Britons are paying more than a pound for a first class stamp for the first time ever as Royal Mail introduced a price hike just 24 hours before King Charles III’s image begins to be officially used today. To post an ordinary letter first class it will cost £1.10 from April 3, an above inflation increase of 16 percent from the previous price of 95p. Second class stamps are also going up from 68p to 75p.

Inflation currently runs at 10.4 percent, but Citizens Advice have warned Royal Mail have increased costs to customers by 64 percent in just five years, GB News reports.

Today marks the first time King Charles III will adorn stamps officially with an image adapted from that appearing on coins produced by the Royal Mint.

However, at the King’s request, stamps featuring his own image will not be sold at post offices or other retailers until stocks showing his mother the Queen have sold out.

But customers wanting to post a letter will have to pay more for a first class stamp featuring the previous monarch than ever before.

Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail told GB News the organisation had to “carefully balance” pricing in the face of increasing business costs.

He said: “We have to carefully balance our pricing against a continued decline in letter volumes and the increasing costs of delivering letters six days a week to an ever-growing number of addresses across the country.

“We are seeing a fundamental change in consumer needs with a greater shift in demand from letters to parcels.”

It’s reported Royal Mail is losing £1million a day under its current model and amid a long-running industrial dispute with staff over pay and conditions.

Under the Royal Mail Universal Service Obligation it is legally required to deliver letters to every address Britain, six days a week, at a standard price.

Commenting on King Charles featuring on stamps for the first time officially, Royal Mail director of external affairs and policy David Gold he had asked for existing stocks bearing his mother’s likeness to be used, rather than destroyed.

Mr Gold said: “The King gave very clear directions he didn’t want anything to be pulped, he didn’t want things being shredded, he didn’t want stock being thrown away.

“He was very clear, however long it takes to clear the stock there’s no rush… entirely in line with his well-stated principles of waste and environmentalism.”

The new stamp features Charles’ head and neck facing left, as all monarchs have done since Queen Victoria appeared on the Penny Black – the world’s first postage stamp – in 1840.

Mr Gold said: “The guidance we got from His Majesty was more about continuity and not doing anything too different to what had gone before.”

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