Cutoff date for non-Barcoded stamps definitely delayed

[Andrew]

According to my MPs newsletter, the date has been delayed -

"After asking Ministers, I was pleased to hear Royal Mail has seen the sense of giving a longer grace period and has delayed its proposed ban on non-barcoded stamps until next Summer. Previously, the new barcoded stamps would have been the only type of postage stamp allowed after January 31st 2023, with letters using old stamps being returned to the sorting office for collection after incurring a £3.50 fine."

First time I have seen any mention of a 'fine' though

[Andy Burns]

There's always been a penalty rate "to pay" for unpaid/underpaid postage, that has become lucrative for scammers who are able to get the unwary to make payments for fake deliveries.

[Andy Burns]

e.g. from 1982

[Chris Green]

... and they're not "barcoded", it's a QR code (I think).

I really, really don't understand why adding such a code adds anything useful to a stamp. They can surely encode all the information that could possibly be wanted with the existing bands etc. on the face of the stamp. What information apart from "1st class, letter" can usefully be put on a first class stamp?

... and they're horribly ugly! We used to have beautiful stamps.

[Mike Clarke]

With that size QR code they can give every stamp a unique number. As the letter goes through the sorting system the database can be updated to mark that number as having been 'used'. This could also enable them to prevent forgeries being used by only allowing QR codes which pass a CRC check.

[Andy Burns]

Not exactly ... new stamps and QR codes are both examples of 2D barcodes.

Tracking postage paid to individual items of post.

[Chris Green]

Is that really what it's used for? How do they print them with a different QR code on each stamp? It makes sense for money as that is relatively valuable and has to last for some time but for something like a stamp it's surely rather expensive. I guess such things are becoming cheaper and easier now though.

[Chris Green]

But they're not made up of bars! :-)

But you can do that with trivially simple codes, or even no codes at all and character recognition. There's still a 'value' printed on the stamp.

[Chris Hogg]

I caught a brief glimpse of some of these QR coded stamps today. It looked as though there were perforations between the coded strip and the monarch's image which would allow them to be torn off. I assume that's not actually the case, so what's the point of the pseudo perforations?

[alan_m]

I've seen one RM web page somewhere that says the bar/QR code will help with user tracking so I assume that the code in unique to the stamp. Tracking this way would possibly need the user to scan the stamp perhaps using a RM app on a smart phone.

[SteveW]

Postage has become pretty expensive these days. It is probably well worth preventing forgeries or re-use.

[Andy Burns]

But the unique serial number per stamp allows them to detect "cloned" stamps

[Andy Burns]

The centre perforations aren't real, and I've no idea why they print them.

[Colin Bignell]

The plan is to allow people to send videos, through the Royal Mail App, which can be viewed by scanning the code. Watch for RM employees scanning bar codes, to see who has sent intimate videos.

[Mark Carver]

Yes, however, RM are being disingenuous over this, any casual Google on their web site still results in the Jan 31 date, and no mention of the grace period.

In any case it's binary. Either you can use them until July 31st, or you can't !

My guess, the fines for using old stamps won't kick in until July 31st

[NY]

I had to pay a charge to receive a letter that had been posted with insufficient postage (a "2nd" stamp - ie no numerical price - which is only valid up to a certain weight). I wish I hadn't bothered because it was only a circular (a financial company newsletter), not a letter specifically sent to me. I emailed the sender to warn them that they may get a lot of complaints like mine, so they could update the postage that their post room paid in future. It was odd that the post room had chosen to use stamps rather than a pre-paid franking.

[NY]

Aesthetics?

I was surprised that the new stamps are bigger than the previous ones: they are not the old stamp with a barcode alongside, but an enlarged version of the old stamp with a barcode alongside.

[wasbit]

Spending millions to save pounds.

[Mark Carver]

Yes, and the books are same physical size as the old books, so there's fewer stamps per 'book'.

[Brian Gaff]

Well given the current state of Royal mail we will be lucky to still have a postal system by the end of January. Employees are leaving in droves down here in and around London. I have no idea what jobs they are getting, but obviously there must be some. The issue is that the strikes also continue for better pay and conditions, so they cannot hire permanent staff till they settle the dispute. Brian