A NEW online service launched today could spell the end of traditional postage stamps. Cust... Web postage service launched...

Submitted by admin on Tue, 2006-09-19 11:00. ::

Customers will be able to find the cost of sending a letter or parcel on the internet, then settle up by debit or credit card via a pre-pay account.

But the image will NOT include the Queen’s head - ending a tradition dating back more than 160 years. And last night stamp collectors were bemoaning the effect on their hobby. Royal Mail marketing director Alex Batchelor said: "We have launched this service in response to the public’s demands."

Ashley Lawrence, a member of the Royal Philatelic Society, said: "It is a pity that Royal Mail should allow the Queen's head to disappear from postage stamps. Great Britain was the first country to issue stamps, in 1840, and the Monarch’s head has graced our stamps since then."

A Royal Mail spokesman denied the system is an electronic stamp. He said it was a form of online postage and therefore using the Queen’s head was not appropriate. Details of the system are available at www.royalmail.com/onlinepostage.

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