Problems At Cartor (GB Stamps)

On 14 October, Royal Mail issued its " Winnie the Pooh" collectables. This issue includes a prestige stamp book. On 22 October, Royal Mail sent out a mail informing of a delay in the despatch of this stamp book.




Today, I received another mail informing me of a further delay.




It appears Cartor is experiencing serious problems in printing these prestige stamp books. Or did quality control discover printing errors?

As always, there are no indications of any problems on the Royal Mail site.

https://shop.royalmail.com/special-...nie-the-pooh

But there surely can't be a problem with printing or issuing, because the book has been exhaustively described by the Modern British Philatelic Circle, and they don't do that without seeing physical copies of the book. So is there perhaps a problem with export, either to NL specifically or to the EU in general?

I have no doubt that Royal Mail are lying to you.

I suspect Royal Mail itself is experiencing staffing issues. I placed an order with them in September. Normally, they send an email informing of the order has been processed and despatched. I did not receive that. I sent an inquiry. I received confirmation of it, but no reply. I sent a second inquiry and within two hours, I received confirmation the replacement order - the original had never been processed - had been processed. One or two days later, I received notice of despatch and within five days, I received the stamps. During this period, the Duran Duran prestige stamp book was issued and received. So, there are no problems with mail from the UK to the Netherlands. I, also received an auction lot within a week of bidding, during this period.

Also, you can see it on their shop website.


Unlike the other items, the prestige stamp book is not available yet.
Some dealers receive items ahead of the issue date. Maybe, the issues occurred during printing and dealers received books from the initial printing or loose panes to service their first day covers.

The Norphil Blog also mentions the delay.

https://blog.norphil.co.uk/2026/10/...ear-and.html

I think it gives the clue to the problems at the printer's: a defective cylinder for the security overprint or a dry printing of it.