Universal Mail UK - International Postcard Stamps usage

From time to time I get asked about these stamps, which are widely sold from tourist attractions, and often exclusive to them.  I suspect that is largely because my original webpage on the story of these still features at or near the top of search engine listings. 

UniversalMail UK Ltd was established in 2006 following deregulation of the UK postal industry. 

While most of Royal Mail's competitors have concentrated on the high-volume mass-mail and business market, leaving Royal Mail to do the final sorting and delivery, UniversalMail UK has an access agreement with Royal Mail which enables any postcard or envelope(*) bearing a UniversalMail UK postage stamp to be posted to any detination outside the UK through the extensive network of Royal Mail post boxes, located throughout the country. 

All UniversalMail UK postage stamps are also accepted over the counter at Royal Mail Post Office branches. UniversalMail UK’s clients include tourist operators, regional tourist offices (information centres), hotels, general retailers and souvenir shops.

The first stamps were self-adhesive, produced in October 2008.

Although they originally provided stamps for 20g letters this was a short-lived facility and now only stamps for postcards are sold.  Nonetheless, they are all only for international addresses.

Some people who write about these complain to me, despite the clear statement that we are not involved in the UMUK service at all.  The latest, just before Christmas, was to a UK resident "sent by a friend from New Zealand staying in London at the time". 

Christmas card stamped with Universal Mail UK International Postcard stamp, rightly surcharged as being unpaid.

If anybody has any examples of these properly or improperly used I'll be pleased to add them.

I tested the system in the early days and some were improperly processed through the Royal Mail international system and passed to the postal authority in the destination country.  I'll add examples later.

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More Great Britain special stamps on cover.

I am starting a new post on this since the postage rates were increased again in October. Please send images of any special stamps (except Christmas low values) used on letters or parcels.

A customer is still using up Peppa Pig stamps (issued 16 May) when writing to me: sad to see that using the £2 stamp produces a cover only overpaid by 35p at the new 1st class rate.

Peppa Pig £2 stamp (issued 16 May 2024) used 7 November to pay first class rate of £1.65

Porridge 2nd class used quite soon after issue.

2nd class 'Porridge' stamp used soon after issue probably early October.

I'll repeat the conclusion of the previous post:

So what can we conclude?  Use of modern stamps is scarce - missing from the 2024 issues are Spice Girls, Dinosaurs, Dungeons & Dragons, Porridge, Spiders... 

But I will harvest a few usages from the Stampboards forum where some others have been shown. I do have a report of a Spice Girls 1st class used with a 1st class Machin on a postcard to Australia, but there is no postmark.

If you receive any, especially from businesses or friends and family, then I would be interested to record them, obscuring addresses.  Given their general scarcity, it would also be useful to record when dealers and other collectors are using new stamps, given the relatively cheap postage deals available.

Scans, rather than photos, please and no more than 200 dpi - smartphone photos are megabytes tooo big!

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Special stamps are so scarce when new, that they should be kept on cover/parcel piece.

Hardly a day passes without somebody writing on social media, stamp forums, in the philatelic press, or as a comment to me, that "nobody uses modern stamps".

What the commenter really means is, "ordinary people don't use modern stamps", because some dealers, some collectors, and many many Postcrossers do.  And whilst even correspondence between dealers and collectors in either direction could be classed as 'commercial' (ie 'in the course of business/commerce') rather than purely philatelic, the numbers are declining year on year.  

One reason is that Post Office Ltd do not allow sales of special stamps at a considerable number of branches, most often those operating out of small shops, with limited secure storage.  Another is the large number of Outreach/Mobile branches, where the postmaster often doesn't take special stamps 'because nobody asks for them'.  The old Catch-22 situation: if nobody knows they exist, they won't ask for them. And of course PO Ltd pay a larger (though still small) commission for the use of labels rather than stamps.

So I thought I would use this post to show some of the special stamps that have been used in the last few years, just to show that some do get used.

1st class Red Arrows stamp used within a month of issue 12 July 2024 (from customer).

Another 1st class Red Arrows stamp used within a month of issue 17 July 2024 (from another customer).

1st class Peppa Pig stamp used within weeks of issue 26 May 2024 (a different customer)

1st class Vikings stamp used a week after issue - 26 February 2024

1st class Weather stamp used a few  weeks after issue 9 March 2024 (customer)

1st class Weather stamp used two weeks after issue17 February 2024

Blackadder 2nd class stamp issued 17 May 2023 and used within the following week.

Blackadder 2nd class stamp used December 2023 (issued May 2023)

1st class Robin Hood stamp used 14 April 2023, the day after issue (collector/contributor)

UDPATE 20 August

Yeoman Warders Tower of London 1st class stamp issued 13 August used 19 August 2024 (Customer)

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A selection of others recently acquired and not in any particular order.  Some of these have been supplied, others are mine (click on them to see a larger image):

Only Fools & Horses 1st class issued 16 Feb, used 8 November 2021.

Rupert Bear 2nd class issued September 2020, used July 2021.

2nd class Battle of Tewkesbury (Wars of the Roses) issued May, used December 2021

Rupert Bear 2nd class issued September 2020, used October - greetings card, social.

2nd class Roman Britain issued June 2020, used July 2021 (ebay postcard seller)

Gruffalo 1st class issued October 2019, used January 2020.

UPDATE 31 July 2024: Another 1st class Peppa Pig (issued in May)

The other 1st class Peppa Pig stamp issued in May, used 30/7/2024

So what can we conclude?  Use of modern stamps is scarce - missing from the 2023 issues are Iron Maiden, X-men, Flying Scotsman, Flowers, Coronation MS, Warhammer, Windrush, River Wildlife, Discworld, Paddington Bear, Shirley Bassey, and Harry Potter!  

If you receive any, especially from businesses or friends and family, then I would be interested to record them, obscuring addresses.  Given their general scarcity, it would also be useful to record when dealers and other collectors are using new stamps, given the relatively cheap postage deals available.

Scans, rather than photos, please and no more than 200 dpi - smartphone photos are megabytes tooo big!

..

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War is a tragedy but can sometimes throw up unexpected postal history

If you tried to send a letter from the UK to Palestine at the present time you would find it rejected at the PO counter (I hope) or returned if you dropped it into a postbox as the service is currently suspended.  

Likewise mail to Israel experiences delays due to disrupted flights.  Mail to both Russia and Ukraine is still being despatched but is subject to delay, while there has been no service to Crimea or the Donbass regions since 2014.

On the other hand, the United States Postal Service suspended sendings to both Russia and Belarus in March 2022.  

SH has sent pictures of a cover shared with him by a Postcrosser.  The letter was addressed from the UK to Belarus but mis-sorted to the United States.  Normally such mis-sorts would simply be re-routed to the correct destination.  But in this case there is no US-Belarus service, so the item was returned to sender, suitably endorsed.  

A great item to add to a collection of postal history of the UK, US or Belarus, Russia or Ukraine!

UK - Belarus letter mid-2024 returned to sender after mis-sorting to the USA. Yellow USPS 'Unable to Forward' label.

USPS's fuller explanation of suspension and advice to claim refund of postage paid.

This is the first item I have seen of this sort.  I shall post it on a couple of stamp forums to find out if there are any others - there should be from the USA, but not so many from the UK!

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