How Royal Mail achieve the perfect handstamp on FDCs - updated

In a 2019 post I described the system that Royal Mail used to achieve mostly clean and legible handstamps on first day covers and other mail, including a video and GPO-published write up of the process.  This is an update of that article.

The handstamps are, for the most part, not handstamps at all, but are applied by foot- and hand-operated machines.  (The changeable date designs are still handstamps as far as I know. *)

You can read a detailed description here in our reference area. This is a pdf file, so you can download it, or read it in your web browser, depending on your system settings.

The article is copyright Royal Mail, 1993 & 2007, reproduced by kind permission.  

This is the machine which was at Europhilex in 2015

(There is a video of the operation on the 2019 post.)

I've now found a picture of a similar machine which was in use at the British Forces Postal Service HQ in Northholt, NW of London.   This obviously isn't identical but the technique is the same as the close-ups show.  If readers read the pdf referred to above in conjunction with these pictures it should provide a clearer idea of the operations.

As described in the article there is a camera in the unit which enables the user to see where the postmark will be applied on the cover.  The article refers to 'clichés' which has the postmark printed on as a, but the handstamp centres referred to them as 'foils'.

BFPS 'handstamping' machine 2010. 

 

This picture shows the handstamp which is on the machine to be applied to covers taped to the screen to ensure proper alignment.  It is similar to this one for BFPS 3107 marking the 69th anniversary of the Battle of Britain 17 September 2009.

BFPS 3017 handstamp

This picture shows one of the pads to which the ink is applied, before transfer to covers, with some foils alongside, presumably ones which have already been used.  

 

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