apr - june 2017• 30th anniversary of hrh princess anne becoming princess royal ‐ 13 june 2017...

© Ridgewood Publishing www.smilers‐info.com | July 2017 1

www.smilers-info.com Apr - June 2017

Four Themed Sheets from the John Chapman stable

John Chapman has sent me details of four new themed sheets released at the end of April 2017 which coincided with the issue of his 300 Years of Freemasonry Business Customised Stamp sheet. John was one half of the team behind the former Bletchley Park Post Office which closed its doors over a year ago so it was somewhat surprising to me to see at least three of the sheets feature Bletchley Park related images and all four sheets bore a Bletchley Park hand stamp on reverse and numbered/signed by John Chapman ‐ a true enigma in all respects.

All four sheets are from a limited printing of 50 sheets per issue. I understand the price of the sheets is £50 each so a considerable investment is required to acquire all four sheets. Please contact John Chapman directly if interested in buying any of these sheets. Click on any of the above thumbnail images to see more details of each of these new Themed Sheet designs. (29/05)

TNT Personalised Stamp Labels

Whistl, formerly TNT Post UK, is a postal delivery company operating in the United Kingdom. The company primarily competes with UK Mail, UPS, Parcelforce, DHL, Hermes,


Royal Mail and Yodel. It processes about 25% of the UK's mail, amounting to over 4 billion items per year in 2015. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dutch delivery company PostNL until October 2015, when a management buyout was completed and PostNL became a minority shareholder.One of its legacies is a little known personalised stamp service which TNT/Whistl branded yourStamp and made available to UK Account customers. For some years TNT Post UK offered the public the opportunity to personalise their mail by supplying personalised stamp labels to Account Holders with a minimum order of 10,000 stamps, similar to Universal Mail UK. Some of these are finding their way into kiloware and can make an interesting addition to a collection of GB postage labels or personalised stamps.I thought it might be interesting to document these issues and add to the general knowledge surrounding these personalised stamp issues. Whistl have produced an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) Customer Guide with details of this service and one can download a copy of this by clicking on this link.http://www.smilers‐info.com/yourStamp‐CustGuide_v1.pdf

I am aware of three sheets of (trial?) stamps that were produced by TNT Post UK and sold to the Public in the run up to rolling out this service nationwide. If readers have others in their collections please share images so that I can include them in a future listing of these sheets.

The first sheet was issued in July 2008 in a numbered, limited edition of 130 ‐ all sheets were signed by their UK Managing Director. This was followed by a TNT Christmas Stamp


sheet issued in November 2008 in a numbered, limited edition of 300 sheets. Finally in December 2009, TNT released a third numbered limited edition Stamp sheet from a printing of 150 sheets.

These are difficult to find and change hands for up to £100 each ‐ more perhaps for the first sheet, as I have rarely seen this sheet on offer. Here are some other examples of the personalised labels which come from the yourStamps stable.

If anyone has any of these TNT labels in different designs I would appreciate an image so that I can add these to the information known about these issues pending inclusion (perhaps!) in a third edition (perhaps!) of the Smilers Catalogue. (22/03)

Post Script: John Gray has written and pointed me to his excellent article in the British Postmark Journal from 2017 in which he provides a detailed account of these "C9 indicia" labels and made the point that these labels can only be used by the party in contract with TNT Post and therefore are not directly available to the public other than from via kiloware. This may change my thinking on a catalogue entry at some future point. To find out more about this publication and the activities of the British Postmark Society please visit their website at: www.britishpostmarksociety.org.uk. (29/05)


New House of Windsor Business Sheet from Buckingham Covers

Buckingham Covers has announced a new Business Sheet to be issued on 31st July 2017 commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the House of Windsor ‐ was this the very first Brexit?For the historical buffs amongst us here is what Wikipedia has to say about the change of name to the House of Windsor. (20/05)

"Edward VII and, in turn, his son, George V, were members of the German ducal House of Saxe‐Coburg and Gotha by virtue of their descent from Albert, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria. High anti‐German sentiment amongst the people of the British Empire during World War I reached a peak in March 1917, when the Gotha G.IV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel, began bombing London directly and became a household name. In the same year, on 15 March, King George's first cousin, Nicholas II, the Emperor of Russia, was forced to abdicate, which raised the spectre of the eventual abolition of all the monarchies in Europe. The King and his family were finally convinced to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles and house names to anglicised versions. Hence, on 17 July 1917, a royal proclamation issued by George V declared:Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor."


