2020 New Definitive Values, James Bond and London 2020

The Queen Victoria 1d black, 2d blue and 1d red from 1840/1 return once more in a London 2020 booklet. You will recognise these from a few years ago when the 175th anniversaries were noted in 2105/6. I like the idea but the Queens head and value tablet placing has always jarred slightly with me. Having said that, I can't think of where else they could go. I might have been tempted to replace Victoria with Elizabeth II and change the text to 1ST CLASS and 2ND CLASS. In fact I might try that in my editing program and if it works I'll share the results here just for fun.

We also have a Concrete & Clay booklet and a Prestige booklet marking James Bond films.

The 4+2 booklet features  te 1st Royal Mail red with code M20L MCIL which we have already seen.

The prestige book pane has a strange combination of the Union Flag 1st and the Scottish Saltire 2nd so that's going to upset the Welsh and Northern Ireland people for a while. Then there are 2 very tired looking 2p deep greens and a couple of 2nd Class blues. the Scottish stamps have the later serif-style value tablet but the UK one is the older sans serif type, not that we've had the later type for that stamp. Now might have been a good time to change that although quite why we get this combination is anyone's guess.

This pane, being planned and presumably produced sometime previously, features stamps with the code M19L MPIL. The 2p looks very much like the one in the February 2019 book but the 2nd Class stamp looks, to me, a quite new 'baby blue' shade. It also appeared in the February 2019 book so I'll have to dig that out to compare. It'll probably turn out to be the same as Cartor would, I guess, just bring out the colours from last year in whatever process is used. Not a tube of paint, I know, but some sort of formula that can be readily repeated.

The main event this month is the issue of the new definitives, supposedly to meet demand for the new rates coming into force in a few days. This has become a regular March (or sometimes April) affair and I do look forward to it, albeit with some trepidation now that the combined total is £29.80!!

  

  

 

The official colour names are:

£1.42 garnet red

£1.63 sunset red

£1.68 tarragon green

£2.42 purple heather

£2.97 rose pink

£3.66 harvest gold

£3.82 holly green

I recognise a few of these.

 

 

 

The regionals are all just as we've seen for many years now with just new values. I can't remember seeing the black outline on the Northern Ireland higher value but that's probably my memory rather than anything new. Perhaps that was introduced when the font changed and I didn't notice.

Whilst these designs do reflect the nations well I am surprised they have not been changed since 1999. There are so many items or scenes which could be representing the four nations that could be used and I am also surprised that the designs have remained such that some values are not at all easy to read. I suspect that they are little used and no-one really cares. Those businesses who have sheets of them for particular product postage needs are so used to looking for the yellowy-brown or purple one that I guess staff don't need to bother about the value tablet either. One reason for retaining the designs, I guess.

Right, now to move once more rows of stamps from page t page to make room for all of these unexpected values. I really should have learned my lesson by now and left a lot more room between values.

In the postman's bag this week

I was telling my postman about the 1d black anniversary issue last week and as he'd never heard of them I suggested we have a look through all the mail in his bag and see if there was one there. Not only were there no 1d black anniversary issues but there there were no Post And Gos, no special issues and just two actual stamps, a couple of 1st Class reds, one which look distinctly as though it was being reused when we looked a bit more closely, despite all the security slits and awkward glue.

That was amongst the whole of his round still to be completed, well over 200 items which we just skimmed through pretty rapidly so may have missed something but I doubt it. Horizon labels were the main 'stamp' items amongst the bundle.

I am beginning to wonder just what the numbers would look like for stamps sold for postal use. I know that collectors are probably providing 99% of the revenue for special issues but the thought that we may be the principal raison d'être for most definitives too is saddening. I can't stop until the Machins stop but I am, for the first time, almost hoping for their end.

Spare a thought too for the Post And go collectors who have not cancelled orders for the non-Machin issues and overprinted issues. I've counted 22 new issues, not counting those illustrated below, three for the Heraldic Beast issue but most of the others all new overprints or old overprints on different labels. There are even some from overseas exhibitions. They would have needed well over £500 to fund that lot in an attempt to stay 'complete'!

The Cartor versions of the 1st black and blue are not Machins I know but these are nice stamps that ought to be in any British collection, although I am none to sure of the need for these 'Smilers' sheets. the facility to have a photograph of yourself or someone or something else professionally printed and appearing on a sheet of proper British postage stamps was quite a remarkable thing when it first came on the scene. It pushed most of our computers' graphics cards to their limits to handle the process and it was a bit tedious over dial-up but it was different, if expensive. The 'Smiler' issues that were available for the process also seemed vaguely appropriate but now you can appear next to anyone.

Similarly, you'll find a variety of labels next to these stamps but I'm not too bothered, being only interested in the variations of the stamps themselves.

Next we have the Post And Gos in a 'normal' strip with the MA14 date code and font IIA. the previous ones are all short phosphor variations, not that you can see much difference here. I shall probably sell the short phosphor versions if anyone wants them.

Now here's something interesting! Sme post office staff have put the wrong roll in the machine again and we've got 2nd Class values being printed on the olive background. It wasn't that long ago that we had the 1st Class and higher values printed on blue so this sort of balances things nicely. I like this pair. Because it is comparatively easy to do, I suspect that values will never be vast because it is simple for someone to recreate if they're a little mischievously inclined.

The Great War 21015 prestige booklet carries just three new Machins. The 1p, 5p and £1.33 have the M15L MPIL security codes. The small definitive size poppy stamp is attractive. The Poppy series of remembrance issues are quite exceptional designs all of them and would make a superb collection on their own.

A 2nd Class from the Walsall book of twelve with the M15L MTIL code.

De La Rue have a M15L code for the counter sheet 1st Class and 1st and 2nd Large issues too. In addition, it seems that they didn't do enough M14L Special Delivery stamps as that has now appeared with M15L after years of inactivity beforehand.

The Walsall 2nd Class with M15L MTIL comes from the revised booklet with slightly different text as we get yet more lessons in distinguishing between normal and large. I find that putting almost anything in my thickish C5 envelopes will stop it slipping through the device the ladies at Towcester Post Office use. How ever many times they put stuff on booklet covers or issue posters, there is really no way most of us can figure out how thick 5mm is. I am not too sure I have much of clue as to how heavy 100g is either. I know from my younger days that jars of jam are 454g but that probably includes the glass.

175 years on, two nice new commemorative stamps

A marvellous job by Royal Mail for the 175th anniversary of the 1d black and 2d blue being made available for postal use to the public. Several items are being promoted but the main items are the self adhesive !st black in a book of 6 from Walsall and a miniature sheet with  1st blue and 1st black se tenant in a pane of four. This is a gummed sheet.

Both have the security ovals in the perforations and pretty gigantic phosphor bands. They all have the position letters SC which was presumably chosen by some committee at some point. It would have been fun being party to that discussion! Did they just pick letters at random? Did someone's little daughter dig letters out of a couple of hats? We may never know.

I would like to have seen the 2d Blue used as a 2nd class denomination. I know that that would reverse the order of the two but it just seems right somehow. Anyway, that isn't to be.

If you do need some stamps, ask for these at your Post Office as it would be nice to see these on as much mail as can be organised.

Happy 175th Birthday 1d Black

Look out for some excellent new issues in a few days.