Norvic Philatelics - GB New Stamps and Special Postmarks
Pictorial Faststamps: Sheep - 24 February 2012
Royal Mail is going down on the farm in 2012 with its new series of Post and
Go stamps. British Farm Animals is the first in a series of three issues
that will explore some of the many traditional breeds of sheep, cattle and
pigs to be found on farms in the UK. Post & Go terminals
allow customers to weigh their letters and packets, pay for and print
postage labels and stamps without the need to visit the counter. The first
Post & Go machine was trialled in The Galleries Post Office® in Bristol
in 2008.
The labels can be obtained with 6 different service indicators from all
machines: 1st class up to 100g & 1st class Large up to 100g, Europe up
to 20g, Worldwide up to 10g and 20g, and the new Worldwide 40g. The
stamps are dispensed singly or in strips of up to 5 of the same value or
various values. Thus there are 30/36 different value/design
combinations in total. A collector set of 6 in two strips of 3 are
also available.
Row 1: Welsh Mountain
Badgerface, Dalesbred, Jacob
Row 2: Suffolk, Soay,
Leicester Longwool
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The stamps in detail
Welsh Mountain Badger Face
This ancient breed is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There are two
varieties: Torddu (Welsh for black belly) and Torwen (white belly). The
Torddu’s colours vary from white to light brown with a distinctive stripe
above the eyes.
Dalesbred
Distinguished by its black face with a white spot on each side of its nose,
this hardy sheep has been bred in northern areas of England for generations.
Its tough hard-wearing wool is favoured in the making of tweeds and carpets.
Jacob
The Jacob originated in Syria over 3000 years ago. With its distinctive
spotted fleece and eye-catching horns, the Jacob was introduced to the UK as
an ornamental breed. The strength and length of the wool (up to 10cm) make
it ideal for hand spinning.
Suffolk
Its all-black head, legs and almost horizontal ears make the Suffolk a
particularly attractive breed of sheep. Created from crossing the Southdown
and the Norfolk Horn, its beautiful fleece produces fine knitting wools and
tweed.
Soay
Originating from the first domesticated sheep that populated northern
Europe, the Soay is the UK’s most primitive sheep breed. Small and robust
with curved, ridged horns, it has a fleece usually chocolate or tan in
colour.
Leicester Longwool
A large breed of sheep with a curly white fleece, the Leicester Longwool was
developed by Robert Bakewell over 200 years ago. Its quality wool is in
demand by hand weavers and is mainly used to create fine cloth, suiting and
knitting wool.
Presentation Pack
The pack available from the Philatelic Bureau and some post offices will be
changed from the Birds format with the stamps being printed not by Walsall
Security Print in horizontal rolls but from the Hytech machines of the style
previously used at Stampex. Thus the pack will contain a vertical
strip of 6 x 1st. The publicity image of the strip and the pack
have the Soay breed at the top, but removing the stamps reveals that the
description shows the Welsh Mountain Badger Face at the top, and this is the
intended order. Unfortunately Royal Mail seem to have omitted to
remind Hytech of this! Whilst all our dealer stock was 'correct', it
seems that many ordinary collectors getting the packs on Bureau standing
orders had a variety of other versions. See
the blog for more details and illustrations.
Technical details:
Designed by Kate Stephens and illustrated by Robert Gillmor the six 56mm x
25mm stamps are printed in gravure by Walsall Security Printers, with two
phosphor bars. The stamps in the pack will have the service indicator
and other detail printed in gravure. All images are by kind
permission of Royal Mail, Copyright 2011/2. This website is copyright Norvic
Philatelics 2011/2.
Products issued
The labels will be used in Post & Go machines at Post Offices around
the country - see the list on the postagelabelsuk
blog.
A mint set was sold
in a pack similar to a presentation pack. All values in the pack are
1st Class with a philatelic branch code of 002012.
The Packs should have strips of stamps with the Welsh Badgerface at the
top, to line up with the desciption printed in the pack. Packs have
been found with the strip of stamps miscut so that the Soay (as shown
above), the Suffolk, and the Dalesbred stamps at the top of the
strip. All the stamps are in the correct order.
Although Post & Go machines are a Post Office Ltd product, Royal Mail
will again produce a First Day Cover and official First Day Postmarks for
these.
Special Postmarks
Postmarks available for the day of issue are shown here, others may be
added later. These are not to scale. These postmarks cannot
be obtained after the date of issue.
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Ref FD1211
Philatelic Bureau Official Postmark illustrated with a map of the
British Isles |
Ref FD1212
Official postmark Sheepdrove, Labourn, Hungerford illustrated with
a sheep |
Ref FD1212NP
Sheepdrove official non-pictorial postmark. |
Ref M12424
Alston, Stafford
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Ref N12426
Harrogate, North Yorkshire |
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Ref M12423 Sheep Street Birmingham
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Ref L12417 Cotswold Farm Park, Gutting Power, Cheltenham |
Ref L12431 Spring Stampex Post & Go Farm Animals I London N1
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This page updated 10 May 2012
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