No crown for Charles as Royal Mail unveils King’s new stamp

King Charles III has marked another milestone in his reign after the British postal service gave a first look at the new stamps bearing his image.

The King’s stamp boasts a minimalistic design, with no decorations and no crown. Instead, it only features a simple side profile image of Charles looking to the left with a plain purple background.

Today, we reveal our new definitive stamp featuring the image of King Charles III.

The image of HM The King is an adapted version of the portrait created by Martin Jennings for The Royal Mint.

The stamps will go on general sale from 4 April 2023. pic.twitter.com/TbKlmclO5X

— Royal Mail (@RoyalMail) February 8, 2023

“The feedback we got back was that he wanted it to be simple,” said Royal Mail director of external affairs, David Gold.

“It’s a very human image, with no embellishment.

“The guidance we were given was not to try to be too clever or to veer off into some different direction but very much to keep that traditional image that we’re all very much used to” he continued.

“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.”

There have only been five other British monarchs who have been featured on the stamp, since Queen Victoria’s debut back in 1840.

Hawk-eyed royal fans may notice that the King’s profile is based on the sculpture made by artist Martin Jennings, the same image that has been used for the King’s coins.

Delighted that @RoyalMail will be using my effigy of King Charles for their definitive stamps. This is the portrait I originally made for @RoyalMintUK for the new coinage. https://t.co/7kUczE8VU7

— Martin Jennings (@MJenningsSculpt) February 8, 2023

“I was delighted to hear that The King likes the image. He was very interested in it and responded very positively to it. It has been very gratifying to be involved in this important process,” Jennings said regarding his design for the coin, adding that he had conducted extensive research in preparation for the production, studying countless images of King Charles for the historic design.

The new coins featuring King Charles have already begun circulation last December, while the new banknotes are scheduled for rollout by mid-2024 with the current banknotes carrying the image of the late Queen Elizabeth II to remain legal tender.