🇬🇧 It really is too tiresome. The stamp issue from Royal Mail due for release on 16 October 2018 is to be yet another collection of items on the subject of .... drumroll ... Harry Potter. Ho hum.
There's a lot of things for the collector to spend her/his money on - a set of 10 stamps, a miniature sheet containing 5 different stamps, a retail booklet of 6 self-adhesive stamps (2 of the commemoratives and 4 x 1st Class Machin Head), a Prestige booklet costing £15.50p, a second 'Limited edition' Prestige booklet costing, er, £45 and a 'Commemorative sheetlet' containing all 10 stamps with attached labels which will be a snip at £7.70p. And there we have it. We hope that collectors feel that the news was worth waiting for. Rating:- 0.
J
The Postal Museum in London began to dispense old-style Machin Head 1st Class Post and Go stamps with the additional inscription 'The Postal Museum' from its A001 kiosk on 2 July 2018. These were temporarily replaced from 12 September 2018 by the same stamps with the additional inscription ''F' box 50' and an icon of a 'F' style post box to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the introduction of that type of postbox. Similar stamps were also dispensed on the 2nd Class value blue stamps. A001 also dispensed the Mail by Bike stamps with an additional 'The Postal Museum' inscription.
Meanwhile Royal Mail will release its Christmas set on 1 November 2018. It appears to be made up of 8 stamps which though attractive are rather clichéd depicting as they do Christmases in chocolate box country villages in well-to-do parts of southern England and post office workers and public alike gathering around their local post boxes either to post their Christmas cards or to collect them to take to their local sorting centres. Included in the products will be a 'Generic sheet' containing 6 of the stamps, the whole being sold for £17.50. Nevertheless, I do like this issue. Rating:- ***.
This was followed by another single stamp issue on 23 September 2018 which commemorates Sant Ganinath, considered to be an incarnation of Shiva. Rating:- **.
I predict that the Harry Potter PSB will be delivered late: there is nothing about it in the information provided to dealers this week, no pictures, no product codes and no idea of what is on the definitive pain!
ReplyDeleteThank you for that information Ian.
DeleteOn closer inspection it appears that the PSB will not be *issued* until 4 December, along with coin covers, medal covers, etc
DeleteThanks again, Ian, Ah! I see. Thank you again for discovering that fact and passing it on here. I think that this year we really have had too many prestige booklets and I should think that anyone still buying the things is likely to be approaching the end of their purchasing tether.
DeleteWhen Royal Mail started issuing three prestige booklets I quit them. Seeing another Harry Potter issue, along with all the Star Wars, Dr Who and Game of Thrones issues makes me glad I stopped British new issues. While I agree they help promote the hobby, the size of the issue along with all the peripheral items alienates the committed collectors.
ReplyDeleteThank you Chris. It seems to me that everything you write here would be agreed by most serious stamp collectors. It is however quite interesting to follow how postal administrations evolve in their approach to providing philatelic and paraphilatelic products for their various types of customer to buy to contribute to the profits they make from philately.
DeleteRoyal Mail seems now to be devoting itself to the commemoration of low contemporary culture. This year we've had sets commemorating 2 television series and 1 series of popular movies. Additionally we've had a set linked to higher culture - theatre including Shakespeare - but presented in such a way as to appeal to those who are mainly interested in personalities by centring the designs on a series of depictions of actors.
Even one of the two wildlife sets had links to popular culture, the subject being Owls with its obvious link to Harry Potter and no doubt contrived to be the subject of such an issue for that very reason.
It will be interesting to see where Royal Mail goes from here and what the subjects of next year's issues will be. I wonder how much this latest Harry Potter stuff will attract or repel Royal Mail's usual stamp collecting buyers.