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Welcome to Norvic Philatelics GB stamps pages - if you cannot see our logo either we have a problem, or your browser is not image enabled. The content of this site is mostly pictures of stamps and postmarks, so you will miss out if your browser is set to not show images.

Welcome to Norvic Philatelics

H e l l o !! great britain stamp.. 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.

A big surprise for the start of 2010 was that the Design Classics II set depicts Music Album Classic Covers!  

This year again we have some 10x 1st class sets being issued in separate strips of 5, allowing the easy purchase of single designs.  But that is not for every issue, the Battersea Dogs & Cats and Mammals being blocks of 10. The Kings & Queens series have two sets in 2010; both sets - Stewarts & Stuarts - will have 7 stamps.

This year has also seen an unprecedented amount of rescheduling of issues, with the London Stage Musicals being postponed to 2011.  We have also had a number of stamps - mainly definitives - that Royal Mail have preferred not to tell collectors or dealers about, namely those with the new MA10 year code in the security overprint. (See panel to right, and the blog.)

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, 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, postmarks, 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 Royal Mail 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 2009.

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.  We've moved this from Geocities, and very slightly updated it, and you can now see it here.


Great Britain Postage due stamps 1994.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 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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STAMP FAIRS

Regular Norwich Stamp Fair Sundays 17 January, 21 March, 16 May, 18 July, 19 September, & 21 November 2010 Click here for details

The next Norfolk & Norwich Philatelic Society STAMP & POSTCARD FAIRS will be Saturdays 2 April and 6 August 2011 Details will be here.  

Postmark showing Supermarine Spitfire.

News 24 August

BREAKING NEWS >>> New Horizon labels trialled this week - see our blog.

This week's update includes day of issue postmarks for the three Stampex issues - Battle of Britain, Medical Breakthroughs, and Bird Pictorial Faststamps. We expect that some more postmarks for these will be announced around 4 September.


For the first news about British stamps - visit
Norvic Philatelics' blog
 


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News 23/28 July
This week's update includes full details of the Bird Pictorial Faststamps which will have a partial nationwide release on 17 September, and news of Special Delivery NVI definitives on 26 October.  First Day postmarks have also been announced for the Great British Railways - there may be more later - and several for railways, football and Florence Nightingale on the miscellaneous postmarks page.
Olympic Booklet 4 has been added to the Retail booklets page. 

Pictures from the London Festival of Stamps on our blog.  Also there, pictures of the 1st & 2nd class Large Letter stamps with the MA10 year code, as well as the Gold Machin Horizon labels from Wales, the London 2010 show and the rest of the UK.  Pictures of the coil and counter sheet definitives with the MA10 year code have been added. 

See & buy the Classic Album Covers stamps here.

April News
The 20gr booklet stamps will not be sold as singles by Royal Mail's Philatelic Service, unlike the 40gr and Postcard stamps.


Errors Update

King George V prestige stamp book.  The only recent error reported to us on PSBs is of one turning up without the self-adhesive Machin pane.  

Charles Darwin PSB stamp book error.  Two days after the date of issue and we have the first report of a duplicated pane error in the Charles Darwin PSB - see this here.

RAF & Regionals prestige stamp book errors! During last summer a number Machin Anniversary PSBs were found with duplicated panes. Now we can report the Regionals Anniversary PSB with a duplicated pane 1 - see this and any others on this book here. See also the pictures of Machin PSB errors here

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)


Army Uniforms  The joint Royal Mail/BFPO Army Uniforms FDC was paraded at Autumn Stampex 2008 in London - see the pictures here.



Join us at these forums
where you can take part in discussions on a wide-range of philatelic subjects, learn from the expertise of others, and maybe help somebody new.
Stampboards logo - www.stampboards.com .
and
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Click on either banners to read and join in.

The VSC message board is hosted by Delphi and the first page you see may be a full-screen advertisement. It is possible to skip this without entering any personal information.  Please read the welcome page.

Stampboards - please read the forum rules and introduce yourself in the appropriate message thread. 


SITE MAP

Click here for links to our online shop, listing stamps, first day covers, postal history, and postcards


Announcements


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*

*Only between 0900 and 1700 UK time please Monday - Friday. (Before calling, please check UK time shown at the top of the page! ).  
Other times and weekends we may be available on Skype, and emails will always be dealt with as soon as we can
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If the display above shows "I'm not telling" it is a Skype error - we may be here, we may not! Try anyway but check the time first!

Click logo for information on

London2010 festival of stamps logo.



If you collect Great Britain First Day Covers,
join the Association of GB FDC Collectors - click the logo.
Association of GB FDC collectors http://www.gbfdc.co.uk

Buying from outside the United Kingdom? Pay us securely with your Visa, MasterCard, or American Express card ONLYthrough PayPal! Ask for details! (Within the UK we prefer cheques or bank transfer!)

