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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Christmas 2025 produces a mixed bag of modern postal history!

We always expect at the busy Christmas period there will be oddities in the mail.  No longer postmarks from Universal machines, but sometimes oddities of other sorts.

Of course the invalidation of the old Machin and country definitives has opened up more opportunities for Royal Mail Revenue Protection teams to show how they have been confused by management decisions and a lack of clear information.  

It is obvious that they need huge posters in the mail centres that can be seen from the other side of the room: then maybe individual operators would not refer so much to the RP teams, and the RP teams wouldn't find so many occasions to get it wrong.

Of course some just can't be bothered, hence this one was delivered in December 2025 - no date sadly - but it was, without postal markings or surcharge.  (And no, it wasn't hand delivered with the stamp just a decoration.) 

This one, on the other hand....  if you don't follow the GB new issues blogs (mine and Commonwealth Stamps Opinion) you might be forgiven for not recognising that this is a recently issued stamp.  

Sure, it looks a bit like the 5d one issued in 1970 but I doubt that anyone working as a postman now remembers that.   No, this has the head of King Charles on it and was issued on 27 November 2025. 

And here it is, used and processed through Birmingham Mail Centre on 18th(?) December 2025.  Three weeks and it's surcharged as being 'No Longer Valid for Postage', surely the quickest invalidation of any British stamp!  (My thanks to Not Bruce on Stampboards for this.)

If anybody has other examples of Christmas season madness, please email them to me for inclusion here.

 

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More properly used special stamps - but they aren't very common

It's 12 months since I started the last post on usage of special stamps in a normal period of use, usually reckoned to be up to six months after issue.  There are so many new issues nowadays that unless people specifically want to use one from a particular set, you are likely to use the latest one that they can get.  With Christmas coming it's a chance for some examples of the less common Large Letter and Airmail Christmas stamps to make an appearance.

But first some older ones which were provided by readers.

2nd class dog stamp issued in June used in September 2024  

2nd class dog stamp issued June 2024 used in September.

2nd class Churchill stamp issued 30 November used 19 December 2024. 

2nd class Churchill stamp issued 30 November used 19 December 2024.

 Valour & Victory Stamps used in the months after issue

Valour & Victory 1st class stamp, featuring Lillian Bader, used 29/07/2025

Valour & Victory Thomas Pierson Frank used 26/08/2025.

 

Valour & Victory Mahinder Singh Pujii, used from Cornwall 24/09/2025.

Valour & Victory William Tutte, Bletchley Park Codebreaker, used from Cornwall, 18/10/2025.

Dungeons and Dragons: a reader in the Phillipines wanted the D&D set, so these are two covers I sent to have them properly used.  A pair of 1st class, a pair of £2.50 and a 10p definitive paid the rate for International Signed For.  Contrived philatelic? of course, but still used at the right time.

Monopoly - a pair of 1st class used for the £3.40 rate to Canada (thanks to SS)

Se-tenant pair of 1st class Monopoly stamps paying the £3.40 rateto Canada November 2025

Christmas 2025 - we'll all get some, but how many of us will get all of them?

2nd class on postcard used internally 

£3.40 airmail rate to Canada used 14 November (thanks to SS).

2025 Christmas £3.40 (airmail rate) to Canada 14/11/2025

 

Will there be more?  Of course, it would be especially nice to see the Queen Victoria stamps on stamps.  Send us scans and we will add them here. 

 

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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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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.

Update 29 June 2025.  I've received a few more special stamps on cover, some from customers using up stamps so occasionally well over the rate for 1st class.  But not really valid for a collection of proper usage.

Porridge £2.50 x2 used inland for £1.70

Porridge £2.50 used inland for £1.70 1st class rate May 2025

The other Porridge £2.50 used inland for £1.70 1st class rate June 2025

 

Valour & Victory Violette Szabo 1st class used 21/06/2025

 

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 (but used in 2025), 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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