New English definitives

Four new definitives

On 23 April 2001 four new definitives were issued in England. The stamps were approved by Her Majesty The Queen and feature images of the Crowned Lion of England (1st Class), Three Lions of England (2nd Class), English Oak Tree (European) and English Tudor Rose (65p). These new stamps will replace the standard definitive stamps at more than 14,000 post offices across England.

English country definitives

The English country definitives completed the quartet of Royal Mail's definitive stamp issues; Northern Ireland's, Wales and Scotland's were already issued.

No Queen

Mark Thomson, managing director of Royal Mail Stamps and Collectibles, said: "This will be the first time that Royal Mail has issued images other than the Queen's head on English definitive stamps, and the news has already sparked a great deal of interest from around the world.
With such a wide range of design options available to us we sought feedback from both the public and our network of stamp research panels before finalising the designs for these stamps."