I'm confused!
By Fleur
@Fleura (34927)
United Kingdom
April 18, 2023 8:36am CST
Years ago, Royal Mail used to issue special editions of postage stamps every month. There would be a theme, and a different design for each of four or more prices, including the usual first and second class.
Then, some years ago, they stopped including second class stamps in the special issues. If you wanted anything different to the regular ‘definitives’ (plain background colour with the monarch’s head) you had to buy first class stamps or larger. And a lot of the time they were not available anyway unless you went to the specialist philatelic counter.
Stamps are getting more and more expensive and the difference between first and second class is also continually increasing (currently it is 75p for second class, £1.10 for first class) so I normally use second class stamps for everything unless it’s really urgent. And that means that I never get any pretty stamps to use.
So I was very surprised recently when I went to the post office to buy some second class stamps and was given some with designs marking the centenary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
And then yesterday I went to buy some more and got designs based on the characters from some of the films produced by Aardman animations – Rocky and Ginger from ‘Chicken Run’ and Feathers McGraw from ‘The Wrong Trousers’.
Oddly, when I searched the Royal Mail website to find out more about these special issue stamps, they are not featured there at all!
And it gets weirder. We have been told to use up all stamps that don’t include a QR code, as ones without won’t be valid after 31st July. And yet these stamps I have just bought don’t have a QR code!
I can only assume that Royal Mail itself has a stock of non-QR coded stamps somewhere and is now sending them out to local post offices to use them up before its own deadline!
I wonder what I will get next?
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2023.
12 people like this
11 responses
@wolfgirl569 (135583)
• Marion, Ohio
18 Apr 23
That is strange. Does sound like they are selling out of older ones
4 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174208)
• United States
18 Apr 23
I still have a partial "book" of stamps that I paid 45 cents for each one two or so years ago. They're called "Forever" stamps and are good for one first class piece of mail each. I know stamps have gone up in price but I have no idea by how much. (A "book" of stamps is twenty stamps on a single sheet. I paid $9 plus tax for the book.)
3 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174208)
• United States
19 Apr 23
@Fleura The "Forever" stamps are guaranteed good until you've used them up. That was the way the Post Office got people to buy them in bulk.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (34927)
• United Kingdom
18 Apr 23
We have had those for quite a while, they call them non-value indicated stamps. In fact having just checked, it has been much longer than I thought, Wikipedia says they were brought in in 1989! They just say '1st class' or '2nd class'.
The snag with those is that it means you can never remember how much a stamp costs if you need to buy some.
The other catch now is that some people have stocked up on those to avoid the usual annual price rises, and soon they will be unusable.
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (51811)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
18 Apr 23
I don't think we have second class mail here in Canada. At least, I've never seen such. We now have "Permanent" stamps with a dropped out P on a red maple leaf... no dollar amount. This is a scan of the last pack of stamps I bought. I think it cost $9.60 on sale. Plus tax. Always plus tax, sigh.
3 people like this
@Tampa_girl7 (54714)
• United States
18 Apr 23
That is very confusing. Our stamps have gone up in price too..
2 people like this
@JESSY3236 (22199)
• United States
18 Apr 23
cute stamps. yeah stamps are high here too. I don't use stamps that often. I have been using Christmas and summer stamps my uncle had. Maybe they are getting rid of some stamps they had before July.
2 people like this
@allknowing (153544)
• India
19 Apr 23
What is the purpose of collecting these stamps? Will they have more value as time goes by?.
1 person likes this
@allknowing (153544)
• India
19 Apr 23
@Fleura I used to be a used stamp collector in my school days and later I came across someone who collected first day stamps.
@Fleura (34927)
• United Kingdom
19 Apr 23
Some people collect stamps just as a hobby. And yes I confess I do tend to keep one if I get some interesting stamps, and I also keep all the ones I receive. Collectors do buy stamps (used and unused) and old or rare ones can become valuable, but most collectors just do it out of interest. I intend to use most of the stamps I've bought.
1 person likes this
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
19 Apr 23
Stamps are getting expensive. They're cute at least.
