Postage stamp collecting. New Great Britain stamps and first day covers

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Welcome to Norvic Philatelics GB stamps pages - if you cannot see our logo either we have a problem, or your browser is not image enabled. The content of this site is mostly pictures of stamps and postmarks, so you will miss out if your browser is set to not show images.

Welcome to Norvic Philatelics

H e l l o !! great britain stamp .. the web's number 1 resource for up-to-date news about new stamps of Great Britain, as well as all the new postmarks, many of them pictorial and of interest to thematic or topical collectors.

A Happy New Year to all our customers and other readers. Already it is a very busy first half of the year, with special stamp issues for the London Festival of Stamps, London2010.

A big surprise for the start of 2010 - the Design Classics II set depicts Classic Album Covers! This has been a very popular set and dealing with orders, especially for FDCs, has not been made any easier by Royal Mail's inability to provide some of the products until the day of issue!

This year again we have some 10x 1st class sets being issued in separate strips of 5, allowing the easy purchase of single designs. But that it is not for every issue, the Battersea Dogs & Cats being a block of 10. WHY? The Kings & Queens series will have two sets in 2010; the Scottish Stewarts will have 7 stamps.

E-MAILing us: Most pages have clickable 'mailto' links which generate a subject line. If you write without using one of these links, please use the SUBJECT line in your mail to indicate which stamp issue you are writing about. Any message with a blank SUBJECT or with common spam subject lines, such as: hello, order, a question for you, hi, etc, will probably be rejected by our spam filter. Mail us from here or from our online shop (see below), and the message will get through.

COPYRIGHT These pages and all Norvic Philatelics FDCs are our copyright. These may not be used without our permission. All pictures of new stamps, postmarks, presentation packs, prestige books and Royal Mail first day covers are copyrighted by Royal Mail and are reproduced here with their kind permission. Webmasters, publishers, students and schools may copy Royal Mail images from our site, but the use of these images must be cleared with Royal Mail Intellectual Property office by clicking on this link. We may be also able to provide higher-resolution images; if not Royal Mail may provide them.
Please do not 'hotlink' to our images; if you want to use them, copy them (right click) and host them on your own space. Thank you!

If you need anything for your collection which isn't shown here - please ask, we may have it. Our new online store has stamps, fdcs, postal stationery, world postal history, and picture postcards: click here to see all our limited edition Great Britain first day covers from 2003 to 2009.

Payment. We prefer cheques from UK customers or you can pay by internet bank transfer or over the counter to our bank account.
These are other methods that we know of: Canada pay by Canadian Postal Money Order in pounds sterling; Eurozone countries: payment by bank transfer is possible.
International Money Orders and cheques/checks are also accepted; cash in US$/GBP/€uro at the sender's risk. Credit card payments are accepted via PayPal only: if you don't have a PayPal account we can send you an e-invoice. Postage and packing is extra.

Our other site is devoted to the stamps and postal history of the countries of the Former Soviet Union in the 1990s. This is a fascinating area of modern postal history and we hope to find time away from GB new issues to develop this site to show material from Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Lithuania etc, as well as Belarus which is already shown. We've moved this from Geocities, and very slightly updated it, and you can now see it here.

WANTED!
1994 Postage Due/To Pay stamps

For a personal collection we are interested in buying examples of the 1994 issue 'To Pay' stamps properly used, preferably on cover or parcel piece.
The values issued are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 25p, £1, £1.20 & £5, all in the same design.
Please email.

External links
The information on external sites is the responsibility of the respective site owners. We review these links periodically to ensure that they are still valid and apologise for any 'broken' links that there may be. If you find any links which are broken or which are no longer relevant, please email Broken link and we will investigate and make corrections where we can. Many thanks.

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Updated 18/19 February.

Major update to the site today. This page has been re-made and a new 2009 index page now provides access to all the pages for 2009 stamp issues.

First Day postmarks have been added to the Royal Society 350th anniversary and Battersea Dogs & Cats page. New pages added London 2010: Accession of King George V, London 2010: The King's Stamps, London 2010: Britain Alone , New Machin definitive & Country stamps for rate changes.
Also a few additional postmarks on the permanent postmarks and one-day postmarks pages.

Update 1 February. FD Postmarks for the 2 February Girl Guiding Centenary miniature sheet have been added today.

See & buy the Classic Album Covers stamps here.

For faster news about British stamps - visit
Norvic Philatelics' blog .

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Errors Update

Charles Darwin PSB stamp book error. Two days after the date of issue and we have the first report of a duplicated pane error in the Charles Darwin PSB - see this here.

RAF & Regionals prestige stamp book errors! During last summer a number Machin Anniversary PSBs were found with duplicated panes. Today we can report the Regionals Anniversary PSB with a duplicated pane 1 - see this and any others on this book here. See also the pictures of Machin PSB errors here.

We have also been shown the 2nd class Business Sheet (PIP) totally imperforate with matrix complete! (We do not have any of these for sale)

Army Uniforms The joint Royal Mail/BFPO Army Uniforms FDC was paraded at Autumn Stampex 2008 in London - see the pictures here.

Join us at these forums
where you can take part in discussions on a wide-range of philatelic subjects, learn from the expertise of others, and maybe help somebody new.

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Stampboards - please read the forum rules and introduce yourself in the appropriate message thread.

SITE MAP

Click here for links to our online shop, listing stamps, first day covers, postal history, and postcards

Announcements

Collectors of Spitzbergen, Norway, Scandinavia
see foot of page for new book.

STAMP FAIRS

Regular Norwich Stamp Fair Sundays 17 January, 21 March, 16 May, 18 July, 19 September, & 21 November 2010 Click here for details

The next Norfolk & Norwich Philatelic Society STAMP & POSTCARD FAIRS will be Saturday 24 April & 7 August 2010 Details will be here.

