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23 Sep 22 - 11:42 AM (#4153415) Subject: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Mr Red I noticed a poster in my local Post Office showing the fancy new QR type codes alongside the regular colour & Queen (they will be collectors items) - the QR code has to be retained on the envelope - it said But more pertinently, if you bought stamps in bulk as a hedge against inflation - use them up this Xmas. Those will be redundant, inadmissible, unusable after January 31. Special issue picture stamps (not sure which/how many) were exempt from the obsolescence. Just in case anyone missed this gotcha from Royal Mail. We can't blame the Royal Male though. resident experts should consult here before spouting |
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23 Sep 22 - 04:14 PM (#4153435) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: DaveRo The Post Office uses the word 'barcode' which seems to encompass any optically-readable pattern of stripes or dots these days The one on the stamps is not a QR code, though people have become familiar with those during Covid - in Europe anyway - so the phrase might take over. It looks to me like a Datamatrix |
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23 Sep 22 - 05:07 PM (#4153436) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Steve Shaw Whilst not an expert, my looking this up revealed that you can swap your stamps if you have an excess of the old sort. Absolutely not a big issue. |
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23 Sep 22 - 08:08 PM (#4153461) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: FreddyHeadey ",,,they become worthless on 31 January 2023. Alternatively, you can swap them for barcoded versions for free using Royal Mail's 'Swap Out' scheme." "You'll need to complete a standard 'Swap Out' form for stamps worth up to £200, or a Bulk Stamp 'Swap Out' form for stamps worth more than £200." Lots more details and links here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/08/stamps-royal-mail-swap-out-six-months/ |
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23 Sep 22 - 08:15 PM (#4153463) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Steve Shaw If I can find any, I'll just use them up on my Christmas cards. I see that I don't have to worry about the ones I have with pictures of the Star Trek cast. I've been holding back on those as I didn't feel they were appropriate on envelopes contains cards sympathising for illness or deaths, etc. |
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24 Sep 22 - 02:46 AM (#4153471) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Mr Red Absolutely not a big issue - all stamps are an "issue" if we are being so pedantic Self adhesive stamps that are not on their backing because they have collected dust is not a big issue but an issue (in addition to their being issued) I suggest they are stuck on envelopes before Jan 1. If you read the form (Yes I printed it out) It is not that the returning the old stamps is much of a hassle, it is more, and the reason for the thread at all, is to inform those that haven't heard. Rather than feel superior in having read the chapter and missed out the verses. Implying that you knew it all anyway. Of course! |
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24 Sep 22 - 03:41 AM (#4153473) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: DaveRo I've swapped several books of stamps. I had to stick them all on paper forms - they were the old type you had to lick or wet. It reminded me of collecting Green Shield stamps. I scanned a couple to see what the 'barcode' said: JGB S11251018031513573440006603122101 C0D60C8FED03591F01 JGB S11251018031513573450006603122101 EAE016D9138228F401 So each one appears to be unique, presumably to prevent copying or reuse. Apparantly this us just one of many types of 'Mailmark': https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/Royal-Mail-Mailmark-barcode-definition-document-September-2015.pdf |
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24 Sep 22 - 05:40 AM (#4153478) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Steve Shaw Good grief, Dave, it's a long time since I saw a lick 'n' stick postage stamp! To stray slightly, I often wonder, in these days of covid especially, how lick 'n' stick envelopes, often for greetings cards, are still legal... |
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24 Sep 22 - 06:07 AM (#4153479) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Nigel Parsons Lick and stick envelopes will usually only be licked by one person, so no Covid problem. If you are concerned about shop staff having touched the envelopes, just buy them sufficiently in advance of use to allow for any bugs to die. |
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24 Sep 22 - 06:36 AM (#4153481) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Bonzo3legs Aha Green Shield stamps, we rehearsed at the owner's house in Totteridge autumn 1962!! |
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24 Sep 22 - 06:55 AM (#4153484) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Steve Shaw Only one person licked it, Nigel, but several other people might handle it within a very short time of their licking and posting it. I'm not that bothered but it's a thought. |
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24 Sep 22 - 07:14 AM (#4153485) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Steve Shaw Talk of Green Shield stamps takes me back to when I was a Saturday lad at the Victor Value supermarket in Radcliffe (who remembers them?) in the mid-60s. They gave out S&H Pink Stamps, not Green Shield, same idea...I got fifteen bob for Saturday and an extra ten bob if they wanted me for Friday night late opening. I mainly helped the butcher but I got good at boning out bacon and ham and was in charge of the bacon and cooked meats counter. I was too young to legally use those big meat-slicing machines, but blind eyes were turned... The manager was a nit-picking ould crosspatch, but one day in July 1966 he hired a big telly from Radio Rentals and we all crowded round it to watch England win the World Cup Final. Happy days! Tesco bought Victor Value in 1968 so that was that. |
