Revenue protection - is this one of ours?

A consequence of issuing entertainment media-related stamps around the world is that one seems very much like another.  But I wonder if any British stamps have been successfully used in other countries because of this?

In fact many of the thematic stamps issued by Royal Mail - wildlife, comic-book heroes, film and tv franchises - are mirrored in other countries.

I've added the latest example of confusion - a non-UK Star Trek stamp used here - to the Postal History blog along with other examples.  

To demonstrate here are three very similar stamps.

IS it any surprise that one might be used in a different country?

UPDATE 7 November - also added to the Postal History blog, news about a surcharge label I haven't seen before.

 Please comment on the other blog; comments are switched off for this post.

---

Victory for the little man and the people on Royal Mail's postbox conversions

Royal Mail's postbox conversion programme took a hit in Berkshire, according to a report in NewburyToday.

Bradfield Southend postbox 29 October 2025 (Newburytoday)

 

Residents in Bradfield Southend when the traditional red postbox outside the village post office was taped up by Royal Mail in favour of a new automatic system, and started a petition for it changed back.

Most annoyed was Kate Brealey, postmaster at Bradfield Village Store and Post Office – as the new automated parcel box to receive parcels would have sat right outside the building.

The petition reached 800 signatures.  In a statement from Royal Mail, a spokesperson said: “Following discussions with the council, Bradfield Southend’s postbox will remain a standard one.” 

---

Alan Wilson dealer list - has found a new home!

Modern collectors of Machins may not recall Alan Wilson, and I admit I had forgotten about him until I found his price list in one of my boxes.

NO LONGER AVAILABLE - three people emailed, but none put their request in the comments section, which would have avoided the later two from doing so. 

Wilson was 'a leading dealer' and his catalogue was advertised in the January 1990 edition of the British Philatelic Bulletin.  

This is not a work for the faint-hearted, it is very detailed indeed - ideal for those who take their Machin collection to great depths - shades, phosphor screens, different perforator and head types, value positions,
variations in phosphor coated paper, etc,

But all was not what it seemed, as this report from The Independent shows.

In 1995, the cloistered world of philately was shaken by the confession by a leading dealer that he had been forging rare stamps for more than a decade. Alan Wilson, a bookish 36-year-old bachelor who lives with his mother in Luton, walked into his local police station and told officers he had tampered with ordinary stamps to make them appear rarer and more valuable.

The sophisticated fraud brought him about £100,000, but his sense of guilt eventually led him to confess. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence and fined £30,000. Ironically, the fakes he manufactured were of such a high standard they have since become sought after by collectors.
 

So if anyone would like this price list - it has a few notes and highlights - please let me know in the comments and then email your address if I don't already have it.

Please check the comments before emailing in case it has already been claimed.

NO LONGER AVAILABLE - three people emailed, but none put their request in the comments section, which would have avoided the later two from doing so.

---

Jane Austen Commemorative Sheet rumoured for December.

Fifty years ago Royal Mail marked the 200th anniversary of the Birth of Jane Austen with a set of four stamps and a slogan postmark.

 

1975 Jane Austen stamp set issued in October rather than just before Christmas.

The 250th anniversary was ignored for the current year's stamp programme - too many trite and banal subjects to use, rather than mark any cultural anniversary.

Or so it seemed.

I have today heard a rumour that a Commemorative Sheet will be issued on the actual anniversary date, December 16th.  

This is odd on so many counts.  The last Commemorative Sheet was United for Wildlife in 2018, and Royal Mail discontinued them.  Also abandoned were Business Customised Sheets (BCS) (in 2017) followed by Smilers Sheets in 2018. 

So if this is a change in direction, what more might we see in the future?  I thought Commemorative  and BCS were abandoned due to falling sales - certainly demand had gone through the floor about five years earlier so it was really no surprise.  

Royal Mail have been contacted!

UPDATE 14 November 2025.  I have had no response yet from Royal Mail but an Anonymous comment reveals that one of theses sheets is already listed on auction site eBay.

250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen Collector Sheet with King Charles II Union Flag stamp.

The private seller is offering this at £52.70 - the same price for which they have already 'sold' a Queen Victoria Collectors Sheet (which I haven't mentioned and can't show) on 6 November - it is due for issue on 27 November!  [The Royal Mail price for that sheet which I can't tell you about is £18.20]

 

---

Has anyone seen a new NHS barcoded letter yet?

In the wake of further criticism on delays to ordinary mail Royal Mail announced in April a new solution for the more important letters from the National Health Service. 

