Phosphor-band error found on new British stamps

By Denise McCarty

Royal Mail removed the five first-class River Wildlife stamps from sale shortly after the July 13 issue date “due to a technical error in the printing” that caused some of the first-class stamps to be processed as second-class stamps, according to a statement by a Royal Mail spokesman.

Further information was given on the Royal Mail website, which said that only the first-class stamps purchased before July 26 were affected, while those purchased after July 27 were not.

According to a July 14 post on the Norvic Philatelics blog, this was the “first major phosphor error for many years” on a commemorative stamp issue.

The blog, which provides news about recent Great Britain stamps and related products, reported that the River Wildlife first-class stamps had only one phosphor band instead of two.

(Phosphor bands are used by the automated mail-handling equipment. Royal Mail’s second-class stamps have one phosphor band, while others are supposed to have two.)

As reported in the Aug. 7 issue of Linn’s, the River Wildlife set includes 10 stamps: five se-tenant first-class (£1.10) and five se-tenant second-class (75 pence).

Cartor Security Printing printed the stamps in separate sheets of 50 (sold in panes of 25 at most postal outlets).

The stamps also were available in a presentation pack, which according to Norvic Philatelics also included the first-class stamps with only one phosphor band.

When Linn’s visited Royal Mail’s online shop on July 27, the presentation pack was not available.

The website did have the first-class stamps available in strips of five, panes of 25 and sheets of 50, all presumably from a new printing with two phosphor bands.

While stamp collectors may not want to return their phosphor-error first-class stamps, other postal customers may, and Royal Mail is setting up an exchange system.

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