Having felt it necessary to inject an air of mystery into the forthcoming Commonwealth Games stamps, Royal Mail has finally released the design of the stamps just 16 days before they will be issued on 17 July 2014. The designs are vaguely interesting although almost monochromatic and at least collectors are not burdened with an additional miniature sheet although there is the almost inevitable accompanying retail booklet of 2 x 1st class self-adhesive stamps with 4 x 1st definitive stamps. Because the set includes a £2.15 value the whole set actually costs an eye-watering £7.02 with the price of the booklet being £3.72p so collectors will have to pay £10.74 for the basic mint stamps and booklet. I suppose that Royal Mail will point to the inclusion of a 2nd Class domestic rate stamp in the set as evidence that they are "listening to" the concerns of their customers about the cost of new issues.
The stamps were designed by Howard Brown and lithographed by International Security Printers.
P.S. Due to objections raised by a notable British dealer in British stamps to the depiction of these stamps, the illustrations have been removed from this Blog (see Comments below). Illustrations of the stamps can be found on the Royal Mail Philatelic Bureau website where details of the issue are given along with illustrations of lots of other collectables which the Bureau has for sale such as a cuddly toy Games mascot (cost £12.99) and a Commonwealth Games tea towel (cost £9.99p) which philatelists will undoubtedly wish to add to their collections. The dealer has revealed that a major press launch will be made on the day of issue of the stamps.
Malta Post issued an attractive set of 3 stamps on 27 June 2014 on the subject of Maltese flora. The stamps were designed by MaltaPost p.l.c. and lithographed by Printex:-
Australia Post continues its programme of weekly stamp issues with the release of 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the centenary of the first Australian airmail which was carried by the French aviator, Maurice Guillaux, on a 2 day flight (with stops) starting at Melbourne Agricultural Grounds on 16 July 2014 and finishing in Sydney. His total time in the air on this historic flight was nine and one quarter hours. The stamps were designed by Jo Mure and lithographed by McKellar Renown:-
In Blog 388 I mentioned the 2014 Lunar New Year issue from Bhutan Post which commemorated the Year Of The Horse. In addition to the previously mentioned sheetlet of 12 x 20 Nu stamps and accompanying miniature sheet (50 Nu value), a single 10 Nu stamp was also issued in ordinary sheets:-
"Having felt it necessary to inject an air of mystery into the forthcoming Commonwealth Games stamps, Royal Mail has finally released the design of the stamps just 16 days before they will be issued on 17 July 2014." I would be very interested to know under what authority you publish these designs on the internet as Royal Mail still have an embargo on their electronic publication.
ReplyDeleteperhaps they are doing what the public want - we want to see what the stamps look like before they are released ....
ReplyDeleteThe stamps have been shown in the Royal Mail Philatelic Bulletin. They have the copyright on them. They have specifically prohibited the media from putting the images online until the issue date when they have a major press release. The pictures will be in the morning papers on that day.
DeleteA picture of one of the stamps was released in April - that should give an idea of what the rest will be like.
Anybody who is interested in buying them can see them before they buy. These pictures, probably copied from the Bulletin don't do the designs justice. Compare the poor images with the only legitimate one shown here
http://www.norphil.co.uk/2014/07a-Commonwealth_Games.htm
The pictures have been available for all to see on the Philatelic Bureau stamps for sale website since 1 July along with details of designer, printer as well as illustrations of numerous other desirable collectables such as a toy Games mascot and various non-philatelic items which collectors will want to add to their collections. There is therefore no secret about these six designs and collectors who wish to buy these items at a cost of over £7 for a simple set have been given the opportunity to view them before they decide to buy them by looking at the Philatelic Bureau site. They seem to have pre-empted their own launch plans which you have revealed to us in your message. The illustrations are not taken from The Philatelic Bulletin as you surmise and you are of course quite right that they are reasonably attractive and interesting designs as far as can be seen. Rob K makes an interesting point that collectors might want to see what the stamps look like before they decide to send a not inconsiderable amount of money to the Bureau to purchase these items but in publishing the designs on their website Royal Mail seem to have quite rightly addressed those needs.
ReplyDeleteIn principle you are right, this has been a dog's breakfast.
DeleteIncidentally I can't find them on their website so I would appreciate a link so that I can use that in my 'discussions' with them, especially about any future issues.
The fact remains that for those of us who have a contract with RM, and receive hi-res images and details in advance, the embargo remains in place until 17th.
Basically they are concerned that if blogs and social media get the pictures it will steal their thunder with the national press - it happened before, as long ago as the Album Covers issue when NME took info from the web and it was around the world in about 2 days!
