New King Charles Stamps Introduced

The new profile for King Charles III on special and commemorative stamps.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64940530

Someone at Royal Mail appears to like him, or did Camilla design the stamps, calling him "sweet pea"?

Nice.

Is it significant that his profile faces right, rather than left as for QE2 on the Machins? Apologies if I missed an earlier comment on this.

I think it's the standard king (right) or queen (left) arrangement, as on coinage.

There are plenty examples of special stamps in which the cameo of Queen Elizabeth II faces right and not left. This occurs when, otherwise, the sovereign would look at the back of the head of a depicted person. But even that has not always been adhered to. Sometimes, it is just how it fits in the design.

As for the definitives, the Machins and new Charles III definitives, both, have the monarch facing left as is customary on stamps. On coinage, the way in which the monarch faces, normally, changes at the beginning of a new reign, or as GeoffHa wrote for male or female monarchs.

I had a standing order for new issues with Royal Mail for many years. Through time, I received stamps a day after they had been issued. Mail from the UK to the Netherlands used to take two days. That meant Royal Mail's Tallents House, likely, processed the orders before the actual issue date.

Tomorrow, the new King Charles III definitive stamps are issued. These are the four basic 'non-value indicator' stamps: 1st, 2nd, 1st Large and 2nd Large. Also, a 'tariff change' £ 2.20 stamp will be issued.
I pre-ordered the presentation packs of both sets, last month.

This morning, at 02:19 CET, I received a mail from Royal Mail stating:




The items are the tariff change definitive stamp and presentation pack - so not the 'nvi' items.
It does look like Royal Mail sends out items early. Let's see whether these two items arrive tomorrow, or Wednesday.
Unfortunately, since the UK exited from the European Union, mail gets delayed at customs. So, the items might arrive tomorrow, Wednesday, or by the end of the month. If tomorrow or Wednesday, that would confirm what I have suspected for a long time.

The silhouette of the bust of the monarch will be the representation of the country on the stamps of the U.K., just as it was before the silhouette of the Queen.
However, the other administrations are making stamps with the CRIII anagram (Carolus Rex III) that the King himself designed.

I purchased from the Royal Mail and received an attractive album containing the last press sheet of Queen Elizabeth II and first press sheet of King Charles first class stamps. Beautiful item and worth the extra expensive.

The greatest reward was seeing the varying quality of the impression of the image of the stamp. The Royal Mail used Gravure printing and I can see by comparing stamps on a press sheet the various differences in quality - an excellent gravure stamp will have its field uniform in color and consistent in gradient - that is a lesser stamp may show a few tiny white spots or the coloration uneven as if done by watercolor. Such detail is best seen with magnification. As one rather new to stamp collecting it is with these press sheet that I finally understand the catalog values assigned in Scott and Stanley Gibbons could be realistic but for a stamp that would be truly superb. The vast majority of stamps are not of such caliber but quite a few can be very fine to excellent. Anyway this is obvious to seasoned collectors but I do think the only way one can understand this is by comparing stamps on a press sheet with which the stamp has a very simple design - such as a silhouette or profile

@Chris C

Could you be a little more specific about the stamps you are referring to?

I get the impression you are writing about the 'The Royal Succession Mint Stamp Sheets Folder' that is a folder containing counter sheets of first class definitives (£ 55 worth of stamps sold for £ 150) from the last print run and first print run of the respective reigns.

Counter sheets are the sheets of stamps after cutting up the printers sheets that, already, are cut from the reel. Press sheets are sheets of miniature sheets before they have been cut into individual miniature sheets.

The last issue showing the silhouette of Queen Elizabeth II was that of the miniature sheet that was part of the 'Flying Scotsman' issue.

The Royal Mail website - and they do not always get it right - states these were printed in Lithography.

https://shop.royalmail.com/special-...iature-sheet

The first set showing the silhouette of King Charles III were the flowers stamps. No press sheet was released for that issue.

