How much longer will Queen Elizabeth Horizon Labels last?

Although I don't buy anything from eBay these days I do get quite a lot of mail from eBay sellers.  This is because many sellers won't send to the People's Republic of China.  I have a contact there for whom I used to make UK maximum cards, and having built the trust I readily agreed to act as a clearing house for his all purchases of Shanghai and other postcards, and then I ship them in bulk every few months.

The introduction of the Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 services (which can't be paid for with stamps) meant that more letters and packets were sent using plain white labels. rather than Horizon labels. 

Additionally eBay has made many changes since I last bought, one of which is the provision of postage labels, bought either through PayPal or eBay held funds.  I won't go into details but this has been the subject of much debate among those who do use the system.

So most of the modern postage labels are printed either at home or at the post office on plain white labels such as this. 

Postage label paid and printed from eBay.

When I do get something with a Horizon label it is usually a King Charles III one, so it was a surprise when this one arrived this morning with a Queen Elizabeth II version. 

QE2 Horizon label used 14 September 2026 from Eynsham Drive SE2.

 

This is from the branch at 166 Eynsham Drive, London, Greater London SE2 9PT.

 

So, this set me to wondering where else still has stocks of these old labels?

If you receive any please let me know.

 

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Hey, I got a letter with a stamp on! How many 2nd Large solo use have you seen?

The cover shown below was posted in Norwich yesterday and was delivered here near Dereham today, which is unexpectedly good, especially as a lot of local mail is routed through Peterborough mail centre before being returned to Norfolk.

King Charles III 2nd Large definitive M24L used on cover 29 July 2026.

The cost of this is £1.55, which pays no other rate, domestic or international, so this is the only way to get it used by itself (aside from deliberate underpayment).  You could use it with a 5p and 20p to make the basic 1st class (standard) letter, but that might confuse.  

Unlike some rates (eg 1st class domestic x 2 = 100g standard airmail worldwide), there isn't even a neat way to use two of them together: one would need to add 20p to make the 1st Large rate.

If - and it's a big IF - collectors are trying to build a collection of usages of King Charles definitives, this could be one of the more difficult if you live outside the UK.

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Mail to Australia - correctly paid in 1990 but underpaid in 1970.

Reader MikeM has sent two examples of mail to Australia.  The 1970 letter is underpaid, the 1990 postcard properly paid but with an unusual postmark.

Starting with the postcard.  29p paid the worldwide airmail postcard from 2 October 1989 to 16 September 1990 when it rose to 31p.  For the collector of 'solo use' this is the obvious way to find them. 

29p Machin solo use on airmail postcard to Australia 25 May 1990.

The original deep mauve stamp was issued in 26 September 1989 in sheets printed by Harrisons on phosphor paper (SG X979).   It was also printed in booklets of 4, in litho by Walsall, and issued on the date the rate came into force, 2 October 1989.  These litho printings are quite distinctive, not least because the stamps have two phosphor bands and the booklet pane is imperforate on three sides.  These (SG X1054) should not be difficult to find.

Although these booklets were available from most post offices they were also sold by tourist destinations in addition to the domestic rate booklets.  Having one worldwide rate meant that they only had one airmail booklet to stock.   

The booklet was reprinted on phosphor paper and issued on 17 April 1990 with imperforate edges as before (SG X1055).  This is probably more difficult to find due to its shorter usage period.

From 17 September 1990 the 29p stamp paid the under 10gr airmail rate for Printed Papers to Zones A and B (basically the whole world outside Europe excluding Australasia and the far east of Asia.  I suspect these are much more difficult to find.

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Mike's other piece is pre-decimal, a 1970 letter also to Australia, bearing the rarely seen 2 x 10d stone stamps, SG 741.  The potential problem here is that 2 x 10d = 1s 8d, and the correct rate was 1s 9d. evidently the Post Office didn't take the time to surcharge this international item for 1d, but they were not slow to do so for domestic mail.

Pair of 10d drab stamps on Airmail letter to Australia, May 1970, underpaying the 1s 9d rate by 1d.

The question which will never be answered is why were the 10d stamps used at all?  I don't think it was because the writer used them for an 8 ounce inland letter in July1968 when issued, or for a 10 ounce second class letter after the introduction of two-tier post from 16 September 1968. 

Much more likely is that they had some for sending airmail postcards to Australia, as 10d was the rate from 3 October 1966 to decimalisation on 15 February 1971. 

Or perhaps the sender was a collector, using a variety of stamps on different letters?  Whatever the circumstances they got the rate wrong! 

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Relaunch of the Postal History of the World blog.

Five years after I set it up I have made the first substantive post to my World Postal History blog.

Read about the connection between a registered airmail cover from Soviet Russia to England and a famous Hollywood film star. 

Exploring Russian language, political place-name changing and industrial development, this story took an unexpected turn.

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