More fish in the pond

I decided to cancel the supply of small shifts in iridescent overprints and phosphor bands. These items have been extraordinarily expensive and, whilst it would be nice to think they will be sufficiently scarce to sell at some point for even more, they really do not inspire me as a collector and, visually, are not at all obvious in the main. If you do have a spare £12.50 that would buy you a 1st red with both phosphor band and iridescent overprint slightly inset at the right on M13L Code B from a Business sheet, for instance. £9.50 would buy you one from the same type of sheet with a short at the bottom overprint. I am beginning to wonder if there are, in fact, any normal versions at all! Hence, for now at least, my abandoning them.

Recent new finds I am collecting include these 1st reds from Walsall with dull fluor

Code M12L - S
Code M13L - S
Code M13L - C (from the Loco NI booklet below)

 

And it really doesn't seem very long ago that Freshwater Life I was new on the scene but here comes the sequel Freshwater Life II, featuring Perch, Eel, Carp, Caddis Fly Lava, an Arctic Char and a Toad. Unless your nearest lake is in the Orkneys you are pretty unlikely to spot the Char which is a curious addition to the series but someone somewhere must have thought it was a good idea.

These are the Presentation Pack stamps. The ones that will actually get used for mail will be arriving in a while, presumably with a similar difference in font for the overprint  as for other recent issues.

These are really quite uninspiring and the artwork for the series is unlikely to win any awards or, for that matter, have the public rushing down to their local Post Office to negotiate with a machine to get them to use on their envelopes or parcels. I think I have received precisely one Post And Go stamp on my mail so far this year, and that was on a package from a dealer! I do wonder just how many people really are using these. The quite impressive roll-out of machines to various locations does seem to indicate that Royal Mail has some faith in them and perhaps they are popular in busy places where they might provide a way of skipping long queues if all you want is a stamp. How long, though, will it be before there are queues at these just as slow as at the counter?

The Toad stamp is particularly dire, illustration-wise, in my opinion. It looks more like some cartoon character! Oh well.