Yes it is the Royal Succession Mint Stamp Sheets Folder -- https://shop.royalmail.com/special-...heets-folder

I thought they are printed Gravure as the King Charles stamp definitive show in the following link looks the same and is printed by the same company -
(Plum colored 1st class sheet is what you get from the Stamp Sheets Folder) --- https://shop.royalmail.com/special-...es-stamp-set

The Queen Elizabeth stamp seems to be Gravure too - the 1st class issue stamp issued February 2022. This makes sense as she died in September of 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220418155047/https://www.collectgbstamps.co.uk/e...?issue=23111

Finally looking at the stamps under magnification it has characteristics I have seen in some American stamps done in Gravure (usually from late 60's into early 70's): White dots in those which the Gravure process was slightly imperfect and inconsistent color also when the process was not perfect.

Finally the link you shared is to a commemorative stamp with a completely different design.

Anyway, I recommend getting the Succession Stamp Sheet product OR to save money get the barcoded low value denomination definitive stamps from each monarch - https://shop.royalmail.com/special-...es-stamp-set

The definitive counter sheets, indeed, are gravure printings.

I asked you the question because you referred to press sheets. Those, indeed, are special stamps and printed by a different process. However, from your post and reference to gravure-printed sheets as well as the reference to the two monarchs, I was wondering whether you were referring to this folder with counter sheets.

I ordered the commemorative cover: https://goscf.com/t/83916

I am still awaiting my presentation pack and stamp sets. Royal Mail's shop is extremely unreliable. They cancel orders at will or just sent part of the order. They refuse to send full counter sheets abroad. I, myself, am not paying three times the face value for a folder that contains two counter sheets I, otherwise, would be interested in. Royal Mail is doing everything it should do to chase away collectors.

NSK

If you have so many problems with finding the folder with the sheets in question,why don't you ask someone else hwo lives in the U.K. to buy them for you ?
I have read tath it's very difficult to buy these stamps especially when you are based outside the U.K.

@post_pe

I am not interested in the folder. You pay GBP 150 for a souvenir folder that contains sheets you can buy for GBP 27.50 each. The sheets are ordinary sheets claimed to be from the last QEII and first CRIII printings. In the selvedge, there is a printing date. They should be the latest for the QEII sheet and the earliest for the CRIII sheet. These print runs are big, especially the CRIII Jennings sheet will have been printed in large numbers on that first printing day. These sheets are also distributed to post offices. Those for the last Machin printing will either be at the warehouse or have been distributed to post offices. The printing itself is not a limited edition, just the folder.

If you order the folder, Royal Mail will sent it abroad. If you order the sheets, suddenly, it is not possible.

I used to order counter sheets of Machins from Tallents House, but some official decided it is no longer a product they send to foreign customers. Singles, still, are being sent abroad. You might try ordering 25 of the stamps. It is very likely, but not certain, they then do send you full counter sheets if they manage to process your order.

All other stuff you can easily buy from their website. Lately, however, Royal Mail has completely lost the plot. They have shown themselves completely incapable of adding IOSS data - it took me half a year to get them to not just claim they did but actually doing it -, and, the last few months, they have shown themselves incapable of fulfilling even the simplest order.

I didn't know tath single sheets are no longer available for clients abroad. This makes collecting these stamps a difficult task. They might reconsider there decision and sell them again both to domestic and foreign clients.
It would be strange if they do not do this because philatelist, from many countries are interested at them.
But one could only guess what would the Roial Mail decide to do.

Most people collect singles, not sheets. They are available to foreign collectors as singles, just not in complete counter sheets.

Some years ago - I would not try it with GBP 4 stamps - ordering 25 stamps of one denomination resulted in being sent the complete counter sheet. However, ordering the counter sheet itself was not possible from abroad. Now, they do not even tell you so, they just ignore your order and only send you the other stamps ordered - if they manage to even do that -.