Once again Royal Mail has been in the headlines, for an issue that they strenuously deny. It centres around stamps issued for valentine’s day 2008, and ironically, valentines day 2007.

In January 2007, Royal Mail issued a stamp booklet containing Greetings stamps and normal 1st class stamps, geared around valentines day. The greetings stamps were 1st class in white with the word Love written across them, and were very popular with the public, as well as promoting the smiler sheet service.

In January 2008, the post office issued a new booklet containing the same stamps but with two smiler labels reading “Be my valentine” and “SWALK”. These too have proved popular in the short time they were available, and apparently expert collectors were able to differentiate between the two issues due to a very small change in the surface coating.

The alleged problem arose when a collector was reportedly sold a 2007 booklet from a post office, and Royal mail was publicly accused of reselling old booklets from 2007. There is nothing wrong with this technically, and would have gone unnoticed, apart from the fact that Royal Mail declined to admit that it was true.

The truth remains unclear, as no first day covers of the old booklet were ever made. Either way, Royal Mail has not done anything wrong, but as always, any kind of mistake is news worthy!

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