Norvic Philatelics - GB New Stamps and Special Postmarks

Greetings retail stamp booklet - 28 February 2008

The latest Royal Mail greetings booklet contains the 6 most popular greetings stamps previously issued in two separate booklets in 2005 and 2006.

Royal Mail do not regard this as a new issue, so there will not be an official first day cover or First Day of Issue postmarks. But the stamps are very different. The basic and most obvious difference is that the earlier stamps had conventional perforations all round, but the latest booklet has stamps with an elliptical elongated perforation on the long side, similar to the Machin definitives. In the US the Scott catalogue refers to these as syncopated perforations.

In some ways it is unfortunate that the perforations are different, because there is still scope in these stamps for philatelic study, as can be seen in the enlarged images below.

The three stamps on row 2 are the same as on row 2 of the second booklet, and are basically unchanged from the previous printing:

I think that apparent differences on these three are caused by differences in depth of colour (rather than shade), and colour registration. The three stamps in row 1, however, came from rows 1 & 2 of the first booklet, and the images are actually larger than the originals. The Queen's head is also larger on the new stamps.

More space between base of 'h' and foot of stamp.

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The difference is most noticeable in the petal at lower right and in the gap at the top edge.
Note that the 'reversed out' denomination is the same distance from the top edge.

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More of the flagstaff is showing at the foot of the stamp, and there is more of a gap between the flag and the value.

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This page created 22 February 2008 - return to the main page for this booklet using the link below.

2007	2008 stamp issues				Visit our online shop!
January 8 Ian Fleming's James Bond 15 Definitive LOVE booklet 15 New Smilers stamps	February 5 Working Dogs 28 Kings and Queens I 28 Greetings retail booklet	March 11Celebrating Northern Ireland MS and Glorious Northern Ireland Smiler Sheet 13 Mayday - Rescue at Sea	April 1 Rate change Machin & Country stamps 1 Territorial Army commemorative sheet 15 Endangered Species - Insects	May 13 Cathedrals 13 Retail booklet - summer	June 10 Classic Films
July 17 Air Displays, powered flight 24 Olympics commemorative sheet	August 22 Olympics handover Joint issue	September 18 British Military Uniforms (II - Royal Air Force) 29 50th Anniv. regional stamps MS 29 Glorious UK Smilers sheet	October 14Women of Distinction	November 4 Christmas (Pantomime) 6 Lest We Forget	2009 programme HOME Site Map
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