Like I said, it was about time to suit other stamp buyers’ tastes! Glad you like them. I like the fact that they have included two 2nd class values, most special stamps nowadays only have 1st class and higher values.
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This blog contains a link to an interesting 18 page pdf on his work.
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Thanks for sharing this @OnTheMoor! There are loads of interesting things they could have gone for in here! Stamp designs that never made the cut! Or, shock, that don’t feature the Queen’s head!! Oh well 
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Hmmm yes, having skimmed the linked article, and seeing the new stamps feature a double portrait of the Queen,
If some of stamps which had UK or a Royal Cypher/Crown in the planning stages where featured, I would feel more inclined to purchase them and they would be more unique.
I quite like the Oak Tree stamp.
I like the Battle of Hastings (6d!) and the oak. Not fussed about the others.
I decided to experiment with smaller denomination stamps this time round with my order from Philatelink - £50 worth for around £38. I’d already used some by time I took this picture but a nice selection of commemorative and machins!
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How long does it take for something you send for hand stamping to be hand stamped and returned to you?
I sent a written and stamped postcard (in an envelope) off to be hand stamped at Tallents House over two weeks ago and wondered how long I should expect to wait.
The handstamp I requested was a touristic one, as opposed to one that’s tied to a stamp issue, so I don’t know if that makes a difference?
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Anywhere between 7 days and six weeks,
Although last year a cover from Tallents House came back to me three months later. 
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Thank you! I’ll have to wait and see then. It’ll be a nice surprise whenever it does turn up!
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I sent off four cards to be handstamped mid Januray and five and a half weeks later there is still no sign of them 
. It’ll be a cancellation I am looking forward to very much (one of the cards is coming back home to me) so it is reassuring to hear that waiting times can be long! I already doubted myself and thought I had somehow made a mistake.
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Like the early days of Postcrossing, special handstamps are worth developing patience for 
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My miniature sheet of these arrived today. Slightly odd having a stamps on stamps. The David Gentleman original stamps are a lot better than some recent issues though, in my view!
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Agreed… I originally thought they could have used other stamps, such as Concorde or the QE2 but I then discovered that David Gentleman was involved in the choice of stamps… and I guess he knows what’s his best designs
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My half sheet of £1.70s also arrived this week. Lovely photos. I’m sure many overseas Postcrossing recipients and pen-pals will love them too.
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Copying from another forum…
Philatelic Bulletin Royal Mail Stamps have announced that there will be new datamatrixed international airmail stamps on 4 April with values of £1.85, £2.55, £3.25, and £4.20. The three higher values are the existing rates, but the £1.85 represents an increase from £1.70 for European letters to 100g, and Worldwide letters and postcards to 20g.
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According to the Norvic Philatelics Blog, this suggests that postage rates will increase on 11 April.
Do you get the feeling that Royal Mail have something against postcards?
The only overseas rate to go up and there is no 15p mark-up stamp!
So we will be squeezing 2 x 1st class + 10p + 5p onto the card, not forgetting the barcoded stamps are much larger! unless of course you’ve got old stamps too attach via the calculator before they go!
Or simply buy a £1.85 stamp, but where’s the fun in that? 
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So just read something on Facebook and well, the cost of a postcard looks to be going up in April from £1.70 to £1.85! Which means if a first class stamp stays at 85p, then two will no longer equal to send one postcard, you’ll have to add 15p, which is ok till the stamps change if you’ve got a 15p stamp, but if not, then well…
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Is it just international postage that’s going up? I’d assumed everything was. However, even if first class does go up, we’re still going to need two first class plus something, because £1.85 is an odd number. (Well, unless they reintroduce 1/2 penny stamps within the first class rate, which is unlikely! 
)
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The campaign starts here… bring back the halfpenny stamp 
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