British Postmark Society Journal


The BPS Journal is usually published four times a year, at the end of January,  April,  July and October.  Regular features include news about handstamps, stamp cancelling machines (both die-based and inkjet), slogan postmarks, special event postmarks, postal labels and instructional or explanatory markings, Post Office openings and closures, Mail Centre changes, computer-printed postage labels, and PPIs (printed postage impressions) of Royal Mail and of rival mail companies. The BPS Journal is distributed in printed form by post or as a PDF download.  The cover of a recent issue appears on the Home page.  We are currently working towards making the archives of the BPS Quarterly Bulletin and the BPS Journal since 1958 available in digital form.


Books About Postmarks


The best general guide to our areas of collecting and study is the 9th Edition of Collect British Postmarks, published in December 2013 by Stanley Gibbons Ltd. This is a successor to the 7th Edition published in 1997 by the British Postmark Society - based on the earlier works of the late Dr J T Whitney.  It is a general guide to the study and collecting of British Postmarks from 1661 to the present. The latest edition further updates all types of postmarks and their prices, including the effects of recent reductions in the number of Mail Centres.  It contains much new and updated information compared with earlier versions, which are widely available second-hand but no longer recommended as guides.


The British Postmark Society has published a number of books about particular types of postmark over the years, and the following are currently available:

Special Event Postmarks of the UK – five volumes covering 1851 to 2013

Twenty Years of First Day Postmarks – 1963 to 1983

- see the Slogans & Special Events page

Krag Machine Postmarks of Great Britain & Ireland  by Paul T Carter was published by the BPS in September 2012. The book covers Krag stamp-cancelling machines used in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the Irish Republic from 1905 to 2012 – all covered for the first time in a single publication (with more than 90 colour and 3000 mono illustrations). Second Edition (July 2022), fully updated and expanded, is now available as a free PDF download - see Machine Cancellations page .


Slogan Postmarks, 2000 to 2012 
 by Martin Grier was published by the BPS in February 2014. This volume is printed in the same format as the four earlier books in the series, written and published by Parsons, Peachey & Pearson. It includes a complete listing of all slogans recorded as used in the years 2000 to 2012, including those used in iLSM (Intelligent Letter Sorting Machine) trials and slogans used in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. It also lists many additions and amendments to the earlier volumes. It is now available in PDF format, as all printed copies have been sold, via the link on the Slogans & Special Events page.  The yearly PDF supplements covering 2013 to 2020 have now been combined by Martin in to a single supplement, which also includes further additions and amendments to the earlier books - follow this link:
Slogan Postmarks of the UK 2013-2020

Further supplements cover slogan postmarks used during 2021, 2022 and 2023, and these can be downloaded using these links:

Slogan Postmarks of the UK 2021 

Slogan Postmarks of the UK 2022

Slogan Postmarks of the UK 2023

The earlier slogan postmark books are now also available in digital form - see the Slogans & Special Events page.


Page updated August 2024