Unusual surcharge label appears over two years after stamp invalidations

Following on from the previous post of an Antigua stamp being accepted through the mail at Sheffield Mail Centre, JW has sent this image from Reddit of a Christmas stamp being rejected by Royal Mail's Revenue Protection team somewhere.

Christmas 2010 1st class stamp declared invalid in 2025.

This one has a 2010 1st class Wallace & Gromit Christmas stamp which has been declared 'No Longer Valid for Postage'.  I'm hesitant to say that this label hasn't been reported before - I certainly can't recall it but surely it has been recorded somewhere?

Surcharge label with QR code - try it, it works!

Ironically, if Revenue Protection officers who applied this label had scanned the code it would have taken them to the Royal Mail app, specifically this page:

From the Royal Mail app Swap Out Scheme page

Whilst the 2010 stamp isn't shown, there is a Christmas stamp there.  Basically it's nonsense, incompetent and it's about time Revenue Protection sorted themselves out.  

 

And if they can't get it right, why should the general public?  

 

There are over 50 comments on that Reddit thread at least 7 users were telling everybody else, sometimes repeatedly, that all stamps had to have baarcodes.  One of the people putting them right was a postmaster however, so hopefully seven more people now know the true position.  Sadly none of them appear to work for Revenue Protection.

But back to the QR code - has anyone seen this before?

 

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Aything goes - sometimes!

There is little distinctive now about Royal Mail's stamp issues to make them stand out from those of any other country - save that they have a tiny profile of the monarch's head on - and they aren't unique in that respect. 

Wildlife, comic-book heroes, film and tv franchises - not quite as prolific as Australia but many of these subjects have appeared from other stamp-issuing territories around the world. 

That's the only explanation for this escaping the attention of Revenue Protection officers.

Antigua & Barbuda $2 Star Trek stamp depicting Lt Sulu used at Sheffield Mail Centre 31/10/2025

Yes, it's StarTrek, marked 5 years ago by Royal Mail and covering the whole franchise which explains the omission of Lt Sulu from the set.  

But Sheffield Mail Centre happily passed this one through as if it was, what?  2nd class?  £2?  The British stamps didn't even have the name of the show on them, the only caption being to identify the characters.  

(Lest anyone thinks that inclusion of 'Great Britain' in the address means that it originated outside the UK, my correspondent assures me that it came from Goole.) 

But it's not the first, and won't be the last.  Last year (as shown on the other blog) Royal Mail - and possibly Post Office Ltd - accepted this set of WWF stamps - from Tristan da Cunha!

And we have previously been able to report this one from 2015 with a couple of stamp-on-stamps from St Helena, a pair of kestrels from the Falkland Is, and one Jersey stamp making the £1.41 rate - and cancelled at a post office branch in Rochdale.

With millions of mail items being processed daily of course some will slip through - that's how 60/70 years ago it was possible to have letters delivered bearing national insurance stamps, green shield trading stamps, and other non-postage stamps.

But there aren't so many now and the equipment is more sophisticated.  But really, one thematically illustrated postage stamp looks much like another.  70 years ago it wasn't worth charging postage due when it was only 6d and it cost more to collect it.  With 'Unpaid' charges now being astronomically higher, that argument doesn't apply.

But they are all fun to collect - let us know if you have any more,

 

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Some Royal Mail operatives still getting it wrong on validity.

It's been quite a long time since anybody reported having perfectly valid stamps declared invalid, and then two arrive almost together.  I think I can see why there might be confusion, but at by now, there shouldn't be.

The first one, from JR, had the 2007 1st class Lion for the World Cup 2007 Smilers Sheet, or MS; of course the similar definitive is no longer valid but.... 

The complaints process has been started! 

£2.50 surcharge on 1st class 'Wembley' Lion stamp, used July 2025.

The second, from IY, has the 2018 2nd class Christmas stamp.  It's pre-datamatrix (which started in 2021) but that doesn't matter, because in 2021 the 2nd & 1st class stamps were issued in both formats and both remain valid!  

In this case a refund of a booklet of 1st class stamps was 'paid out' by Royal Mail - but the customer is not only inconvenienced initially but then again in the effort to get a refund.

£2.50 surcharge on 2nd class 2019 Christmas stamp used May 2025.

Who else has had this problem this year?

It's sadly no surprise that there are more.  This one from CP shows the 175^th Anniversary of the Penny Black 6 x 1^st retail booklet, processed at Chester Mail Centre.  Unfortunately the yellow labels don't indicate where they were applied.  This time the stamp is identified as 'Counterfeit', rather than 'No Longer Valid'.  This seems like guesswork to me.

1d black 175th anniversary stamp mis-identified as Counterfeit

 

 

 

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Blog updates.

I'm sorry there has not been much added here recently but that it largely down to far fewer instances of mail being surcharged, and less confusion over validity.  It also seems that the crackdown on the use of forged definitive and commemorative stamps is paying off, as there haven't been many of these either.

I've today added to this post Proactive methods to avoid surcharged or delayed mail  

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