Royal Mail has accused me of sending it £1,705 worth of USED stamps and won’t swap them for new ones: CRANE ON THE CASE

Over the years I have bought stamps in large batches, often just before the annual April price rise. 

This left me with a problem when the new barcoded stamps came in, as I had a large backlog. 

From 2022, I set about sending them off in batches to Royal Mail to be exchanged under its swap out scheme.

In June of that year, I sent 58 £1 monetary stamps, one £2 stamp, and 1,200 first-class stamps.

I was later told that of the stamps I sent in, 947 were either used or counterfeit.

I can’t understand how this is the case, as I only bought stamps from Post Office branches. I’ve argued this with Royal Mail but it is standing firm.

When the price of stamps goes up on 7 April, the value of my ‘lost’ stamps will be £1,705. Name and address supplied

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion, replies:  My first question to you was, of course: Why on earth would someone have so many unused stamps? 

You told me that your family used to run a holiday let business, and often sent brochures and the like to potential customers in the post. 

Following advice you saw online, you would buy a stash of stamps every March, ahead of the annual price rise in April. 

These increases have been steep in recent years. On 7 April 2026 the cost of a first-class stamp will rise 10p to £1.80 – nearly three times the price it was a decade ago at 64p.

Stockpiling stamps was a savvy move, although in hindsight it does seem that you over-purchased. 

The new stamps were introduced in 2022, and the function of the barcode is so mail can be sorted and tracked more easily. 

Since July 2023, old-style stamps have been invalid. If you use one, the recipient risks a fine of £2.50. 

Royal Mail has run a scheme to swap stamps since then, though it has been plagued with problems. 

Some users have reported long delays receiving replacement stamps, or stamps going missing. 

In your case, you claimed the stamps you sent in that were deemed valid were not sent to you until 2024, despite you submitting them nearly two years earlier. 

You were also unhappy that you had been given no explanation of what exactly was the matter with the stamps, and whether you were being accused of sending in fake ones, or used ones.

Britain has a problem with counterfeit stamps, which are usually produced abroad and sold online or by small retailers. 

I contacted Royal Mail to ask why it wouldn’t exchange your 947 stamps. 

Strangely, it denied taking two years to send you back the stamps that could be exchanged. Royal Mail said it did send them in June 2022, and had no record of sending you any stamps in 2024. 

And I am afraid things only became stranger from there. 

As Royal Mail still had the stamps you submitted, it sent them to its specialist assessment team to examine them for a second time. 

It came back to me with a long list of faults, which seemed to prove beyond doubt that you were attempting to trade in used stamps. 

A Royal Mail spokesman said it had ‘identified multiple indicators that the stamps had been previously used and chemically treated to remove any indication of our cancellation process.’

By this, they mean the the postmarks applied across the stamps to invalidate them when they are attached to a letter had been purposefully removed. 

Further evidence included ‘non‑original adhesive and residue, inconsistent source codes and colours, uneven shading caused by chemical processing, a gritty surface texture, and the absence of phosphor, a key security feature.’

Invisible bands of phosphorus have been used on British stamps since 1959 to facilitate the mechanical sorting of mail, but chemical treatment can remove these. 

All of this means Royal Mail won’t be replacing your stamps. 

Did you really buy hundreds of used stamps from the Post Office, as you say? 

I can’t say it is impossible, as fake versions have been known to make their way to the counters of unsuspecting retailers. 

But you are clearly a regular stamp user. Had you purchased them legitimately, you would have rejected the dodgy ones off the bat once you noticed the colour, texture and shading were all wrong. 

You certainly wouldn’t have returned to the same branch time and time again to buy more. 

I am afraid I may have had the wool pulled over my eyes on this occasion by taking your case to the Royal Mail – but at least I have learned plenty about the science of stamps.  

CRANE ON THE CASE