Monday, 13 May 2013

Not just George Best slogan - in fact the whole team

Following on from the special slogans for the Doctor Who stamp issue, we have been told that there is a George Best slogan being used on all UK mail posted to BT addresses in Northern Ireland from 9 to 15 May. 

As far as I know it is triggered at certain (not sure if all) the intelligent mail processor centres in the UK when a BT postcode is recognised.

A picture will be added if anybody in Northern Ireland sends us one! 

Update 15 May:
Thanks to John & Patrick we now have confirmation that there were indeed 11 different postmarks in use for all the team members.  However, until examples are found, nobody will know whether any of them was actually used and from which sorting offices.

This is the list:

S (Sheffield)                               Banks

WD (Watford)                             Barnes

BT  (Belfast)                               Best

SA  (Swansea)                           Charles

NE63 (Ashington)                      Charlton

E12  (Manor Park/Redbridge)    Greaves

DN3  (Doncaster area)               Keegan

AB10-13, 15, 16, 21-25  (Aberdeen area) Law

EH (Edinburgh)                         Mackay

IG11  (Barking)                          Moore

DH2,3 (Chester-le-Street)         Robson

As before - please send your images of these if you find any!

UPDATE:
Thanks to Kevin McShane, Hon Secretary North of Ireland Philatelic Society, Belfast, I can now show some examples of the George Best slogan.  Kevin writes:  "About one third of my mail was cancelled with the George Best Slogan with most of the mail arriving with the usual orange coding across the stamp and no slogan.  Northern Ireland really only has one main mail centre at Mallusk, Belfast.  The Prostrate Cancer slogan was also in use on the 13th.  I got a few covers sent from Liverpool to BT1 however these arrived with a standard Warrington Mail Centre cancel and no reference to the football slogan."







[Details of the stamps, booklets etc including retail cylinder book are in the main post.]


8 comments:

  1. Ian

    It doesn't seem logical that only George Best has a slogan. I think it is more likely that all the Football Heroes have their own slogan

    Incidentally have you seen cylinder nos on the Football heroes booklet? In a batch of 50 I couldn't see any although I may have been looking in the wrong place

    John Embrey

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very remiss of me not have posted those scans, John. Thanks for the reminder. I'll put them on the main FH post now.

      As for the George Best postmark, I have it from a very reliable source that this one was happening, and nothing was said about any others although I agree it would have been logical to have the same arrangement as for Dr Who. I've asked a customer in NI. I know that the RM office that arranges the Dr Who postmarks was in Belfast, although the trial copies we have were run at Leicester. Again, just a week really isn't enough.

      Delete
  2. Romford (RM postcode area) Mail Centre applied the Bobby Moore slogan yesterday to my mail item addressed to a friend in IG11. Picture not possible, as I cannot retrieve the cover for some time and my friend has no scanner.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can confirm seeing the George Best slogan on an item of mail delivered today (15th May). The marking was applied at the Northern Ireland Mail Centre, addressed to a BT postcode. The quality of the print was poor - the third line of the slogan and the date line were unreadable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you John.
      If you can do a scan that would be useful, even if only partly legible - we don't yet know the wording of the slogan.

      Delete
  4. The wording of the slogan is on four lines of text (no logo or image) - Football Heroes stamps / Celebrating 150 years / of Association Football / George Best

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have an example dated 11th, 13th and 14th with the same wording (Scanned copy emailed to Ian). I also note that only one third of my Belfast mail had the cancel with the remainder arriving with the usual orange coding across the envelope and stamp. I also note that mail posted to BT address from Liverpool received the standard Warrington mail Centre cancel and not a football slogan. I also note the use of the Prostrate Slogan on Belfast Mail on 13th May. Kevin

      Delete
  5. An example of the George Best slogan can be seen on the North of Ireland P.S. website - http://cui.org.uk/NIPS/

    ReplyDelete

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