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24 Sep 22 - 07:24 AM (#4153487) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Mo the caller Couldn't you get a round sponge holder to moisten stamps |
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24 Sep 22 - 11:04 AM (#4153509) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Rain Dog "I was too young to legally use those big meat-slicing machines, but blind eyes were turned..." Did those blind eyes belong to the previous operators? |
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24 Sep 22 - 02:36 PM (#4153539) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Steve Shaw You know the ones, the ones with big vertical very sharp rotating blades shaped like wheels. You could set them to cut different thicknesses of bacon or ham. They were quite deadly in those days of health 'n' safety not quite yet gone mad. They wouldn't make you blind but you could include a slice of finger tip in the customer's smoked streaky... |
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25 Sep 22 - 12:14 PM (#4153666) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Nigel Parsons "Ladies, please stop giving your children rides on the bacon slicer: We are getting behind with our orders!" (very old joke) |
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14 Nov 22 - 07:55 AM (#4157566) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Nigel Parsons Latest news Daily Mail is that the 'deadline' for using non-barcode stamps has been extended, and that the forms for exchanging (together with a 'Freepost' envelope) will become available at the Post Office. |
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14 Nov 22 - 08:26 AM (#4157569) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Dave the Gnome I knew a girl who sat on a bacon slicer. Disaster... |
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14 Nov 22 - 08:58 AM (#4157571) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Steve Shaw Was she related to the one who sat in a bathful of glue? |
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14 Nov 22 - 09:17 AM (#4157572) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Dave the Gnome Sorry Steve. I'm stuck on that one. |
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14 Nov 22 - 10:37 AM (#4157581) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Nigel Parsons Or the glow-worm which landed on an electric fan, De-lighted! |
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14 Nov 22 - 01:06 PM (#4157602) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Dave the Gnome :-D |
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17 Nov 22 - 03:07 AM (#4157885) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Senoufou In the early Fifties, I used to love watching our local grocer (Mrs Lawrence) thumping a large hunk of bacon onto the spikes of the slicer. My mother chose the thickness of the cut by pointing at the range of red lines, then Mrs Lawrence turned on the cutting wheel and slid the machine backwards and forwards. She received each slice on the palm of her hand and the job was done. She also used 'butter pats' to shape up a lump of butter for a customer. I don't like changes, and these new stamps seem a bit silly to me. |
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17 Nov 22 - 12:01 PM (#4157923) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: MaJoC the Filk A childhood memory .... In the butchers' up the hill, they had a wonderful bacon-slicing machine: the motor not only turned the cutting wheel, but also operated a crank underneath to somehow move the meat backwards and forwards, with the crank just at eye level for a seven-year-old to see and wonder at. All the fun of the fair, without having to visit the fairground. |
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17 Nov 22 - 12:59 PM (#4157936) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Doug Chadwick My mum used to take me into a grocer's that had a bacon slicer. I hated being there when it was being used. I just wanted to be out of the shop as quickly as possible before someone lost all of their fingers. DC |
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18 Nov 22 - 03:33 AM (#4157985) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Senoufou Did your grocer's have huge hessian sacks of things like prunes, sultanas, demerara sugar etc sitting around the small shop? Mrs Lawrence used a metal scoop to remove whatever one asked for and weigh it on her 'basic' scales. I loved the different smells in there. Our wet-fish monger wore wooden clogs. And the butcher hacked away with a massive cleaver to cut off a chop/bit of lamb for my mum. All these things seemed so much more interesting than today's pre-packed stuff in supermarkets. And old stamps seem more interesting than these techy things with some sort of code attached. What's it for anyway? (I don't possess a fobile moan, so if that's what it's about, it's no use to me!) |
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18 Nov 22 - 04:08 AM (#4157990) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: Dave the Gnome Morrisons are pretty good for the butchers and fishmongers on their "Market Street". Some will also dish out stuff into your own containers to save on packaging. But I would say that wouldn't I. :-) |
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18 Nov 22 - 10:44 AM (#4158022) Subject: RE: BS: UK regular postage stamps - obsolescence From: MaJoC the Filk > these techy things with some sort of code attached I'm a techie, so (surprise) I took a close look:* the dots differed slightly from stamp to stamp in the same book. Either they're serial numbers, or they say whether they're first or second class citizens, or possibly both; either way, they're for the machines to read, not us poor human beans. At least those strangely-shaped numbers along the bottom edge of cheques were intended to be human-compatible as well as machine-readable. * I can't scan them: I'm not a camera phone. |