Dear Ian,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your most interesting input and information. The Philatelic Bureau showcases, and offers for sale, the Commonwealth Games stamps on shop.royalmail.com/glasgow-2014-commonwealth-games-/glasgow-2014. Collectors keen to buy a teatowel or cuddly toy will also find the site to be very helpful in helping them realise their dreams. I wonder which will prove to be the bigger seller for the Philatelic Bureau - the set of stamps or the teatowels.
Dear WhiteKnight
DeleteRoyal Mail have acknowledged to us that the images and details are on their own website and contracted dealers have now been told that
"You can now show images of all available products you may have purchased for resale purposes via your relevant channels should you wish to do so."
Which seems a cack-handed way of doing things as I show the pictures and respond to customer demand, but ....
Anyway, I don't have time to update the webpage but obviously others can and will.
Thanks for the reply, and for the link. Try it yourself now, in a new browser or refresh the page. I get a plain page with this message:
ReplyDelete"Sorry - the page you're looking for may have been moved or no longer exists."
I think somebody has realised that they have screwed up!!
Correction - the data IS all there, I found it on a different page - http://shop.royalmail.com/glasgow-2014-commonwealth-games-/glasgow-2014-stamp-set/invt/20140701
DeleteThanks for helping on this, I will be speaking to my contacts in Edinburgh.
Is there any news on Commonwealth Games stamps from any other postal administrations??
ReplyDeleteHello Rob,
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I have not come across news of any other territories which plan to issue stamps to commemorate this year's Commonwealth Games although there are usually one or two which eventually produce a set marking the Games or their participation in them. Given that The Games are being held in Scotland, it's perhaps a little surprising that the offshore islands or even Gibraltar have not announced the issue of a set of stamps to mark the event or their participation in it. We might also look out for issues from St, Helena or even The Falkland Islands since they never get to participate in the Olympics, but, as I say, I have not seen news of any such issues so far.
The Falkland Islands did intimate that they were going to issue stamps to commemorate the Games (last year). On another point I am sorry you felt intimidated by another dealer to remove the images of the stamps. That smacks of bully-boy tactics and is not needed in our small community of philatelists in the UK.
ReplyDeleteRob,
DeleteIt wasn't bully-boy tactics. First I was concerned that Royal Mail were sending different messages to different groups of people in the hobby/trade.
Second I was concerned lest Royal Mail be alerted to the revelations and take action to prevent the infringement of their copyright. Aside from anything else, contracted dealers have their permission to reproduce their images (etc), whilst I suspect that White Knight does not.
Whilst it's fine to reproduce images of stamps in your own collection, some owners take exception to infringement of their intellectual property.
We're all on the same side, and I'm just as (or even more) annoyed about this whole eipisode as you seem to be.
Ian Billings, Norvic Philatelics
sorry - I retract the "bully-boy" reference. I do feel the Post Office don't care about collectors these days
DeleteDear Rob,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your further message. I put together this Blog mainly for my own satisfaction and put information in it which I need so that I can put my stamp collection together in the form I want it to be. In doing so it seemed to me that some of the information was quite hard to obtain so that, given the relative ease of sharing information on the internet, I might as well publish what I had found out by producing this blog. I certainly do not want to upset anyone in publishing it and the rules that dealers seem to have been given by Royal Mail for the Commonwealth Games issue do appear rather bizarre and likely to cause annoyance to some of them. The illustrations of that particular issue can be seen on Royal Mail's own website now as well as elsewhere so they do seem to have pre-emptied their own press launch. Nobody can say that stamp collecting is dull!
Best wishes.
Dear Ian,
ReplyDeleteThank you again for your input. I suspect that dealers will have interesting discussions with Royal Mail about the advance publicity surrounding new issues and their future contracts.
Just a quick mention about other postal administrations and the Commonwealth Games. Pabay is not doing a Commonwealth Games stamp - they have issued a "stamp" for Bannockburn. Namibia pulled the idea from their list because of "lack of interest".
ReplyDeleteDear Rob, thank you for your input on this subject. I was not aware that Namibia was planning a "Friendly Games" set and I'm interested to see that there was lack of interest in the subject. I remain surprised that I have not seen any Games stamps planned by the offshore islands, I guess The Isle Of Man thought that there was more to be made out of the Tour De France issue. Please do comment any time you wish especially if you have news of any new issues as publicity from post offices everywhere seems to get less and less easy to find and it's so easy to miss a new set of stamps if you don't know that they have been issued.
ReplyDeleteNamibia's initial thinking was the 20th anniversary of their first Games (i.e. Victoria 1994). I am surprised that the Falkland Islands and Tonga sets have not materialised however.
Delete