For anyone with spare UK Royal Mail Stamps- the existing ones will not be valid for postage from 31 July and will need to be swapped for the new bar coded versions by mail.-
https://www.royalmail.com/sending/barcoded-stamps
This swap cannot be done at post offices.
Please note that this does not apply to Christmas Stamps, or other special issues, just the standard 'definitive' stamps, of any age since 1971.
Thanks for the reminder. It does sound a bit of a performance to swop them, especially if you only have a few...
I'm still trying to work out the benefits of having a bar code on the stamps. When I asked in my local post office, they weren't sure either.
Based on the limited post arriving with a stamp on it they seem to have given up post marking anything now. It's claimed these ugly barcodes stop the stamp being reused but based on a tiny sample (family) that either isn't in place yet or just doesn't work.
The Royal Mail, and for that matter the USPS is losing increasing revenue to big crime - mass forgery of stamps - and petty crime - individuals fraudulently reusing stamps. The Royal Mail did already have more protection than is apparent against the latter as for example not all cancellation is visible to the human eye. The coded stamps are more against forgery as they can detect whether this is nonsense or used before, although with the volume processed it isn't surprising many get through.
