£1.05 update

Since writing the previous post the actual stamps have arrived for the £1.05 definitive issue. The Regionals are much like you'd expect. There is something quite magical about the Northern Ireland printing which really makes the embroidery look wonderful. I shall have to look at previous issues again as I don't remember it looking that interesting before! Assuming that it is my memory (again) playing tricks on me then these are the same designs as before with new values. One day the new values might actually be the same as some that have already been issued! This is beginning to develop into quite a series itself now.

Looking at the £1.05 gooseberry stamp then I need to point out that I can detect no cream colour in the value tablet which the Royal Mail site image I shared appeared to show. I am pretty sure it is just the creamy-white background colour of the paper itself.

I have, of course, realised, before I get a myriad emails, that the I style of number 1 has been around for years and years and years and, indeed, is obvious right on this page in the 31p design! Interestingly, though, someone reckoned that the Regionals should have a 1 type, albeit in a different font for each nation for some reason I shall probably never understand.

Find the gooseberry

This month's excitement comes in a shade of gooseberry. That is the official name of a colour that I am sure many of you will think you've seen before. It seems so similar to a whole range of stamps, from an 18p and even a 19p and 20p through to others that played with shades of olive and green and brown. Having said that, when I looked around I realised that my memory had been playing tricks with me and this is, indeed, different after all!

£1.05 is an airmail rate and we'll now have the usual four 'regional' stamps with yet another denomination too. I am amazed that the designs for the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland stamps have lasted so long.

I am not very fond of the I in place of 1 for the numeral but this has been around for a while now so I guess I shall just have to get used to it.

Whilst there are details of this stamp on the Royal Mail site, I challenge readers to find it using the menus and links. The site really is dreadful, attempting to satisfy business service users as well as us philatelic people. Having said that, a business trading abroad may well have wanted to grab a few sheets of £1.05s today and struggled to do so. The only way I could manage to get the image above and some details was to ignore all the links that come up under 'Shop' and instead just click the Shop tab itself on the bar. There is still no obvious mention in the illustrations that appear but you may spot a link to 'See all our definitive stamps' and there 2016 issues will finally be accessible. You'll find it at this link.

Now this is for a new issue today. Today is when I would expect to see some promotion and some degree of enthusiastic display. But I am not the person running the web site.

And the colour is gooseberry, after all.