Royal Mail 'reinventing' the stamp 'for the modern age'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.gbnews.uk/news/royal-mail-r ... age/217391

The move follows a successful trial, with the aim of connecting a letter with the digital world

Royal Mail is adding special barcodes to stamps, making it possible for people to watch videos, messages and other information.

The move from Tuesday follows a successful trial, with the aim of connecting a letter with the digital world.

Customers can scan the barcodes in the Royal Mail app and will eventually be able to watch videos, information about services, or even birthday messages and other greetings from senders.

At the moment, a video featuring Shaun the Sheep, created exclusively for Royal Mail by animation studio Aardman, can be viewed.

Speaking to Eamonn & Isabel on GB News, David Gold, the Royal Mail's Director of External Affairs & Policy, said the new stamps were "going to change the way we use mail."

Mr Gold said: “We’re taking the humble stamp, which, let’s remember, was created and started in Great Britain in 1840 and we’re taking it into a new era.

“We’re reinventing it for the modern age. We’re linking it to technology.”


Customers can scan the barcodes in the Royal Mail app and will eventually be able to watch videos, information about services, or even birthday messages and other greetings from senders. Royal Mail

It is the first in a series of planned videos to be released during 2022 that will allow customers sending stamped mail to choose which one the recipient can see when they receive an item of mail.

The new barcoded stamps will have a ‘digital twin’ and the two will be connected by the Royal Mail app.

The barcodes match the stamp colour and sit alongside the main body of the stamp, separated by a simulated perforation line.

The barcodes will be available on so-called ‘definitive’ stamps – the regular everyday stamps featuring the profile of the Queen.

Non-barcoded definitive and Christmas stamps will remain valid until January 2023.

Nick Landon, Royal Mail chief commercial officer, said: “Introducing unique barcodes on our postage stamps allows us to connect the physical letter with the digital world and opens up the possibilities for a range of new innovative services in future.”

[davthepunk]

I just saw people talking about that on the eBay forums, so I came here looking for info...

Is this actually going to be a "tracking" thing? Quite a few people think it is, but reading between the lines, they didn't actually say that?

Edit:

There's some dubious/annoying-sounding stuff here, looking into it further.

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/barco ... ODEDSTAMPS

Can I take my stamps to the Post Office to swap them out?

No — you can't swap your non-barcoded stamps out at a Post Office. You will need to pick up a 'Swap Out' form and send in your non-barcoded stamps to Royal Mail (freepost address on the form).

Also, this sounds like a bad idea.

Are you barcoding all stamps?

All Definitive stamps are being barcoded — including Christmas stamps. Definitive stamps are the regular ‘everyday’ stamps featuring the profile of HM The Queen created by the sculptor Arnold Machin. We aren't barcoding special issue stamps — which are printed as a one off to commemorate a person/event and to celebrate the best of the UK’s contribution to the world.

What happens if I use a non barcoded stamp after 31 January 2023?

If you post an item with a non-barcoded stamp after 31 January 2023 it will be liable to surcharge — as it will be the equivalent of it having no postage. So please either use up any non-barcoded stamps you have — or swap them out.

So, you can buy those special issue stamps, but you can't actually use them for posting?

[lyndhurst25]

Marketing hogwash. I think that Royal Mail’s main motivation is about putting serial numbers on stamps to stop them being reused. Not sure why they are phasing out all current stamps over such a short period of time and forcing people to go through a convoluted exchange process. Maybe there are a lot of forgeries currently in circulation but they don’t want to admit it?

[Mr Rush]

I think that Royal Mail’s main motivation is about putting serial numbers on stamps to stop them being reused.

That's about as much as you could fit in these 2D barcodes. Maybe a URL for linking to online media as mentioned in the story. Not sure about acommodating both at the same time on a barcode of that size when you factor in the overhead for error-correction that'll survive contact with the real world.

Scene 1: Customer scans the barcode on their birthday card to view a special birthday message. It has been raining. It doesn't work.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

A QR Code can store up to 4,296 alphanumeric characters so I think it could cope with a link and a unique code identifier. As far as I know, the size of the QR code has no bearing on the amount of data it can hold. I am researching that though.

[SpacePhoenix]

It's going to result in a lot less stamps getting cancelled. With the existing stamps if you've got 4 together, you can cancel all 4 in 1 go but with the new stamps you have to do each one without getting the barcode. I don't think it'll now always be practical to cancel the stamps on the machines as it'll get the barcode on a good few of them

[davthepunk]

Marketing hogwash. I think that Royal Mail’s main motivation is about putting serial numbers on stamps to stop them being reused. Not sure why they are phasing out all current stamps over such a short period of time and forcing people to go through a convoluted exchange process. Maybe there are a lot of forgeries currently in circulation but they don’t want to admit it?

FWIW, you can usually find people on eBay selling sheets of hundreds of current-issue first and second class stamps for a suspiciously low price - like 50-70% of face value.

Or large numbers of used, unfranked current-issue stamps - the sellers usually add "for philatelic purposes only - not for reuse", or something like that to the descriptions. Still, I'm sat here going "hmmmmm - seems legit".

Edit:

Oh yeah, and other sellers on eBay buy these and try to put them on their own stuff (maybe they know it's dodgy, maybe they did it unwittingly, I dunno). Then they end up getting loads and loads of angry buyers (and negative feedback) because the buyer gets a card through their door demanding that *they* pay the postage because the stamps are fake/already used.

There was someone on the eBay boards who bought some of those cheap stamps and then complained that the seller of those cheap stamps sent them the stamps in an envelope with a counterfeit stamp on it!

[Mr Rush]

A QR Code can store up to 4,296 alphanumeric characters so I think it could cope with a link and a unique code identifier. As far as I know, the size of the QR code has no bearing on the amount of data it can hold. I am researching that though.

That's not a QR code in the image. It looks more like Data Matrix (or a derivative), which are usually small barcodes for inventory tracking - ideal for putting a short serial number next to a stamp. 4,296 characters is not going to fit next to a stamp.