With the Royal Mail 2019 Stamp Prices kicking in today, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Historic Royal Mail Stamp Prices. To keep things simple, we’ve listed stamp prices from the time of decimalisation in 1971 through to the present day.
For those who are interested, prior to decimalisation the cost of a 1st Class stamp was 5d in the days of LSD (Pounds, Shillings and Pence).
In 1971, the cost of a 1st Class stamp was 3p and a 2nd Class stamp would set you back 2.5p (yes we still had half pence coins up until December 1984).
Today’s 3p price rise is mid-range at 4.48%, the highest ever increase in the cost of a stamp was in 1975 when the cost of a 1st Class stamp jumped 55.56% from 4.5p to 7p and the cost of a 2nd Class stamp rose 57.14% from 3.5p to 5.5p.
The price rise today is also the highest since 2012 (30.43% rise for 1st Class and 38.89% for 2nd Class) and follows 3 years (2015-2017) of 1p rises and a 2p rise in 2018.
In 2012 Ofcom set the 2nd Class stamp price cap at 55p which would increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) so today that means the cap is set at 60.65p. From the 1st April 2019, Ofcom have set the cap at 5% in real terms, to 65p for the period 1st of April 2019 to 31st of March 2020. The precise upper limit of the cap will be set at 65.2p from April 2019 (increasing it by CPI each year) but is quoted as 65p as Royal Mail increments stamp prices in whole pennies.
Royal Mail are in breach of the price cap from today until the 1st of April and will donate approximately £60,000 to the Action for Children charity to make amends.
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Class |
Class |
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Class |
Class |
|
Class |
Class |
| 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 |
3 3 3.5 4.5 7 8.5 9 9 10 12 14 15.5 16 17 17 18 |
2.5 2.5 3 3.5 5.5 6.5 7 7 8 10 11.5 12.5 12.5 13 12 13 |
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 |
18 19 20 22 24 24 25 25 25 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 |
13 14 15 17 18 18 19 19 19 20 20 20 19 19 19 19 |
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 |
28 28 30 32 34 36 39 41 46 60 60 62 63 64 65 67 70 |
20 21 21 23 24 27 30 32 36 50 50 53 54 55 56 58 61 |
