 50p coin, one with a silver proof, one with a gold proof), framed set, framed miniature sheet, framed prints (4): 1st class Blyth, 1st class Ribblehead Viaduct, £1.85 Blizzard at Heap Bridge, close-up at Shildon.

In celebration of turning 100 in February 2023, Flying Scotsman will take part in various events between March and December including static displays, runs on the mainline, and visits to heritage railways. A special 100 Years, 100 Voices exhibition will be held at the National Railway Museum. The collectable £2 coin included in the coin covers was produced by the Royal Mint.

As usual we will not be stocking these products, they can all be obtained from the Royal Mail website and ordered from 2 March.

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My Swap scheme experiences.

As you will have realised, I am concentrating on getting the pre-barcoded stamps to collectors ratherthan sending them all in for swapping.  But on 8 February I sent a mixed lot total value £46.17½p.

My barcoded stamps arrived today, and all is well.  The sheet of 10p was the original printing of 11/01/22; the three sheets of 5p stamps included one dated 10/01/22 and two dated 04/04/22 (these dates have already been recorded).

The low values were 15 @2p, 75 @5p, 26 @10p and 206 others including 147 x ½p (booklet panes) and 47 x2½p, also panes mostly.  The £3.44 value of these 206 stamps translated into 6 x 2nd class.

My 38 x 1st class came as 9 x books of 4, all with cylinder numbers, and a sheet pair.

All very good.

And I posted my first > £200 batch today. All 2nd, 1st (various colours), 2nd Large and 1st Large (gold).
Those should not be too difficult to process. 

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Going back in time... the delights of the earlier Machin definitives.

Although as a collector I bought countless Machin definitives, visiting the Norwich Philatelic

Counter frequently at lunchtime to find what was new, I had put all this aside for other things, and only looked back after I had stopped providing a new issue service for the Security Machins.

As we know, there has been plenty to study with those, even with most of them being NVIs there have been different year codes, source codes, colour changes, backing paper changes, etc which has kept collectors interested.

In the 1970s we didn't have those varieties but there was a lot of variation in head type, gum, paper type, and phosphor.  Also for some values the location of the denomination varied especially in relation to the head. 

I was reminded of all this when I came to prepare my earlier Machins for Royal Mail's Swap-Out scheme - or for earlier sale.  In this and further posts I shall explore some of the differences which are easy to see with the naked eye.

Catalogues - but which?

Aside from the very large number of stamps, one of the problems now for the new collector of earlier issues, is the multiplicity of catalogues some very much more complex than others.  All useful up to a certain period, and some for the whole period, most ask too much of the collector - or assume too much.

The Machin Collctors Club catalogue, to take one example at random, is excellent if you know what you've got.  It even has some useful aids to identifying what you have (papers, gums etc by a process of elimination).  But the section on single stamps is separated into singles from sheets (subdivided by paper and gum), then booklets (ditto), then coils (ditto), rather than by value, which is where the collector starts.

Before the catalogues

In the 1970s and 80s in the UK we had the benefit of Stamp Collecting Weekly which didn't have the long lead times that modern monthlies do, and provided a great deal of timely news every week, whether emanating from the GPO, from specialist collectors/dealers, or from readers who were reporting their 'finds'.

So we were told about variations which were very easy to find and to collect - and waited until later to see what the catalogue editors decided to do!    

 

In this post I explore some of the phosphor variations.

15 February 1971 - whether we managed to get the stamps on the proper day of issue or when the Postal Strike was over, the first unexpected variant came with the first low values. As well as 12 values to 9p there were booklets - stitched not folded - containing panes of 4, 5 or 6 stamps.  

The 50p book contained 10@  3p, 5@ ½p, and 7@ 2½p.  As well as containing panes of 6 stamps or 5 and a label, one pane contained 4@ 3p and 2@ 2½p - the latter having a single phosphor band at the left.

Pane SG X852L from 50p booklet 1971.

So immediately there was a second variation of the 2½p stamp to collect - and easily obtainable*. Incidentally, the image deliberately shows part of another pane: booklet pane collectors could also find a variety of different finishes to the panes, with properly guillotined, roughly cut, and perforated binding edges.  There were also variations in the central horizontal row of perforations, as shown, with some margins being perforated right through, and some not.

* Easily obtainable, but not always easy to find with full perforations. Adjacent to this pane was another identical but inverted pane, the booklets being assembled stitched and then guillotined leaving some poor perforations, some adequate for collection, and some full holes+.  This applied to all three sides of the pane.  Finding a 'good' example was more difficult than finding a bad one!

(I would like to show actual photographs of phosphor bands and reaction but as the main equipment I used for earlier photos has broken, and is no longer available, I shall rely on graphic overlays on scanned images instead.)

Wedgwood £1 Book

The following year, on 24 May 1972, the second Sponsored Stamp Book was produced, the Wedgwood £1 book.  (The first was the pre-decimal Milk Marketing Board book.)   This contains a mix of 1st and 2nd class (6@ 3p & 17@ ½p (7) as make-weights for the difference and to make up the £1 face value.  

