Nice stamps for letters to USA

[MissMarplesNiece]

When I get post from the USA it's usually got interesting postage stamps. When I send mail to the USA, the only £2.80 stamps my post office offers are dull coloured with a portrait of the King. I know that Royal Mail issues commemorative stamps that sometimes include a £2.80 stamp but these never seem to be sold individually in the post office.

How can I buy a small number (ie not the sheet of 30 or 60 from the Royal Mail website) of attractive stamps that show something of the character, history & heritage of this country to my US friends?

What about buying the sheets of 30 £1 stamps and adding 3 to the envelope?

How often do you send letters?
If often, could mix and match the stamps putting 3 different ones on

I just bought a book of 8 first class stamps from my corner shop that has a winter scene of a building in Liverpool which is really nice. A first class stamp is £1.65 so you could stick 2 on for the US.

Would that be OK, or do the stamps need to show an actual money amount if the post is going overseas?

The Liverpool stamp mentioned above is one of the Christmas 24 special issue stamps. Those specials tend to be widely available in the run up to Christmas. Other specials can be bought on the Royal Mail website ( eg look for 'special issues') but you'll usually need to buy a set and they will cost more than a standard stamp.

It’s okay. I’ve got family in the US and usually disorganized so when I need to send Christmas cards and can’t face a huge post office queue I do the equivalent amount with whatever stamps I have. They go by the value of the stamp.

I send a lot of letters internationally, usually I use whatever commemorative 2nd class stamp the post office has plus a plain £2 stamp. That comes to £2.85, so not overpaying too much on the £2.80 international postage.

The last time I went to the post office, I got commemorative Tower of London £2 stamps as well, which was nice.