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. 

 

---

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!

---