People ‘in the know’ are saying that Royal Mail have lost a LOT of money over recent years because of counterfeit stamps. And when I say ‘a lot’ I actually mean ‘A LOT’. Those whose positions give them access to information most of us do not have are talking about a loss in the region of six billion pounds. Yup, THAT much.
Bearing this all in mind, it is obvious that Royal Mail had to step things up security-wise and make full use of tech to do so. After all, who could blame them? Because if that figure is correct, then we are talking about a serious amount of dollar.
So…. Everything is perfectly reasonable and understandable up to now….. but Royal Mail’s answer to this situation and their new style of stamps may well cause a whole lot of issues for some people; namely those posting smaller items.
The main problem is that the new style of postage stamps are kind of way-big. Seriously, they are MAHOOSIVE! I mean, why didn’t they just be done with it, go the whole way and create letter-sized stamps? Then we could all just write on these directly! And considering how bloody pale these new stamps are, our writing being legible would NOT have been an issue.
Over the last few years, fake stamps have been rife. And a lot of people have been using them. Whilst some will justify using counterfeit stamps purely because of Royal Mail’s high prices, this does not mean it is okay. I would be one of the first to bitch about postage prices but….. there is no way I’d want to risk getting caught putting dodgy stamps on any items I send.
Just how this will all pan out remains to be seen. Although one thing is for sure – Royal Mail are going to be getting a lot of angry messages asking them why their new stamps have to be so bloody big. They will work fine on hoofing great parcels, but with small packages it will be an entirely different matter altogether.
And if you think I am being a little OTT about this, then maybe take time to consider just how many people now make extra money by creating/crafting and selling small items such as jewellery etc on outlets such as eBay or Etsy. After all, super-secure stamps are one thing but people still need room to write an address. Lol.
© Article and images (except where stated) copyright Mik Smith 2022
MAIN IMAGE – carefully messed around with by Me
Other images – reblogged from britishstamps.co.uk and THEN carefully messed around with by Me