The Lisbon Lions Business Sheet ‐ Updated 26 May

News has just reached us of a Royal Mail inspired Business Customised stamp sheet produced in conjunction with Celtic FC celebrating the Celtic FC win against Inter Milan in Lisbon in 1967. On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of this win, Royal Mail and Celtic FC will release the sheet on the 25th May 2016.

Celtic beat Inter Milan 2‐1 in the final of the European Cup on 25th May 1967 at the Estádio Nacional near Lisbon, Portugal. The sheet features the Saltire Scottish Definitive and is a limited edition of 5000, which will be sold predominantly by the football club through their 9 retail outlets and online. We have secured a small quantity of these sheets and can offer them priced at £29.95. (20/05)

Post Script: As of 25th May 2017 Royal Mail have no stocks of these sheets available to the public and are unsure when these will be in stock. Apparently the agreement between Celtic and Royal Mail allowing them to market these sheets is still outstanding and as such until this is in in place Key Account holders have been asked to keep confidential the images associated with this product. For this reason, the image previously published has been temporarily withdrawn. (25/05)

Post Post Script : As of 5th July 2017 Royal Mail now have stocks of these sheets available to the public. Apparently the agreement between Celtic and Royal Mail allowing them to


market these sheets would now appear to have been signed, but no one has told me officially so unofficially here is the image reinstated! (05/07)

GB Commemorative Sheet Update

Three Commemorative sheets are planned by Royal Mail for issue later this year and here is a summary of subjects and issue dates:

• 30th Anniversary of HRH Princess Anne becoming Princess Royal ‐ 13 June 2017 • CANADA Celebrating 150 Years ‐ 30 June 2017 • The Postal Museum Opening ‐ 13 September 2017

The Postal Museum commemorative sheet is the postponed sheet from earlier this year which was postponed due to delays in the official opening date of the Postal Museum which is now scheduled for some time in July 2017.�This year marks the 150 anniversary of Canada and the Royal Mail commemorative sheet looks at modern Canada and its many proud achievements. Britain formed the Province of Canada, uniting its two main territories – present‐day Ontario and Quebec – under the Act of Union in 1840. Following several constitutional conferences, the 1867 Constitution Act officially proclaimed Canadian Confederation on 1 July 11867 and its independence as a sovereign state. (13/05)

CSS‐034


CSS‐035

CSS‐036

Jersey Commemorative Stamp Sheets

Earlier this year, I commented on how well I thought Jersey Post were doing in issuing colourful, collectible, low‐cost commemorative stamp sheets, in abject contrast to Royal Mail's abysmal marketing of their Smilers products. Jersey Post has recently issued two further sheets in this series and brief details follow.The first of these two new sheets was issued on the 25 April 2017 is a sheet commemorating the 150th Birthday of T.B. Davis ‐ a great Jerseyman and a brilliant sailor, often to be seen racing King George V, as well as a philanthropist, gifting land and buildings to the people of Jersey.


JCS‐038 ‐ 150th Birthday of T.B. Davis

The second sheet was issued on the 28 April 2017 and marks the Jersey European Agility Festival held at the Jersey Accommodation and Activity Centre in the parish of St Martin from 28 April to 1 May 2017. This sheet of 20 UK Letter stamps has been issued with labels featuring photographs from a previous year's festival.

JCS‐039 ‐ Jersey European Agility Festival 2017

I have both these sheets in stock and can supply them at £25 each plus £2 p+p. If you wish to order these please e‐mail me with your requirements. (30/04)

apr - june 2017• 30th anniversary of hrh princess anne becoming princess royal ‐ 13 june 2017...

Documents