The solution design provides an option for NHS providers to add a unique NHS identifier into the Mailmark barcode. Where our internal reporting shows that we are not meeting expected quality of service standards regularly, at either a local or a national level, the new NHS barcode will allow us to identify NHS mail and automate its extraction from Royal Mail sorting machines. Thereafter we will discretely handle the mail through to delivery. This will ensure NHS providers get the service they require, and patients receive their letters in a timely manner.

Customers choosing to use the NHS class identifier will need to add it to the class field in the Mailmark barcode and eManifest. This is not a new or separate service. Instead, the NHS barcode would be eligible to be printed on NHS letters using Access Priority (D+2) or Standard (D+3) Mailmark Business Mail services. The option is suitable for patient communications including appointment letters and test results.

I haven't seen any such letters yet, or had any reported, but it is now apparent that these will be handled in the same way as Special Delivery mail, according to this graphic from the Royal Mail website.

Note the original meaning of discreet - "Discrete means separate or divided. A discrete unit is a separate part of something larger."

 

---

Christmas 2025 - five stamps, MS, smaller collector sheet - issued 4 November 2025

Some readers may have seen the designs for this years 2nd class and 2nd class Large stamp designs which Royal Mail have made available to direct mailing houses for their Christmas campaigns.  Inexplicably this was done on the (publicly viewable) Royal Mail Wholesale webpage in September with the exhortation that the mailers "must treat the image as confidential until 4 November and it should not be included on any of your promotional material or website."  (They can be seen on the Commonwealth Blogspot now.)

All the usual details will be shown here - the set, the miniature sheet, and the usual collector sheet - when the Royal Mail publicity machine kicks into action on 28th October.

Royal Mail is uncharacteristically brief in its enthusing about these designs:

Royal Mail is celebrating Christmas 2025 with a set of 5 stamps illustrated by British artist Paula Doherty. These illustrations focus on key characters within the nativity such as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men, the angel and baby Jesus.  

 

 

Set of 5 stamps and miniature sheet issued 4 November 2025 

Technical Details

The 39 x 30 mm stamps were designed by Hat-trick using illustrations by Paula Doherty and printed in gravure by Cartor Security Printers on self-adhesive paper in sheets of 50.  The miniature sheet is 179 x 74 mm.    

Booklets

Now we come to the interesting part - the information provided to the Stamp Trade, and on the order form, shows only booklets of 8.

But Royal Mail's web shop, today, also shows booklets of 4 of each value.

These stamp booklets were made available to the trade and, we believe, others with booklets on their standing orders.  They are not materially different and have blank labels on the inside front cover.

Digital Stamps used by Royal Mail Direct Mail customers preprinted on seasonal mailshots. 

Collector(s) Sheet 

From 2025 the traditional Christmas Collectors Sheet will be reduced to 10 stamps, from 20, in the following formats: 2 x 1st class, 2 x 2nd class, 2 x 1st Class Large Letter, 2 x 2nd Class Large Letter, 2 x £3.40.
The Sheet will be printed in self adhesive and litho, which is different from the main set which is printed in self adhesive and photogravure.  The labels here are particularly uninspiring - taking them singly they will mean nothing to anyone.  Price is £22.54

Products available 

Set of stamps, Miniature Sheet, Collectors Sheet, Retail booklets (apparently 4), Stamp Cards (6), Presentation Pack, First Day Covers (2).

UPDATE 28 October: I've had a report that the sheet stamps were on sale and were used in Ripon yesterday.  

UPDATE 12 December:  I've been reminded that Royal Mail employees are given a Christmas bonus of Christmas stamps at this time of year.  In previous years this has been two sheets of 25 x 1st class stamps,  distinguished from those sold provided to the rest of us as still having the matrix around the stamps (see earlier blogs).  This year they have received 50 x 2nd class stamps (costing the company half the price).  

Given the number of employees on the streets and in HQ and regional offices, this is quite a saving.

---

Is this a new label, or a very old one?

I've been using a stock of old premium services barcoded labels for many years now, some go faster than the others.  International Tracked is probably slowest of all!

My question is prompted by the latest image sent to me by our Canadian correspondent which has a different label.

All my stock has a solid colour border - green for International Tracked & Signed, orange for International Tracked, dark blue for International Signed For, etc.

The one on SS's cover has no coloured border, and the legend at the foot is all text and no graphics - but the barcode number is earlier alphabetically - RF 5821.... rather than my RN 20297 ....

At a guess I would say that this is an earlier one, rather than more recent and - because it was posted in the Southampton area and postmarked by the Mail Centre rather than a post office branch - I would say this might be from big dealer Rushstamps.

