2828. 🇬🇧 Victoria And Her Stamps.

 

New issues -

🇬🇧 Royal Mail - 

27 November 2025 - The stamps of Queen Victoria - 8 stamps issued in 2 se-tenant strips of 4 (cost £13.60), 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps (£6.80), 1 booklet containing 4 x self-adhesive Penny Black design stamps, photogravure printed (£6.80), 1 Prestige booklet containing 4 panes including 1 pane of Charles III definitives - 2 x 1p, 1 x 20 and 1 x £3.40 - (£25.35) and 1 ‘Collectors sheet’ containing 10 stamps (1 each of 6 stamps and 2 each of the other two stamps (£18.20). Designed by Steers McGillan Eves and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14. This issue was described and shown in Blog 2825 but more details and better quality illustrations are included here.

Total cost of the above - £70.85!

2825 🇬🇧 Royal Mail To Note Jane Austen And The Stamps Of Queen Victoria.

 

New issues -

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

27 November 2025 - The stamps of Queen Victoria - 8 stamps issued in se-tenant strips of 4, 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps and 1 ‘Collectors sheet’ containing 2 x Penny Black designs, 2 x Twopenny Blue design and 1 each of the 8 stamps. There may be further items. This information is derived from offers on an internet auction site and on a posting on a Facebook page. Further details are awaited later in the week. Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901 and this issue may be related to the 125th anniversary of her death. Rating:- *.

?16 December 2025 - 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen - 1 ‘Collectors sheet’ containing 10 x 1st Class Union Flag stamps with the cameo of King Charles III and with attached labels. A seller on an internet auction site is presently offering this item for more than £50. Rating:- 0.

2825. 🇱🇷🇬🇧🇬🇸 Malaysia Stamp Week, BAT Huts And South Georgia Marine Science Issues.

 

New issues -

🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia - 

13 November 2025 - Stamp Week, Classic animations - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

🇬🇧 Postal service of British Antarctic Territory -

late November 2025 - Historic Antarctic huts and bases, part 1 - 6 stamps (3 se-tenant pairs). Designed by Bee Design and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5 x 13. Rating:- *****.

🇬🇸 Postal service of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands -

18 December 2025 - Discovery investigations - the centenary of marine science- 4 stamps ( 2 se-tenant pairs). Designed by Bee Design and lithographed by by Cartor and perforated 13.5 x 13. Rating:- *****.

Production of the 2 above issues was coordinated by Creative Direction. Thanks to Isle Of Man Stamps & Coins for information about these stamps.

One that got away -

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

10 November 2025 - Centenary of the birth of the extremely important stage and screen actor, the Welshman Richard Burton CBE. Preferring to issue a set celebrating the role of ducks in the history of Britain and a set commemorating the invention in the United States of a board game, Royal Mail missed the opportunity to commemorate the birth centenary of Sir Richard Burton, one of Britain’s greatest actors, a notable figure in modern Welsh history and famous for his relationship with Elizabeth Taylor.

  True, Royal Mail did feature Burton in his role as Henry V on a stamp as part of an issue released in 2018 to commemorate the bicentenary of the Old Vic but it does seem that he is a figure worthy of commemoration on the centenary of his birth and a stamp issue intended to do that also of course gives the opportunity to highlight Wales, one of the countries of the United Kingdom.

  This is another example of a stamp issue that got away though the Ducks issue may be relevant as Burton starred in the movie The Wild Geese. See also Blogs 2781 and 2805.

2823. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail 2026 New Issue Programme?

 

🇬🇧 Royal Mail new issue programme 2026.

  I can not deny that my ability to predict what random issues will feature in a modern-day Royal Mail new issue programme is anything but extremely limited - last year, I correctly identified only 4 out of 16 subjects which were actually featured on the myriad stamps emanating from the official British postal service. One of them was a free pass - the inevitable Christmas set which looked spookily similar to other Christmas sets of recent years.

There is nothing, or very little at least, to make one think that British stamps are anymore intended to  honour worthy national heroes, national success, national achievements and traditional national culture. Royal Mail new issues are now just as likely to give prominence to trendy aspects of foreign cultures, particularly those of North America, which look like potential money spinners to those who decide what and who should feature on the national stamps of the United Kingdom. British stamps should be a window to the world which showcases the best of British. British stamps are now just a reflection of the present ephemeral culture, often trite and historically inconsequential - not just British culture but foreign cultures.  

  This makes predicting future Royal Mail stamp issues a near impossibility - featured subjects will not honour that which is important in British history but that which is popular and fashionable for a few months and which would be expected to appeal to the present customer who has a short span of interest in a subject before moving on to some other trendy and transient theme. 

  This was my list of predictions for 2025. Pretty hopeless, I am sure the reader would agree -

Let’s see what random subjects I can come up with for 2026 -

January - Television, centenary of the 1st demonstration of television in London

January - British bridges (bicentenary of the Menai Straits Bridge)

February - Music Giants - Black Sabbath

March - British aircraft, 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Concorde

March - British reptiles and amphibians

April - British Arts (75th anniversary of  the South Bank Centre and the Bicentenary of the Royal Scottish Academy)

May - 100th Birthday of Sir David Attenborough 

June - Open All Hours (British television comedy 50th anniversary)

June - Puppies and kittens

July - Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 

August - Summer fruits

September - British advances in medical science

October - Winnie The Pooh (centenary of first publication)

November - Christmas

December - Music Giants - Slade

  Struggle as I may, I can not come up with an issue celebrating American culture - we’ve had American comics, American science fiction television series and movies, American cartoons and so on, all released with designs that manage to waft up vague British connections to the subjects. But I suppose there’s bound to be one such issue at least. We will see.