"Forever" stamp

[Damien Hall]

The UK's Royal Mail has been using stamps without the value printed on them for
first- and second-class mail since 1989, and for mail to the rest of the
European Union since the mid-1990's.  The logic is of course just the same as
USPS'.  No-one in the UK has come up with such a snazzy name for them as
'forever stamp', though;  the Royal Mail's website refers to them as 'Non-Value
Indicator (NVI) stamps'

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=400043&mediaId=600025

and the philately community appears to have adopted the abbreviation 'NVI' for
them:

http://www.gbstamps.com/machins/faq3.html

(a 'Machin' is a stamp with the Queen's head on it, presumably named after
either the artist of the profile or the designer of the stamp - don't know).

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania

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