After today, stamps without a barcode will no longer be valid for postage.

The change is part of a new scheme to digitalise stamps, and from now on they will all feature a scannable barcode.

Barcoded stamps were launched in February last year and allow people to look at extra content like videos and messages from senders.

Royal Mail said the scheme will improve efficiency, and will add further ‘security features’. The technology is expected to be developed and used in other ways in the future.

Stamps without a barcode were originally set to expire at the end of January, but this was extended by six months to give people more time to use them up.

But from tomorrow, August 1, old-style stamps will be treated as having insufficient postage and will be liable for a £1.10 charge.

Anyone who still has stamps without a barcode will still be able to exchange them for new ones, however.

If you have a printer, you can swap out up to £200 worth of non-barcoded stamps by printing out and completing this Stamp Swap Out form.

You can send the form free of charge, along with your stamps, by writing on the envelope ‘Freepost SWAP OUT’, and no other address details or postcode are needed.

If you have a printer and more than £200 worth of stamps to swap out, then use the Bulk Stamp Swap Out form.

This must be sent to: Royal Mail, Swap Out, Tallents House, 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.

If you don’t have access to a printer, you can request a Stamp Swap Out form to be posted to you by completing this form.

Stamp Swap Out forms are also available from the customer service point at your local delivery offices.

You cannot exchange your stamps directly at a Post Office.

Barcoded stamps with the Queen’s face on are still valid. The first stamps featuring King Charles’s face were released in April.

Stamps of the Queen are expected to naturally fall out of circulation, so we will see two monarchs on our post for several years, which is something which has not been seen for a long time.

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