SIR - It is nice to see that the presence of the Queen’s head on British postage stamps has been assured ahead of postal privatisation.

However, with the proliferation of franking machines and other means of prepaying postage, Sir Rowland Hill’s “bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash” may soon be in terminal decline.

Parliament should mandate the imprinting of the royal effigy on these alternative forms of payment in order to ensure that every knock of the postman continues to remind us of our ruler!

John Eoin Douglas

via email