Royal Mail today announced significant increases in the cost of Inland Letter mail and simplification via the removal of weight steps for international letters to take effect from 1st January 2021

1st class inland rises from 76p to 88p and 1st Class large rises from £1.15 to £1.29

For International Letters the 20g Europe weight step has been removed – a single weight step 100g and under now applies to all European Letters with a corresponding increase to the cost of posting those letters to £1.70.

For Worldwide Letters, the three existing zones have been removed with a single tariff of £2.55 applying for items over 20g but equal to or under 100g. For items 20g or under the same £1.70 tariff as European 100g rate applies.
This simplifies the values required for international letters to £1.70 and £2.55, which is likely to be reflected in future commemorative issues.

With a standard 1st Class set of four values, Royal Mail has taken the opportunity to add the two ‘missing’ International Large Letter rates for Europe and International Large Letters of £3.25 and £4.20 , resulting in a eye watering cost of £13.84 for the 1st class collectors strip.

Each of these new rates will now be reflected in the SSK and RM Museum 1st class collectors strip with corresponding Machins issued or reissued.

All Post and Go stamps will be available individually from the day of issue with all dashes removed, which will please collectors and dealers alike.

Some of the newer, smaller Post Office outlets recently trialed with single SSKs could, of course, be open on Jan 1st, so a first day strip is not beyond a possibility, as well as a first day listing on Ebay.

One of the most common questions sent to us is from readers trying to confirm the current ‘worth’ or face value of obsolete (or even current) Post and Go ‘Non Value’ or NVI stamps where used for postage. There doesn’t appear to be any official reference for this information but there has been previous confirmation of the principles used by Royal Mail’s revenue protection, which allows us to produce the following, updated and indeed simplified by the tariff change of 1st September 2020.

The rule applied is that any NVI stamp that indicates a weight step that no longer exists should be rounded up to the next weight and take on the value of that weight step. Where a zone is not indicated then all zones are covered and the stamp takes the value of the most expensive zone in that weight step.

Where these stamps are being used for pre-payment at a Post Office counter posters should consider that NVIs stamp were originally supplied for use for a particular purpose – e.g. specific inland or international mail letter rates and although techncially they are valid for use for other services, such use is exceptional and may result in refusal or re-direction to direct Royal Mail channels.

Royal Mail will increase their prices for the third time in 2020 on 1st September, generally due to the impact of COVID-19 and the knock-on effects of increased transport costs across the world. This time the price changes affect International Letter and Large letter tariffs as well as parcels and builds on the earlier changes to pricing zones on 1st July 2020 when a new ‘Zone 3’ was introduced specifically for the USA. https://www.royalmail.com/international-zones#worldzone3

From a Post and Go collector’s perspective this change will result in the introduction of three new NVI values – the first for a few years.

Firstly, the new tariff combines two previously different tariffs- Europe 100g and Worldwide 20g to the same price point (£1.70) , which allows for a new ‘Combi’ Euro 100g World 20g NVI stamp to be introduced.

Secondly, the introduction of new Worldwide pricing zone 3 earlier in the year has allowed for the applicable Letter rates, for the first time, to differ, so we have the Letter rate for zone 1 and 3 at £2.50 and zone 3 (Australasia) a rate of £2.55 – the first time for a while – certainly since Post and Go stamps have existed- that International letter rates have differed in this way.

This is accomodated by introducing two further new NVI values- a “Worldwide 100g Zone 1-3” and a “Worldwide 100g Zone 2”.

The values ‘retired’ as of 1st September as no longer required are “Euro 100g”, “Worldwide 20g”, and “Worldwide 100g”.

In summary, a comparison between existing and revised values and prices available from before and after 1st Sept 2020:-

The new NVIs will be available on 1st September from all NCR kiosks in Post Offices and IAR locations that are currently in use. (some SSKs are currently out of use to maintain social distancing in Post Office branches and some museum locations are yet to re-open).

The prices for the OV stamps will be updated in line with the tariff, without any design changes.

