Coils On Cover

I have already written about coils before, so to recap I will just give you the basics of what they are.

Stamp Coils were dispensed via a stamp machine to the customer in strips pro rata of 4 or 5 depending on the face value and denomination of coil and also the coin (s) inserted.

These started to prove to be very popular with collectors and due to the demand, they were eventually also made available from Philatelic counters.

Some multi value coils were provided by Royal Mail for special customers, these were affixed to a card with wax, and used as return postage for promotions.


IE: Readers Digest, Drive Magazine and Marshal Ward are three of those known. These are known to collectors as Readers Digest Coil Strips.

As these strips were getting popular, Royal Mail issued some first day of issue covers for collectors of multiple stamps .

To be honest I do not normally collect covers, but I managed to pick these up (see pic above) at a local shop last week, they sort of jumped out at me as appealing, something a bit different from the norm.

Not expensive either at just £1.00 each. It was the other £45.00 I spent on booklets and bits of tat that hit my pocket.

I keep saying to myself, "cut down on the spending, get rid of some stuff", but when one has the stamp bug, its like a drug, something deep within the brain takes over and I forget all about budgeting.

I guess if you are a collector also, you will know exactly what I am on about.