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Ian, Val & John Billings
Norvic Philatelics,
PO Box 119, Dereham,
NR20 3YN, Great Britain
Telephone: 08450 09 09 39*

*Only between 0900 and 1700 UK time please Monday - Friday. (Before calling, please check UK time shown at the top of the page! ).
Other times and weekends we may be available on Skype, and emails will always be dealt with as soon as we can
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If the display above shows "I'm not telling" it is a Skype error - we may be here, we may not! Try anyway but check the time first!

APS # 207617
Visit the American Philatelic Society
Website at www.stamps.org

If you collect Great Britain First Day Covers,
join the Association of GB FDC Collectors - click the logo.

Buying from outside the United Kingdom? Pay us securely with your Visa, MasterCard, or American Express card ONLYthrough PayPal! Ask for details! (Within the UK we prefer cheques or bank transfer!)

Pages for GB Stamp Issues.

Great Britain Stamps - issue programme for 2010
Links to stamp issues for 2_0_0_3 2_0_0_4 2_0_0_5 2_0_0_6 2_0_0_7 2_0_0_8 2 0 0 9
7 January	British Design Classics II - Album Covers
	Olympics Retail Booklet 1
26 January	New Smilers Stamps - miniature sheet & generic sheet
2 February	Girl Guide Centenary MS
25 February	350th Anniversary of the Royal Society
	Olympics Retail Booklet 2
1 March	Castles of Wales generic Smilers Sheet (last in series)
11 March	150th anniv Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
23 March	Kings & Queens: House of Stewart
30 March	Festival of Stamps Retail Booklet
	New Machin definitive & Country stamps for rate change
13 April	Endangered Mammals
6 May	Accession of King George V (London 2010 issue)
8 May	The King's Stamps (ditto - 1st day of London Festival of Stamps)
13 May	Britain Alone (commemoration of events of 1940)
15 June	Kings & Queens: House of Stuart
27 July	Olympics & Paralympics II
19 August	Stage Musicals
16 September	Great British Railways
12 October	Children's Books - includes A A Milne, we understand
2 November	Christmas - set of 7, MS, Smilers Sheet, Stamp booklets

Great Britain Special Pictorial Postmarks not associated with new stamp issues

Permanent special and pictorial postmarks
18 February 2010

Other special postmarks
18 February 2010

ARTICLES

Advertisements in definitive booklets

booklet of 6 1st class definitive stamps with advertisement inside front cover The March 2005 publicity leaflet for the Magic Circle stamps included a footnote about a new booklet of 6 x 1st class stamps which included, on the previously blank inside front cover, an advertisement for Royal Mail's Smilers service. The stamps were available in supermarkets and other retail outlets (but not necessarily from post offices) from early January. This booklet was, according to the Philatelic Bureau's official announcement, scheduled to have its philatelic release on 15 March. We now understand that, contrary to the published information, they made the booklets available from 27 January; three sponsored postmarks were available for this revised first date of philatelic availability*. As actual availability may have been 2-3 weeks before that date and due to the confusion over the actual release date we did not produce any first day covers for these booklets either with 27 January date, or 15 March. There is no change to the stamps, only the booklet cover. *These postmarks can be seen here.

UPDATE: A new Advertising booklet was issued on 26 July 2005. This promotes the (large) 'LOVE' stamp on the inside cover.
advertisement on inside cover of stamp booklet issued 2 October 2006. The third such booklet was the one containing definitive-sized greeting stamps issued on 4 October 2005.

postmark depicting Windsor Castle. postmark depicting Sandringham House. postmark depicting Buckingham Palace. Three special postmarks were available for FDCs of this booklet or stamps from it. NEW BOOKLET 2 October 2006.
This new booklet of 6 x 1st class stamps is described by Royal Mail as a 'stamp media book'. It is identical with any other 1st class book and contains PIP definitives, but with an advertisement promoting stamp collecting. It is sold through the Post Office network but also through other retail outlets, notably major supermarkets. We have no first day cover of this booklet in stock.

Smartstamps launched - 15 January 2004

1st class Smartstamp in English Royal Mail launched the 'Smartstamp' - a stamp which can be printed from personal computers in homes and businesses throughout the country. Read more about the system and see examples here.

Fee-free online postage launched 19 September 2006

Royal Mail launched a new online postage facility today which, unlike Smartstamps, has no monthly or annual facility fee and, unlike Smartstamps, is not restricted to people who use Internet Explorer as their browser. It even runs on Apple Mac systems, and with Mozilla Firefox.
The 'stamp' impression is the same as for the latest Smartstamps version. Behind the address the service is printed in microprint. We'll write this up in a fuller explanation later, but meanwhile you can see a sample cover here - click Back to get back to this page.

Christmas postal delivery by Scouts

1982 Sheffield Scout Stamp showing BP Although Royal Mail has had a monopoly on the delivery of mail, since 1981 charity groups, principally Scouts, Guides and Church Groups have been permitted to arrange the collection and distribution of greetings cards each year for a limited period before Christmas.
See a selection of Scout Christmas Post Stamps here.

Special Delivery postage paid label Royal Mail Postage Labels

Click here to read more about this new phase of modern postal history. Updated 22 September 2003 with labels in new typeface and layout.

In 2009, labels with the Machin head were used for Special Delivery items at just one post office in London. See Machin Horizon Label page.

From the Scandinavia Philatelic Society in the United Kingdom:

Spitzbergen Cruise Mail: 1890-1914 - newly published, 60 A4 pages

For full details and sample images click here.

News about Great Britain new stamps and postmarks with links to this site will be announced on various mailing lists, the Virtual Stamp Club, and Stampboards forum.

This site started 1998; latest update 19 February 2010
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