The 2½p stamps are a mix of centre band, left band, and right band, but the final pane contained 2@ 2½p and 4@ ½p arranged in a 2 x 3 block.  With the normal ½p having two bands, and the 2½p having one, the format was similar to the pane above, but it left one ½p stamp with only a single band at the left.  When this was reported it was sought after, and finding it with complete perforations on the two cut sides proved difficult.  Although the price has varied over 50 years, it is still one of the most expensive non-error Machins.

Pane 4 from £1 Wedgwood sponsored book, 1972.

I was going to add Machine Vended Booklets here, but as Royal Mail have now unblocked the despatch of international mail, I will hold those over for a later post.

All these stamps are prefixed X- by Stanley Gibbons, and many of the unlisted are available for sale in our recent List 7.

More to come soon!

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Stock price lists - Updated February 2023 - pdf downloads.

I have added a price list of the gummed Machin definitives with ordinary perforations (Gibbons X-numbers) to Dropbox today. You can download it at the link below.

This list includes a number of specialist variants to catalogue listed stamps, including some of the shortened phosphor bands (which are illustrated).

Also included are many of the high-catalogue stamps from Prestige Stamp Books but at much lower prices than elsewhere.

We now have until July to use the stamps, but I shall continue to work on lists so that those readers who wish to add to their collections at bargain prices can do so, while the stamps are still available.  Some are only in very small quantities and when they are gone, they are gone (unless I find any more!). And if they don't go, then it's off to Royal Mail's incinerator.

 

List 1 - Booklets: Window, folded, label, mixed content.  

This list contains Stanley Gibbons series prefixed F, G, H, MG1 and the PM series of mixed content self-adhesive booklets.  (More F & G books added; stitched booklets added 25 July)

List 2 - Prestige Stamp Booklets, DX series - no DY series (premium priced) available.

List 3 - Machin Regional Definitives - Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.           

List 4 - Varieties on Machin Folded Booklets  

List 5 - Country Definitives, cylinder & date blocks - England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales

List 6 - Self-adhesive booklets - Pre-security, airmail, security, greetings.

NEW List 7 - Machin gummed definitives with ordinary perforations - SG X-numbers.  NEW

Machins with elliptical perforations, the SG Y-numbers: many are listed in our online shop.  We can combine orders from these lists and the shop, but please choose the 'Pay by cheque' option on the shop, do not pay by paypal or card or we will not be able to combine for accounting. 

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King Charles III definitive stamps to be issued 4 April 2023.

Royal Mail has announced the details of the first definitive stamps for the new monarch, King Charles III.

The first stamps will be issued on 4 April, with philatelic pre-orders commencing 4 March.

First and Second Class (and Large) NVI stamps will be issued in April 2023 but stocks of Low-value and High-value Definitives will not need to be replenished until Autumn 2023, therefore, in keeping with the zero-waste policy, the make-up values of the King Definitive stamps will follow in late Summer.

King Charles III 1st class definitive stamp 4 April 2023.

We understand that the existing colours will continue to be used for 2nd, 2nd Large, 1st and 1st Large.

The introduction of the King’s Definitive stamps continues to be event driven i.e. when new stamps are required, and there will be no wastage of QEII (barcode) Machin Stamps.

The full range of Barcode Definitive stamps introduced in 2022 will remain on long term sale and continue to be sold alongside the King’s Definitives. 

The stamps feature a portrait of His Majesty The King created by Martin Jennings for The Royal Mint for the obverse of the new UK coinage and subsequently adapted by Royal Mail for use on definitive stamps. Stamp designs © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2023. Stamp artwork preparation by Endhouse Studio. 

I think this would have been better; banknote portrait modified by HalfpennyYellow member of Stampboards forum.

Alternative proposed design for Charles III definitive stamps.

The Flowers pictorial stamps on 23 March 2023 will be the first to bear the profile of the King.

UPDATE: My thanks to JG for this additional information gleaned from the illustration of the sheet which has been widely used (see Postal Museum website).

"The first part of the barcode reads: S11151017031004506380009501022301 on the enlarged central stamp. There are changes in the barcodes of the background stamps only in the last two digits of the red numbers as expected - they give the position number of the stamps in the sheet. The second part of the barcode is completely different on each stamp as expected providing a unique identifier for each stamp.

 S111 is the value code for the stamp indicating 1st NVI

5 is the source code - for a counter sheet of 50

0095 is the stamp value in pence - I thought the price of a 1st class stamp was likely to go up before the release of the stamps

010223 is the barcode date, usually close to the printing date on the sheet

01 is the code for the stamp type - in this case a definitive

These code numbers suggest to me that the stamps have only just been printed, within a day or so of the 1 February."

UPDATE 3 March

A new £2.20 stamp has been announced for the new All-World airmail rate for letters - see Tariff

Definitive £2.20 stamp for All-World airmail letters to 100g, to be issued 4 April 2023.

It does seem rather odd that this stamp will be issued the day AFTER the rate comes into effect.

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