Ideas for future Royal Mail stamps

Some of you might remember that earlier in the year I wrote to Royal Mail about the stamp programme for 2026. I wasn't very impressed! I made some points about design quality and what I thought was a lack of creativity in recent issues. I also asked them about the high cost of buying stamps compared to other European countries, caused by Royal Mail's need to create huge sets 16 times a year.

A few weeks after that, I received this response. I'll let you read over it if you like, but the letter did say that members of the public can make suggestions for future stamps, which can be considered by the Stamp Programme Manager.

Heidi and I have done a lot of things during the summer but in the last few days we have thought about ideas for future Royal Mail stamps.

We have tried to find things that Royal Mail has not done before and are also interesting, which is a challenge! We came up with a lot of ideas and obviously Royal Mail can't use them all but we hope that they will consider our suggestions carefully.

We have several ideas and some of these could work at any time of the year and indeed in any year. Some of them are connected to specific years or particular dates and most of these are connected to important anniversaries. The important thing is that the stamps reflect Britain.

In regards the anniversaries, we have taken into account that “detailed planning… begins about 18 months in advance” and so we have mainly looked at 2029 and 2030, with a couple of suggestions for 2028. Our ideas are as follows:

British Native Deer

Deer have been on British stamps before but there has never been a set dedicated to them. If done well, this could show male, female and young native Red and Roe deer.  This could be so much more than just nice wildlife portraits and perhaps you could call it Native Deer: A Year In the Wild with the main idea to follow Red and Roe deer through a complete year. As the two types of deer have different lives this could also make the set interesting and informative.

Britain’s Endangered Crafts

This should show people at work doing things like thatching roofs, basket weaving, traditional wooden boat building, silver spinning, stained glass window making or crystal glass cutting.

Signs of Britain

These could show a mixture of shop signs, road signs, railway signs, footpath signs, warning signs, pub signs, milestones…  basically anything that shows the diversity of modern Britain. Some of these could be in languages other than English.

The Secret Life of Soil

Soil is fascinating but it doesn’t always look like it! This set could show that soil is a living substance and tell a story through scientific pictures that show what happens under the soil. Plant roots, narrowing, hunting, recycling, storing, growing… and so on.

British Archaeology

This could show some famous archaeological sites from all parts of the UK (this has been done before) as well as the work of archaeologists (which hasn’t).

Community Rescue

A tribute to voluntary rescue organisations, such as the mountain rescue service, cave rescue, search and rescue, flood rescue volunteers, community first responders, search-dog teams, Coastwatch and blood-bike riders.

Repairing Britain

This could feature building conservation, clock repair, furniture restoration, engineering works, and so on – all capturing a different way in which people are working to repair our country.

Languages of Britain

Royal Mail has often created stamps for the different nations of the UK. But it has not often celebrated the many British languages that are still used today. Welsh has appeared on stamps (e.g. A British Journey: Wales, 2004) but there has been nothing celebrating the language since the 1988 400^th Anniversary of the Welsh Bible issue. The only other stamp we can think of is the Eisteddfod stamp of 1976, which was part of a wider set about cultural traditions. Amazingly, Scottish Gaelic has NEVER appeared on a Royal Mail stamp and neither has Cornish. Scots only appeared once and that was as part of the Robert Burns issue (1996). British Sign Language (BSL) appeared on a stamp in 1981 in an issue about disability, but perhaps it is time to celebrate all of these languages as languages?

In praise of rain

There is nothing more British than talking about the weather and especially rain. Perhaps Royal Mail could create an exciting, inventive and maybe fun/playful set celebrating rain? This could include images like rain on pavements, summer shower over fields, children in puddles, rain seen from a train , water collecting in leaves, a postman / postwoman in waterproofs, reflections under streetlights, the clear landscape after rain, and so on.

British Rodents

There have been mice on British stamps previously (2010 Action for Species and 2004 Woodland Wildlife), but there has never been a set looking at British rodents more widely. This could include different native species of mice, rats, dormice, voles and squirrels.

We also have some ideas in relation to important anniversaries:

27^th April 2028 – 100th Anniversary of London Zoo

18^th November 2028 – 100^th Anniversary of Mickey Mouse

Mickey is not really British but this is a huge milestone and he has always been very popular here in the UK. In fact, he is an icon! As Royal Mail celebrated Peanuts in 2025, they definitely need to be celebrating Mickey’s 100^th birthday!

12^th May 2029 – 30^th Anniversary of the Scottish Parliament / Senedd

This is a really important anniversary for two countries in the UK and we think it really should be marked with special stamps. These could be two separate issues or a single issue.

30^th May 2029 – 100^th Anniversary of the first General Election in which women could vote on equal terms

October 2029 – 200^th Anniversary of the Rainhill Trials

Yes, this has been done before but it is such an important anniversary in the history of the UK and the development of the railways that it would seem wrong not to celebrate the bicentenary through a special issue.

2030 – 75^th Anniversary of the Guinness Book of Records / Guinness World Records

This is a very important anniversary about a book we have all heard of and most of us have read at some point in the last 75 years. And of course it is now so much more than a book! Royal Mail has never issued a stamp celebrating this amazing book and its legacy, so surely this anniversary should be the moment to do it?

24^th May 2030 – 100^th Anniversary of Amy Johnson’s solo flight to Australia.

Amy was on a stamp in the 2003 Extreme Endeavours set, but this is a really important anniversary and perhaps she is due a full set marking her amazing achievement?

29^th June 2030 – 125^th Anniversary of the Automobile Association (AA)

Amazingly, there has never been a Royal Mail stamp celebrating the work of the AA. There is so much that can be done with this to show the enormous contribution the AA has made in 125 years.

August 2030 – 100^th Anniversary of the evacuation of St Kilda

This is quite sad and quite local to a particular island, but it was an important moment.

Christmas 2030 – 150^th Anniversary of the first ever Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at Truro Cathedral

Christmas stamps don’t often celebrate anniversaries, but this one should be an exception. People imagine carol services go back centuries, but they’re quite recent really. The first ever carol service as we would understand it was held at Truro in 1880 and we think it would be wonderful if the 2030 Christmas issue celebrated this.

Our final suggestion isn’t about an anniversary as such, but a series of stamps for the new decade.

2030 – Britain in the 1930s

Perhaps the first of a series of ten issues with one released each year. Each issue could focus on a different aspect of life in the 1930s. If there are just two I'd pick out then they would be the ideas about the Guinness Book of Records and the 150th anniversary of the first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at Truro. Both of these have had a huge impact on our country and shaped our culture in ways that the people who started them probably would never have expected.

We have sent our ideas to Royal Mail's Stamp Programme Manager.

We have no idea which themes and subjects Royal Mail will choose for their stamp programme in the next few years and perhaps some of these (London Zoo, Mickey Mouse and the Rainhill Trials) are so well-known that it would be surprising if they were not included. It would be nice to think we could have some influence on decisions being made; I'd like to think they may consider some of the less well-known anniversaries as good subject matter and Heidi would love to see a stamp issue about deer.

What do you think? What would your ideas be?