I've not seen one of these before - anyone else?

UPDATE 23 October Thanks to Tom (see comments) the source of these has been identified.

The label on the cover is identified on Royal Mail's Track & Trace webpages as a 'business label' - presumably supplied to business account customers on request.  Here are some screenshots from that page.  I still don't remember seeing any of these so I suspect not many businesses (or not many philatelic businesses) use them.

It is interesting that the more detailed ones are for post office branches, because the graphic instructions at the foot describe what is done at delivery.

---

Odds and ends of updates in other subjects.

A number of people wrote while we were away, so this is a short list of updates to earlier posts.

1. 1st class 1d black definitive mis-identified as Counterfeit - over on the Postal History Blog. 

2.  Following publication of the image of a Singapore kiosk we now have an example of the stamp dispensed from these machines - added to the annual Post & Go post.

3. Pictures of postboxes, parcel lockers, and Royal Mail transport is on the slogan postmarks etc, post. 

 

---

Royal Mail muscling in on Post Office High Street business

Over the past few months we have seen he rapid expansion of Royal Mail parcel lockers and 'intelligent' post boxes.

The parcel lockers are being installed across the country, and many people have reported that their local postbox has been 'gift-wrapped in black plastic, prior to being converted to take parcels through a wider apperture. These also have solar panels on the top, would might make the siting of the attractive knitted box-toppers a thing of the past.

On our recent break I found examples of a topper in Louth (which I shall add to the 'slogan postmarks etc' post for October), but at Heath Road, Holmewood, five miles southeast of Chesterfield, I found not just a converted postbox but a new locker, about five metres from each other.

 

The locker was actually being installed when I pulled in to the layby to post a card. 

  

Job done, just have to close all these doors!

Just behind me when I took this photo was a recently converted postbox:

And to the left of that fast-food outlet you can see in the last picture, just a further 20 metres away, is a small post office.

Holmewood Post Office, Derbyshire

 

As recently as May this year, specialist property adviser Christie & Co reported the transfer of ownership:

Specialist business property adviser Christie & Co has announced the sale of Holmewood Post Office near Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

The business is a Mains post office which offers a variety of postal services to customers, as well as a small store stocking stationery equipment and convenience items. 

The store has been purchased by an established postmaster who already owns two post offices in the region and has plans to expand the convenience offering with a potential extension to the shop floor. 

Christie's said 

“The incoming owner has an excellent opportunity to extend the current building to the rear and offer a greater variety of convenience goods. Despite there being close competition on this front, the Post Office should continue to drive footfall into the store and therefore, providing that the offerings are competitively priced, there should be a rise in sales on the convenience side of the business."

I make no criticism of either Christie's or the previous owner, but I wonder if anybody knew then of Royal Mail's intention to provide facilities which will undoubtedly have an impact on the postal footfall to the business. 

Because according to Google maps, the postbox hadn't been converted in April:

Holmewood PO, Google maps April 2025, with knitted topper on postbox.

And this is not all.

Royal Mail owners IDS proudly proclaimed on 30 September.

IDS acquires stake in Collect+ to strengthen Royal Mail’s position as UK’s largest out of home parcel point network

International Distribution Services, owner of Royal Mail, has acquired a 49% stake in Collect+, marking a major milestone in the company’s multi-channel strategy to make collecting, sending and returning parcels as convenient as possible. Following the investment, almost 8,000 Collect+ convenience stores will feature  Royal Mail Shop branding.

The new high street brand will be a one stop destination for collecting, sending and returning parcels, selling Royal Mail postage at the shops for the first time and open during extended hours including evenings and weekends. Selling postage over the counter gives customers the option of paying when they get to the shop rather than doing so beforehand online. This service is now live in 500 shops and will be rolled out more widely in the coming months.

Royal Mail and Collect+ first partnered in May 2024 to meet rising consumer demand for convenient parcel drop-off and collection points. Since then, Royal Mail customers have been able to drop-off returns and pre-paid parcels at almost 8,000 Collect+ locations across the UK.

Last month, Vinted became Royal Mail’s first partner to offer its customers collection from the stores. More of Royal Mail’s retail partners will follow soon to offer collection to the shops under the new Royal Mail Shop brand.

The new Royal Mail Shop outlets will fulfil demand for face-to-face parcel services on the high street that are open for extended hours, including during evenings and weekends. They are part of Royal Mail’s rapidly expanded network of almost 24,000 Parcel Points - including 2,000 lockers, 11,500 Post Office branches, 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points and 1,400 parcel postboxes – the largest multi-channel parcel network in the UK.

