Royal Mail announced its annual stamp
price rises in late March and they take effect from 30 April 2012.
The rate for 1st class stamps is no longer subject to control by the
official government regulator (Ofcom) and Royal Mail have been allowed
to raise the price of 2nd class mail well above the rate of inflation.
In the biggest rise for decades the cost of 2nd class post rises from 36p
to 50p, and 1st class rises from
46p to 60p. No new stamps
will be required for these although logic suggests that the 50p grey with
two phosphor bands will be replaced by a 50p with one band. This may
be the rust-coloured stamp which was announced
and then cancelled earlier in the year.
Pre-issue images of Presentation Packs of new the Machin definitives. |
|
||
The
Machin Presentation Pack includes the Diamond Jubilee definitive
issued 6 February 2012, and the Diamond Jubilee Large Letter
definitive which has an official release date of 25 April 2012
but had widespread circulation in early-mid March. The Country Definitive values are 87p & £1.28 values. |
|||
|
|
||
Sheet of £1.90 stamps showing the 12 grid positions at lower left, indicating that there are 12 sheets of 25 per cylinder. Printing dates seen: 87p - 08/02/12 £1.28 - 08 & 09/02/12 £1.90 - 09 & 10/02/12 Country stamps: England 09/02/2012 Others: 10/02/2012 |
The basic rates for Large Letters increase from 75p to 90p (1st class) and from 58p to 69p (2nd class) - satisfied by the existing NVIs.
The difference between the 1st class and 1st class Large rates will
be 30p (90p-60p) - requiring 2 stamps unless a new 30p is produced.
The difference between the 2nd class and 2nd class Large rates will be 19p
(69p-50p) - requiring 4 stamps (10p, 5p, 2x2p) unless the 9p is retained -
unlikely as the new 87p is in the same colour.
The difference between the 2nd class Large and 1st class Large rates
will be 21p (90p-69p) - satisfied by the existing 20p & 1p stamps.
The Recorded Delivery fee is increased to 90p from 77p, which means that the (small) letter stamp will rise to £1.50 (from £1.23) and the Large letter to £1.80 (from £1.52).
The lower weight steps for inland packets have been eliminated, and there
is now a single price for packets up to 750g. At £2.70 (1st) and
£2.20 (2nd) this is lower than the previous 750g rates but higher than the
pevious 500g rates (and around double the previous 100g rates).
International rates also rise at this time:
Basic Europe rate 20gr and postcards: +19p to 87p orange and country stamps. Earlier 'E' rate stamps still valid, as is the 20gr NVI issued last year and withdrawn on 31.3.12.
Europe 40gr rate increases from £1 to £1.28 new emerald green stamp and country stamps.
Basic Worldwide rate 10gr and postcards: +11p - new stamp 87p orange and country stamps.
Worldwide 20gr rate: +18p to £1.28, new emerald green stamp and country stamps.
Worldwide 40gr rate: £1.90 up by 25p. New £1.90
rhododendron/amethyst.
The Surface mail 20gr rate is increased from 66p to 77p, no new stamp has been created.
New Country Stamps valued 87p and £1.28 will be issued for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in existing designs and colours.
Traditionally it has been cheaper to send international Small Packets and
Printed Papers, even by airmail, as they were given a lower priority than
letters. Thus at the current rates you can send up to 100g of SP/PP
to Europe for the same as a 80g letter, and you can send up to 100g to the
rest of the world for the same as a 60g letter. And if you have a
200g item a packet costs £3.50 worldwide whilst an item containing a
letter would be £5.92.
From the end of the month all this changes. The worldwide rate for small packets and printed papers up to 100g will be the same as that for a 100g letter. So anything under 80g will be cheaper at letter rate.For Europe a 100g letter will be £2.21, but a small packet or printed paper will be £2.70 - who would send anything at other than the letter rate? There is no bar on sending non-letters at letter rate, unless there has been a considerable change in the rules.
Over 100g the cost of sending letters, small packets, and printed papers
is the same - no cheap rates anymore. The 200g rate will now be
£3.16 for Europe £2.19 at present. Worldwide is once again split into two
zones, with Australasia being Zone B and the rest of the world outside
Europe Zone A - for all the difference it makes! At 200g, Zone A
costs £4.42 while Zone B costs £4.50. Even at the maximum small
packet weight of 2kg the difference is only just over £1.
All the new Machin valued definitive stamps will be self-adhesive, printed by De La Rue in gravure in sheets of 25. There are 12 sheets of 25 per cylinder. They will have security cuts and the irridescent overprint.
The Country definitives will be litho printed on ordinary gummed paper by Cartor Security Print also in sheets of 25. They will have no security features.
Special postmarks available on the day of issue will be shown here.
Ref FD1217 - official pictorial
FDI Windsor postmark Ref FD1218 - official pictorial FDI Tallents House postmark Ref FD1219 - official pictorial FDI London postmark Ref FD1220 - official pictorial FDI Edinburgh postmark Ref FD1221 - official pictorial FDI Cardiff postmark Ref FD1222 - official pictorial FDI Belfast postmark And co-located non-pictorial postmarks for all except Tallents House, same reference numbers with suffix 'NP' |
|||||
Ref S6039 - Belfast operational cds postmark | Ref W6038 - Cardiff operational cds postmark | Ref S6040 - Edinburgh operational cds postmark | Ref S6041 - Glasgow 2 operational cds postmark |
Ref S6042 - Glasgow 10 operational cds postmark |
Ref M12481 Union Street Birmingham |
Additionally, any postmarks available on this date may
also be applied to FDCs - see Permanent postmarks and Other one-day postmarks |
|||||
Ref W5097 - Cardiff permanent handstamp. | Ref S4653 - Edinburgh permanent handstamp. | Ref S4641 - Belfast permanent handstamp. | Ref E4680 - Windsor Castle, Royal Mail permanent handstamp | Ref M12482 Windsor View, Birmingham |
If you wish to be told when this page is updated, please use the
ChangeDetection panel alongside the stamps.
This page updated 10 May 2012