In February, Royal Mail unveiled a new design for its standard stamps, which have changed so little since the launch of the Penny Black in 1840 that they are officially known as “definitive”. The new stamps – ‘plum purple’ for the first place, ‘holly green’ for the second – still feature the same royal profile that was introduced more than 50 years ago. But what bothers purists the most – and drives Johnson to the brink of immediate action – is the addition next to the queen of a digital barcode. The rectangular codes – which look like QR codes but are obviously not QR codes, which are a specific type of branded code – are designed to stop counterfeiting and allow all letters to be tracked to improve efficiency. Correspondents will soon be able to share photo or video messages by linking digital content to their coded stamps. Recipients will see this via the Royal Mail app (currently the codes are linked to a Shaun the Sheep short film and a plasticine postman). The first self-adhesive stamp … the Penny Black, issued in 1840. Photo: PA From 1 February 2023 only new stamps will be accepted. Any old stamps must be used before then or negotiated. Christmas and other special stamps will remain valid indefinitely. Exchanging definitives, which can still be done after the deadline, is free but will involve downloading and printing a form or making a request by phone or letter and posting it to Royal Mail with the old stamps. Royal Mail describes the change as a postal “reinvention” that connects stamps with the digital world for a new generation. “But the whole point of my society was to give us a break from dealing with digital content,” says Johnson, 49, from her home in Swanage, Dorset. She is also reminded of how the Prince of Wales once described an extension of the National Gallery as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend” – except this time the “elegant friend” is the Queen. When letters bearing the carbuncle codes started arriving, Johnson had a printer friend make her some stickers to cover them so that only the part of the seal with the Queen’s head was visible. Now she adds the stickers, which bear a picture of a red post box, to the code before depositing the letters in their envelopes. “This is my mini private protest,” he says. But, until I suggest it, Johnson has not yet ventured to forge an outgoing coded seal. “It would be an act of defiance, wouldn’t it?” she says. I promise to visit her in prison. “He made me do it!” she says, practicing her defense. Finally he agrees. In perhaps the most low-risk act of rebellion ever committed, Johnson writes me a letter, covers the code with one of her protest stickers, and puts it in her local post office. “I hope he finds you!” he says in a text. I can’t remember the last time I needed a stamp. I’m still working through the leftovers from the wedding invitations I sent out seven years ago. I don’t do Christmas cards, I joke that my preference for digital communication is saving trees over ranking sloth. However, I know that stamps inspire strong emotions. Since the launch of Penny Black as the world’s first self-adhesive stamp, sticky squares have become more than just proof of purchase: they are collectors’ items, artists’ canvases, propaganda tools and cultural icons. Arnold Machin, who designed the Queen’s head which adorns today’s British postage stamps, pictured in 1997. Photo: Neil Munns/PA Before 1840, postage was usually charged to the recipient, who could refuse to pay. Costs were high and complex, and fraud was rampant. For example, MPs and colleagues could post items for nothing. It was a privilege that was widely abused – in the 1830s, politicians wrote an incredible 7 million letters a year. Rowland Hill, a teacher turned social reformer, held no official position. But he undertook to propose radical change. In a research paper he published to the government, he proposed a prepaid stamp with the fixed cost of one penny. In the first year of the Penny Black, the number of letters sent more than doubled – then doubled again by 1850. Letter writing ceased to be an elite pursuit and the postal service became profitable. Dozens of countries quickly copied Hill’s example. Stamps were just as important a communication innovation as telephones or internet-connected home computers. The first stamp was also a triumph of design. There was no need to include a country name – there were no stamps anywhere else, after all. Instead, a portrait of Queen Victoria was added to the profile. Monarchs and colors came and went, and in came perforations and self-gluing. But the definitives have changed little in 180 years. Today’s stamps, originally designed by artist Arnold Machin, use the same sculpted profile of Queen Elizabeth II for the past 55 years. However, I’m not alone in underusing them. the pandemic has only accelerated a postal freefall, from a peak of just over 20 billion letters sent via Royal Mail in 2005 (the same year the proportion of UK households with internet rose above 50%), to fewer from 8 billion in 2020-21. These figures include commercial mail. The smaller number of cards and letters bearing sticky stamps are likely to be in greater decline. Sir Rowland Hill, the headmaster who suggested the idea of the prepaid stamp, was honored with a special set of stamps in 1995. Photo: Kay Roxby/Alamy “They’re trying to appeal to the younger generation by throwing in a QR code and a Shaun the Sheep video,” says Andrew Jackson, 58, a collector and dealer who runs Tagula Blue Stamps. Like Jackson, Johnson wonders if the change signals the beginning of the end for stamps. “It’s just going to be the barcode after all, isn’t it?” she says. David Gold, head of public affairs and policy at the Royal Mail Group, knew coded stamps would cause a stir. “Collectors, traditionalists and royalists feel a sense of ownership in stamps,” he says. That is why the new stamps, the designs of which had to be approved by Buckingham Palace, include a fake perforation as a kind of screen of dignity between the code and the Queen (who is also, mainly, facing other side). Gold says the codes mean Royal Mail can track all letters, allowing it to better track, predict and respond to regional changes in demand, for example. He is also confident the unique codes will stop fraudulent postmark ink laundering and the reselling of used stamps – a crime he claims costs Royal Mail “tens of millions” of pounds a year. Royal Mail says the codes only contain the identity of that stamp and cannot include personal data. Gold also rejects the idea that the stamp is in danger. “Clearly the direction of travel is a reduction in the number of letters, but I think people are still fascinated and motivated by stamps,” he says. Gold shows the popularity of commemorative or special stamps. Such stamps were rare before the early 1960s. The government invited artists to submit designs for stamps to mark the National Year of Productivity in 1962, a plan approved by employers’ federations and unions. Three designs by David Gentleman were released. In 1964, the famous artist suggested in a letter to Tony Benn, the new postmaster general, that the stamps could continue to benefit from more interesting designs. Ben, who was a staunch republican, shared this view, but in a push for more room to play on such a tiny canvas, the men soon learned the dangers of messing with stamp design. “I suggested that the Queen’s head could be done without, which of course never came about,” says Gentleman, who is now 92. The new first and second class stamps. Photo: Arch White/Alamy Live News. In the end it was the queen who forbade the removal of her head, which angered Ben. The gentleman reached a compromise: a simpler portrait of an even younger, uncrowned Queen by the artist Mary Gillick would be used. The much smaller silhouette, which is still seen on special stamps, left more room for new designs. Over nearly 40 years, Gentleman, who was also known for his watercolors and engravings, designed more than 100 stamps. In February 2022, Royal Mail reissued six of them to commemorate its most prolific designer. They included an image of an oak tree and a tribute to Thomas Hepburn, a 19th-century coal miner and social reformer. Royal Mail now produces more than a dozen sets of special stamps a year in a bid to create demand among collectors. This year they include pictures of cats, birds, the Rolling Stones and the heroes of the Covid pandemic drawn by children. Many government postal services are much bolder. In Ukraine in April, queues formed outside post offices when Ukrposhta issued 1 million stamps to commemorate the defiance of the soldier who refused to hand over an island soon after the Russian invasion. In the image, the soldier flips the bird on the battleship Moskva, which later sank, in a visual representation of the message he had radioed to the ship: “Russian warship, go screw yourself.” Scanning the barcode on new stamps links to an app with a Shaun the Sheep video. Photo: Post Office But the possibility of stamps punching above their weight does little to boost demand. The gentleman says he rarely…
