The stamps feature an image of the King’s head, without a crown, which was personally approved by the monarch.

The image will be used on all regular, plain stamps produced from this date forwards, with the new set of stamps available for purchase on the Royal Mail website.

However, Royal Mail stated that Post Offices and other retailers will continue to sell their existing stock of stamps ‒ featuring the image of the late Queen Elizabeth II ‒ until the supplies are exhausted. 

A spokesperson for the Royal Mail said that this will “minimise the environmental and financial” impact of the change in the design as a result of the change of monarch.

As a result, it may be some time before the new stamps are seen widely in circulation. However, the image can already be seen on the 50p coins which are already in circulation.

Stamp prices pass £1 threshold

The change in portrait comes after the price of stamps was increased on 3rd April.

The cost of a first class stamp increased by 15p to £1.10, the first time it has passed the £1 threshold. Meanwhile, the cost of a second class stamp rose 7p to 75p.

Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, noted that the volume of letters being sent had dropped by 25% compared with before the pandemic, and said Royal Mail was having to balance its pricing given the increasing costs of delivering letters six days a week across an ever-growing number of addresses in the UK.

He added: “We need to make these price changes to ensure we can continue to maintain and invest in the one-price-goes-anywhere Universal Service for years to come.”