´óÏó´«Ã½

The first special stamps bearing the head of King Charles are being released by the Royal Mail, with his silhouette appearing on a set showing popular garden flowers.

These are likely to be the first stamps showing the King's profile that will be widely seen by the public.

This replaces a design showing the Queen's head used continuously on commemorative stamps since 1968.

Last month saw the final issue of a new set of stamps with the Queen's head.

David Gold, of Royal Mail, said using pictures of flowers for this landmark set of stamps reflected the fact that the King was a "passionate gardener".

The Royal Mail had previously revealed the design for new regular first and second class stamps showing King Charles.

But those new stamps will not begin to appear regularly on letters until stocks run out of existing stamps showing the late Queen's head.

It is not expected that the new King Charles versions of ordinary first and class stamps will start to be seen until next month.

That means that the first visible change in stamps for the new reign will be these 10 flower stamps, showing back garden favourites such as rose, dahlia, sunflower and fuchsia.

These flower stamps can be ordered from Tuesday, and will go on general release next week.

This ends the use of the late Queen's head for commemorative stamps.

It had appeared on stamps marking hundreds of events and themes, from Concorde to Christmas and Doctor Who to Thomas the Tank Engine.

The long-term planning for such special stamps meant that the Royal Mail had continued with plans in the pipeline made before the Queen's death last September.

But the last planned set, marking the centenary of the Flying Scotsman, was revealed in February. The silhouette of Charles will now appear on all such special issues.