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When do stamps expire? How to swap out Royal Mail stamps without barcodes

www.standard.co.uk When do stamps expire? How to swap out Royal Mail stamps without barcodes

Royal Mail introduced the barcoded stamps last year to improve security and efficiency

Customers have just a couple of weeks left to use or swap their old stamps after Royal Mail introduced barcoded stamps last year to improve security and efficiency as part of the company’s modernisation drive.

In January, Royal Mail extended the deadline by six months for using non-barcoded stamps, following the introduction of barcoded stamps in February 2022. As a result, stamps featuring the late Queen’s profile that don’t have barcodes will soon be invalid.

You can swap old for new by sending them off - the Post Office (if you can find one) has envelopes.

edit: fixing information about swapping

8 comments

You can swap old for new at the Post Office (if you can find one).

You can't swap them at a post office. You have to send them off in an evelope with a form you fill out. But you can that at a post office if you can't print it out.
- Thanks for the clarification.
I need to do mine. I have loads of low value ones from Postcrossing days, so that'll be fun for somebody (possibly me if I need to specify the value)
- Out of interest, what made you stop Postcrossing? I used to do it a lot, but the huge increase in stamp prices made me knock it on the head.
  
  Partly that, and partly because I wound it down when I moved house, and never restarted (even through lockdown)
I'm still not sure of the purpose of the barcode, why it's needed and if anyone actually uses it.
Honestly can't remember the last time I even used a stamp.
I’m no philatelist, but the new stamps with the 2D barcode slapped on the side look rather ugly.

Christmas stamps are exempt from the switchover if anyone has a stash of them left from Christmases past.

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