Sub-postmasters were quick to respond, with the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters calling the move a stab-in-the-back after the long association between Royal Mail and Post Office.  But there would seem to be little that can be done with the Competition and Marketing Authority so far silent on the matter.

I don't normally resort to using AI, but when you do a Google search an AI opinion almost always comes up.  This is what it says about collect+ effect on "post office" branches

Collect+ will have a direct, negative effect on Post Office branches by competing for parcel services, but the Royal Mail's investment in Collect+ will also lead to the rebranding of thousands of convenience stores as "Royal Mail Shops" offering similar services, including parcel drop-off and returns, potentially diverting business from traditional Post Office branches. Royal Mail will also now offer postage over the counter in these Royal Mail Shops and extended opening hours, further challenging Post Offices.   

It seems that the new Royal Mail Shops ex Collect+ will also "sell postage', but we know what that means - pay and drop.  After all, nobody wants to use multiple stamps to send their packages.   And with these shops you can use Royal Mail, Yodel, Amazon, UPS, eBay, DPD, FedEx, DHL, Parcel2Go, Inpost and others. 

Now I must get on and stamp some letters: got to make sure there's a reason for the Universal Service Obligation to send a letter anywhere in the country for 87p.  We have to use our post offices and support the sub-postmasters who have been under so much pressure for the last couple of decades.

UPDATE 31 October.  I'll add links to news stories here with very brief extracts: the problem is nationwide and the postmasters are not happy.

Postmaster hits out at Royal Mail over change to post box - St Helens Star 

Helen Thaker, who has run the Dentons Green branch on Greenfield Road since 2001, claims the change is driving customers away from using Post Office services reducing vital commission-based income.

She stated that she believes the decision reflects a wider breakdown in the relationship between Royal Mail and the Post Office and is “taking the bread and butter” away from post offices.

---

Sadly Royal Mail have no Monopoly on pointless stamps - 10 x 1st, issue date 16 October 2025

Like Marmite, you love it or hate it.  When I was a child we often played Monopoly in the family: my grandparents had (and I still have) an early Waddington's set with the metal pieces, marked 'Patent Applied For' - it was that new!

With the wide number of board, role-playing, and electronic games now available one might have expected Monopoly to have gone the way of Totopoly or PIT which, although they still exist, almost nobody has heard of.  

But current owners Hasbro have widened the Monopoly appeal by producing multiple special and local editions, encouraging people to buy - for example - the Norwich, Prague, Grenoble, Dresden, Riyadh, and New South Wales.  I'm sure many of these get played, for a while, but I wonder how many people in the UK play any Monopoly on a regular basis.

As you can see on Wikipedia, the game has a chequered history in the USA with the original inventor being paid only $500 by Parker Brothers.  I wonder how many £200s Royal Mail will collect!

Royal Mail write:

Monopoly, one of the nation’s favourite board games, turns 90 this year, and its enduring popularity shows no signs of diminishing. The ‘fast-dealing property trading game’ originated in the US, but after securing the European licence in the 1930s, John Waddington Limited of Leeds created a brand-new version of Monopoly. 

Featuring locations from around London, the game was transformed into a truly British icon, ensuring that family gatherings would never be the same again.

Today, the game is available in more than 100 countries worldwide and has been translated into  over 40 languages. With many different themed versions to choose from, Monopoly continues to  evolve and reinvent itself, as successive generations roll the dice, ‘pass GO’ and collect £200. 

The stamps - 10 x 1st class

Row 1: Collect £200; Old Kent Road, Pentonville Road, Whitehall, Free Parking and Vine Street//Row 2: Park Lane, Liverpool Street Station, Oxford Street and Regent Street, Coventry Street, Chance.

Monopoly Collector Sheet of 10 x 1st class stamps

Technical details and acknowledgements

Hat-trick design are responsible for adapting the original images of the board.  The MONOPOLY name and logo, the distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board, cards, and the playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property trading game and game equipment. © 1935, 2025 Hasbro.

The 41 x 30 mm stamps are printed by Cartor Security Printers in lithography with PVA gum, perf 14½ x 14, in two sheets of 50 (se-tenant strips of 5).

We've been given no details for the Collector Sheet but can assume that it is printed by the same printers but on self-adhesive paper making the stamps different.

Products Available

Set of 10, Collector sheet, first day cover, presentation pack, stamp cards, 50p coin cover with either UNC cupronickel & brass (£19.99), silver proof (£75), or gold proof (£1595) coins.  

There is also a framed version of both the set and the sheet, and a limited edition playing piece in the form of a silver plated King Charles postbox for £25.

 

---