New King Charles Stamps Introduced

Don

The stamps go on sale from April 4th, but existing stocks of Queen Elizabeth ii stamps will be sold first.

I'm sure there's previous Great Britain definitive stamps without a crown or diadem?

The design is plain, to say the very least. Are they reflective of the era we are currently living in?

Deleted re "definitives" only

Interesting, I am not finding any.

The Wildings and Machins have diadems.

There's a crown above the head of KG6, KGV and KE7.

There'a diadem on QV.

So, scratch my earlier statement. I'm off to the optometrist

The new stamps could still be reflective of the times though. What message are the postal authorities trying to convey?

Charles has a large melon and if you tried to fit a crown in the space allotted his head would become tiny and strange looking surrounded by a vast amount of empty space in the wrong places unless it was a smallish crown sort of like one of those miniature bowler hats you see at the dog shows on a schnauzer or something, but this is all conjecture. I like the side profile though. Clean and dignified.

I suppose a tiara would never do....

He wouldn't have to be wearing the crown...

They could have done something like one of these? (Excuse the 2-minute effort)





Any chance that he isn't pictured with a crown because they haven't done the coronation yet? Might that be a thing?

Nice work Cjd

You may be right about the coronation aspect.

I wonder if they'll change the design after the event?

It's in May I believe, so we won't have long to wait.

Kings have never worn crowns - don't know why. Queens have, but kings always have the crown depicted somewhere else in the design. There'a a problem here because the principle of the Machin is that it contains nothing bar the effigy and value, and these new stamps follow that design. So they can't incorporate a crown unless it's on his head, which would break the usual tradition.

The designs suggested by CJd are a modern version of the design for King Edward viii, where there was a tiny crown up in the top left corner. This would work very well - great suggestion.

However, Charles has apparently approved the design, so it is the definitive definitive!

The image was designed for coinage so wished they created a more intricate design for King Charles III.

CJD - Nice work!

There is no need to add the King's cipher as his portrait already identifies the reign.




Absolutely not! Except for Queen Victoiria, who had been crowned before the adhesive label was introduced on 6 May 1840, definitive stamps preceded the coronation. On one occasion the coronation occurred later, on the day of issue.

Monarch First definitive Coronation
Edward VII 1 January 1902 9 August 1902
George V 22 June 1911 22 June 1911
Edward VIII 1 September 1936 never
George VI 10 May 1937 12 May 1937
Elizabeth II 5 December 1952 2 June 1953

As Bobby De La Rue concluded, all reigns had either a crown or diadem as part of the design.




You are not far off the mark. The stamps for the reign of King Edward VIII did not place the crown over the head of the king as had been the tradition.
After the abdication of King Edward VIII, this was considered a bad omen. On the stamps for the reign of King George VI, the crown was placed over the head of the King again.

How about "What message is the monarch trying to convey?"
This is very characteristic for King Charles III.