Machin Stamps are available here:- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174417193519

Robin Stamps are available here:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174417218960

For the NCR SSK and SFKs the ‘buy stamps’ menu will be updated, with the Worldwide 100g stamp option being removed.

Post and Go at Party Political Conference

Image 1 of 5

The Labour NVI stamps are available from our ebay site Labour Party Conference NVI Post and Go

Conservative NVIs are available here  Conservative Party Conference NVI Post and Go

SNP NVIs are available here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172925006737

Royal Mail’s prices change annually – usually on the Monday nearest to the 1st April (The beginning of Royal Mail’s new financial year). This year the changes are introduced on Monday 27th March 2017.

Royal Mail ‘headline’ rate change is 1p on 1st Class and 2nd Class to 56p and 65p respectively but, dig a bit deeper and significant rises – in international – especially European letter rates that impact Post and Go stamp collectors, can be found.

The ‘1st Class Reel’ NVI values to change are that of the ‘1st Class’ (from 64p to 65p) , ‘1st Class Large’ (from 96p to 98p) and ‘World 10g/Euro 20g’ value (from £1.05 to £1.17), ‘Euro 100g’ (from 152p to 157p), ‘World 20g’ (from 133p to 140p) and finally ‘World 100g’ from 225p to 227p resulting in a 29p increase (3.6%) in the cost of a collectors strip from £7.75 to £8.04 (Ouch).

For ‘2nd Class Reel’ rates they change from ‘2nd Class’ (from 55p to 56p) and ‘2nd Class Large’ (from 75p to 76p) changing the cost of the strip from 130p to 132p.

Royal Mails prices can be found here: Royal Mail Tariff 2017

Royal Mail’s prices change annually – usually on the Monday nearest to the 1st April (The beginning of Royal Mail’s new financial year). This year Easter Monday puts a (chocolate flavoured? ) spanner in the works and so prices change on Tuesday 29th March.

Essentially this tariff has very little in the way of the surprises of recent years – but one that could be missed is the difference – for the first time- for postage purchased online verses the price for good old stamps or postage labels applied at a Post Office. For the first time Royal Mail are disincentivising the use of stamps over postage bought online. Granted there has been a difference in pricing for some years for postage applied via a franking machine, but the prices were not really comparable since the necessary equipment had to be purchased/leased and maintained, so only for high volume users did the savings really make any sense.

Royal Mails prices can be found here: Royal Mail Tariff 2016

In summary: Online postage prices have been frozen and the stamped postage generally increased by a few pence. Many prices have not changed including those for International letters between 20g-100g.

Where does this leave Post and Go collectors? The NVI values to change are that of the ‘1st Class’ (from 63p to 64p) , ‘1st Class Large’ (from 95p to 96p) and ‘World 10g/Euro 20g’ value (from £1 to £1.05), resulting in a 7p increase in the cost of a collectors strip from £7.68 to £7.75.

Following on from their introduction at Europhilex 2015, the latest design of Horizon Postage Label has now been seen in day to day use in operational (not event) Post Offices.

The example shown is from Moorgate Post Office a few days prior to relocation of that office.

At Europhilex 2015, as is usual with International Exhibitions in London, as well as the usual Royal Mail ‘Philatelic’ offering, an operational Post Office was established on the gallery.

As part of this and similar to London 2010 where the now widespread  ‘Gold’ Horizon had its ‘First Day’ , Post Office Ltd introduced the latest updated design of Postage Label, with reduced size Queens Head (to allow for more information to be printed) and change to a colour more reminiscent of ‘2000’ Machin stamps.

The first day of use (and therefore introduction of the base label) was 13th May 2015. This is believed to be followed by a limited use in selected branches in the following weeks.

As can be seen, as well as the change of colour, the design features a reduced size Queens Head (Previously announced by Royal Mail at the BPMA Friends Open Day at Debden a year ago on 17th May 2014) and a ‘precancel’ to serve as a reminder that items bearing labels cannot be reused, even though they are not routinely postmarked or cancelled.

The increased ‘white space’ is understood to be made available for a future change in the overprint itself.