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Thursday, 2 January 2014

Post and Go Faststamps on the road 2014 - exhibition programme

In September last Royal Mail provided details of the 2014 Exhibitions at which
there would be Post and Go machines dispensing Faststamps.  At the time there was some doubt about the accuracy of the list, not least as they provided April dates for the autumn Stafford Stamp Show.  A new list has now been provided in Royal Mail's Philatelic Bulletin, but I am not totally convinced that this will prove to be completely accurate.


In this post I re-publish the original information with the new details in blue.

Machines A2, A3 and A4 are public access machines; Machines B1 and B2 are used in the back-office at Stampex and Faststamps are sold over the counter on the Royal Mail stand.
Note where only two machines are in use, A4 is only listed for January at York, being replaced by A2 for all others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOTE: We have no reason to believe that MA14 codes will appear early in the year, eg at Spring Stampex.  Bear in mind that the MA13 printings appeared only in the second part of the year it seems likely that the MA14 will not appear until the middle of this year.  (Of course the flowers stamps should have MA14 codes if any.)


2014
York 17 - 18 January
Reel A Flag, Reel B Machin in both A3 and A4 machines on both days

Spring Stampex 19-22 February - contents the same on all 4 days

Machines A2 and A3 - A: Spring Blooms, B: Machin with additional inscription
Machine A4* - A: Union Flag;    B: Machin with additional inscription, 4 days
Machine B1 - Spring Blooms on both reels, all 4 days
Machine B2 - Machin with additional inscription on both reels, all 4 days.
* Bulletin shows this as A3 as well, which must be an error

UPDATE 16 January: Royal Mail have advised that the overprint will be
Stampex 2014

19-22 February

Machines: According to the Postagelabelsuk blog new 'Series B' machines will be in use in 2014, starting at Stampex.  These will be taller and have improved capabilities.  The datastring will be 

B2GB14 A001-0000-001

B indicating series B, and A001 being the machine number.  Machines A002, A003, and A004 will be the self-service machines at Stampex.

UPDATE 31 January:
The Union Flag stamp was not originally intended to be provided from the Back-Office machines (B1 & B2).  However as these machines are new, showing a new datastring, Royal Mail have made the Union Flag available from machine B2
I don't know whether this will be on all four days.



Salisbury 14-15 March
A2 and A3 - A: Spring Blooms, B: Machin (no added inscription) on both days

Perth - 85th Scottish Congress 11 - 12 April
Machines A2 and A3:  A: Union Flag, B: Machin on both days
Added inscription on both stamps for the 85th Scottish Congress

York 18 - 19 July
Reel A Flag, Reel B Machin in both A2 and A3 machines on both days
UPDATE 10 June: Units A003 and A004 will be at York: the Union Flag and Machin stamps will have the new Euro 20g / World 10g printed on the 97p stamp.

Philakorea Seoul 7 - 12 August (Bulletin table shows only 'Day 1' and 'Day 2')
A2 and A3 - A: Flag, B: Machin on all days, with Philakorea 2014 inscription on both stamps.  GB versions of both will be available from Tallents House.
UPDATE 10 June: Units A003 and A004 and Jersey's J001 will be at Seoul.  See more here.

Autumn Stampex 17-20 September ('Flowers' = Symbolic Flowers, first day 17 Sept.)

Wednesday 17 September
Machine
Reel A
Reel B
Reel A
Reel B
A2
Flowers
Union Flag ≠
Flowers
≠ Union Flag
A3
Flowers
Union Flag *
Flowers
Union Flag *
A4
Union Flag ≠
Machin ≠
≠ Union Flag
≠ Machin
B1
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
B2
Union Flag ≠
Machin *
≠ Union Flag
Machin *
≠ The original information indicates that the only Flag stamp with additional overprint will be available from a public-access machine (A3B), and the only Machin stamp with additional overprint will be from the back-office machine (B2B).  This is unchanged in the Bulletin.
If this is so there will be added pressure on the queues at the Royal Mail stand with customers requiring the overprinted Machin stamps.


Thursday 18 September
Machine
Reel A
Reel B
Reel A
Reel B
A2
Flowers
Union Flag *
Flowers
Union Flag *
A3
Flowers
Union Flag *
Flowers
Union Flag *
A4
Union Flag *
Machin
Union Flag *
Machin
B1
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
B2
Union Flag *
Union Flag *
Union Flag *
Union Flag *
No overprinted Machins available from any machine, which seems odd as this is the day of the Seaside architecture new issue.  No unoverprinted Flags.


Friday 19 September
Machine
Reel A
Reel B
Reel A
Reel B
A2
Flowers
Union Flag *
Flowers
Union Flag *
A3
Flowers
Union Flag *
Flowers
Union Flag *
A4
Union Flag *
Machin
Union Flag *
Machin
B1
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
B2
Union Flag *
Machin *
Union Flag *
Machin *
No unoverprinted Flags from any machine.
Saturday 20 September
Machine
Reel A
Reel B
Reel A
Reel B
A2
Flowers
Union Flag *
Flowers
Union Flag *
A3
Flowers
Union Flag *
Flowers
Union Flag *
A4
Union Flag *
Machin
Union Flag *
Machin
B1
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
Flowers
B2
Union Flag *
Machin *
Union Flag *
Union Flag *
This updated information shows the Flag in B2B, meaning that there is no overprinted Machin stamp available from the public machines, only from the counter of the Royal Mail stand.  No unoverprinted Flags from any machine.


Stafford - 7 - 8 November (dates from organiser's website)

A2 - A: Winter Greenery, B: Machin on both days
A3 - A: Symbolic Flowers, B: Winter Greenery on both days

The Bulletin does not show a date for the Stafford Show.  As mentioned in a comment on the original post, the Winter Greenery stamps are due to be issued on 13 November, so should not be available at Stafford unless either the date of issue or the dates of the show are changed.

(Last September's blogpost is now closed for comments.)


7 comments:

  1. Will the Union Flag and Machin faststamps be dated 2014, particularly for the earlier Exhibitions ???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Frank, you know they never tell us in advance!

      But I think it unlikely given the late appearance of several MA13 codes in 2013. If MA14 appears at all I expect it to be later, and we will have the same hunt for operationally-needed versions from Wincor or their replacement as we did for the Robin before Christmas.

      Delete
  2. It seems keeping up with Faststamps issues is harder than spinning plates

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you look at the picture on the postagelabels website it would appear that the new Series B machines have three reels. Is this confirmed? If so I would assume that the 2nd clas machins may make an appearance (again!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A good point - I suspect the information we have was provided (last September) before they knew whether the new machines would be available.

      The most important thing, though, for big buyers, is this:

      "The print counter has additional characters allowing for 999 prints in a single session"

      The previous limit of 99 meant only 16 sets of 6 per transaction: card companies don't like multiple purchases on one card at the same outlet, and this has required us to have multiple cards. Great news!

      Delete
  4. The third "reel" should be the invoice-printer - Thomas

    ReplyDelete

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