Paypal logo.

Pages for GB Stamp Issues.

Great Britain Stamps - issue programme for 2010

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
2_0_0_8
2_0_0_9

Stamp showing King William IV steam locomotive.Design classics stamp showing supermarine spitfire.Medical Breakthroughs 67p stamp showing an eye.60p Winnie-the-Pooh stamp.

7 January  

British Design Classics II - Album Covers

Olympics Retail Booklet 1

26 January 

New Smilers Stamps - miniature sheet & generic sheet


Retail book of 6 x 1st class with new postcode advertisement.  Machin 1st class with security code MSIL and new MA10

2 February

Girl Guide Centenary MS

24 February Retail booklets with new security codes: 12 x 1st & 12 x 2nd with MTIL and new MA10

25 February

350th Anniversary of the Royal Society


Olympics Retail Booklet 2 - Machin 1st class with security code MCIL and new MA10

1 March

Castles of Wales generic Smilers Sheet (last in series)

11 March

150th anniv Battersea Dogs & Cats Home

23 March

Kings & Queens: House of Stewart

30 March

Festival of Stamps Retail Booklet


New Machin definitive & Country stamps for rate change

April Golden Machin Horizon labels disrtibuted for general use in Wales.  No official first day of use; now extended nationally.

13 April

Endangered Mammals

6 May

Accession of King George V (London 2010 issue) - a second version has an Exhibition overprint.

8 May The King's Stamps (ditto - 1st day of London Festival of Stamps), includes PSB with self-adhesive Machin 2nd, 1st & 50p new security codes MA10 and MAPL, but two types of security slits (See blog).
8 May Other London 2010 Festival of Stamps products:  Machin Souvenir Sheet containing 11 stamps;  Exhibition Smilers Generic Sheet (similar to those issued for overseas exhibitions); new 10th Anniversary Smilers Sheet Generic Sheet;  1929 PUC Souvenir containing facsimiles of the PUC £1
8 May Retail booklets with new security codes: 4 x 1st Large & 4 x 2nd Large with MFIL and new MA10
13 May Britain Alone (commemoration of events of 1940)
13 May New Machin definitives in coils with security features - Security codes MRIL and MA10.
18 May  Commemorative Sheet: Halley's Comet

15 June 

Kings & Queens: House of Stuart

15 June  Mammals retail booklet
8 July  Commemorative Sheet: British Grand Prix

27 July  

Olympics & Paralympics II, and retail booklet #3
10 August  London Eye Commemorative Sheet

19 August 

Great British Railways I - set of 6

19 August  New retail booklets 12 x 2nd, 6 x 1st with no printer name.  We've found no new security codes on these.
15 September Updated icon. Battle of Britain Smilers Sheet and Spitfire Design Classics Retail booklet 

16 September Updated icon.

Medical Breakthroughs (originally scheduled for February 2011)

17 September Updated icon. Faststamps illustrated with birds to be dispensed from Post & Go Machines at Autumn Stampex (provisional date)
12 October Children's Books Europa - Winnie-the-Pooh and friends, by A A Milne, as predicted months ago.
12 October  Olympics Retail booklet #4
26 October New icon. Special Delivery Machin Definitive NVIs

2 November 

Christmas - set of 7, MS, Smilers Sheet, Stamp booklets, secular designs     

19 August   Stage Musicals - set & MS -  rescheduled for 22 February 2011, probably coinciding with Spring Stampex

postmark showing RMS Titanic.postmark showing Florence Nightingale.Great Britain Special Pictorial Postmarks not associated with new stamp issues


Permanent special and pictorial postmarks
23 August 2010

Other special postmarks
9 August 2010


ARTICLES

Advertisements in definitive booklets

booklet of 6 1st class definitive stamps with advertisement inside front coverThe 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.
advertisement on inside cover of stamp booklet issued 2 October 2006.The third such booklet was the one containing definitive-sized greeting stamps issued on 4 October 2005.

postmark depicting Windsor Castle.postmark depicting Sandringham House.postmark depicting Buckingham Palace.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

1st class Smartstamp in EnglishRoyal 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

1982 Sheffield Scout Stamp showing BPAlthough 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.

Special Delivery postage paid labelRoyal 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.  

In 2009, labels with the Machin head were used for Special Delivery items at just one post office in London. See Machin Horizon Label page.

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.

News about Great Britain new stamps and postmarks with links to this site will be announced on various mailing lists, the Virtual Stamp Club, and Stampboards forum.


This site started 1998; latest update 24 August 2010
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