The image of the King which will feature on first and second class stamps has been revealed with a Royal Mail executive describing it as a “defining part” of his reign. For the first time Charles’s portrait will appear on stamps in his role as monarch, and the simple, uncluttered design draws inspiration from stamps that featured the late Queen.
David Gold, Royal Mail’s director of external affairs and policy, said they received guidance from the King to maintain “continuity” and Charles did not want existing stamp stocks showing the Queen pulped, but used up over time. The new stamp design features Charles’s head and neck and the King is shown facing left as all monarchs have done since the Penny Black, the world’s first postage stamp, was issued in 1840 with Queen Victoria’s image.
Mr Gold said: “The guidance we got from His Majesty was more about continuity and not doing anything too different to what had gone before. I think perhaps there’s an acknowledgement that, for 70 years people have been so used to seeing the image of Her Majesty, even though actually the current image only started in 1967, they didn’t want to do anything too different to what had gone before.
