Welcome to Norvic Philatelics.

.. 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.

The 2008 programme of British stamps has got off to a good start with James Bond, and some very attractive Working Dogs and Insects sets. However, in a year which from the outset had a quite busy programme, we have already had two booklets added to the programme: summer, with the ice cream stamp in definitive size and one encouraging stamp collecting issued with the Classic Films set.
More worrying we see the introduction of a new product from Royal Mail in the form of the 'Commemorative Sheet', effectively a Business Smilers sheet, which will be sold at more than 3x face value. Two will be issued this year. We don't like this development and will not be doing our own FDCs for them. We have links to individual pages for each issue of 2008 further down the page, and also links to pages for each issue from 2003-2007, on separate summary pages.

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, 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 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 date.

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. Please visit www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/3337

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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Update 30 April
Website has been updated with day of issue postmarks for the Cathedrals issue and for the Ice Cream booklet. There is also a selection of postmarks relating to sport, aircraft, railway, submarine etc. Issue dates of the 1908 Olympic Commemorative Sheet and the August handover MS have been changed.
First Day Covers: With a couple of exceptions we have all Insects and all 1 April rate-change FDCs but there will be a slight delay in sending some of these to customers as we clear the backlog of emails and news which came in during our holiday. We will also be away for part of the May holiday weekend and will pick up the threads again on 6 May.

Update 14 April
First Day Covers: All Rescue at Sea and Northern Ireland MS and Smilers sheet covers & cards have been received from Royal Mail and most have been sent to customers. Some 1 April FDCS for new definitive and country stamps are still with Royal Mail.

Update 3 March Programme 2009
Royal Mail has announced the preliminary stamp programme for 2009 as follows:

13 January	Design Classics (10)
22 January	250th ann birth of Robert Burns (MS)
12 Feburary	200th ann birth of Charles Darwin (6+MS)
26 February	Celebrating Wales (MS)
17 March	Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution (8)
21 April	Kings & Queens 2 (Tudors) (6+MS)
May	"Treasures of the Archives" Prestige Book
19 May	Endangered Plants & 250th Anniversary of Kew (10+MS)
16 June	Mythical Creatures (6)
July	Olympic Disciplines (handover) (10)
18 August	Postboxes (MS)
1 Sept	Fire Service (6)
17 Sept	Royal Navy Uniforms (6+PSB)
8 October	Best of British (10)*
3 November	Christmas (7+MS+Smilers)
* This focusses on individuals and seems to be along the lines of the 'general anniversaries' issues which we recall from the 1960s & 1970s.

Update 16/18 March
Website has been updated with the Air Displays page, which includes images of the 6 stamps. A revised image for the Territorial Army Souvenir Sheet has been added.

Errors Update

Another prestige stamp book error! During last summer a number Machin Anniversary PSBs were found with one of the stamp panes duplicated. Now we have a report and picture of a book with the front cover duplicated, and another report of pane 2 duplicated. See the pictures of Machin errors here and let us know if you find one! How many are there? No errors have so far been reported from the British Army Uniforms or James Bond prestige stamp books.

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!)

Olympic games
The Postal Service of the People's Republic of China has indicated that the Olympic handover issue at the end of August will be a joint China-GB issue. The Chinese stamps are currently scheduled for issue on the date of the closing ceremony on Sunday 24th August and the British set for Friday 22nd.

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

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

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Ian, Val & John Billings
Norvic Philatelics,
PO Box 119, Dereham,
NR20 3YN, Great Britain
Telephone: 08450 09 09 39
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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 ONLY through PayPal! Ask for details! (Within the UK we prefer cheques of bank transfer!)

Great Britain Stamps - issue programme for 2008 - subject to amendments and additions

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

ARTICLES

Advertisements in definitive booklets

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.
The third such booklet was the one containing definitive-sized greeting stamps issued on 4 October 2005.

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

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

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.

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.

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.