A new Post and Go machine will be installed at Jersey’s main Broad Street post office in St Helier next week. Jersey’s first static Post and Go machine, the JE02 series machine, powered by Royal Mail, will go live on Thursday 4 September 2014.
The machine will vend stamps featuring Jersey’s first Post and Go
design, the Jersey flag, as well as Royal Mail stamps depicting the
Union flag. Both stamp designs will carry the unique location identifier
‘Broad Street’.To celebrate Jersey’s annual International Air Display which takes place on 11th September this year, the Jersey flag Post and Go stamps will be printed with special air display overprints from 11th September until 11th October. The Union flag stamps will not carry the overprints but will continue to feature the ‘Broad Street’ identifier.
Jersey Post’s Senior Philatelic Manager, Melanie Gouzinis, is sure Jersey’s new Post and Go products will prove popular with collectors: “We have seen a lot of interest in our Post and Go stamps to date following our launch at Spring Stampex earlier in the year and our overprinted stamps at PhilaKorea World Stamp Exhibition this month. The next step was to bring a Post and Go machine to Jersey’s Broad Street post office and we’re really looking forward to seeing it go live next week.”
Mrs Gouzinis continued: “We have exciting plans to widen our Post and Go product range as we move into 2015 with some beautiful new stamp designs, enabling our collectors to further enhance their collections of this next generation of stamps.”
Just like Royal Mail's, Jersey's Post and Go stamps carry unique identification numbers depending on the machine and session number of where and when they were issued. All Jersey Post and Go stamps will be supplied with a dedicated receipt.
UPDATE:
This creates a situation where a 'valid-for-posting' Royal Mail stamp is being issued by a foreign postal administration in a format in which it is not available either from Royal Mail's bureau or from any branch of the UK Post Office!
UPDATE 4 September
Thanks to Mike for pointing out that both the Broad Street and Air Display stamps (and a Stampex Overprint(!)) are listed on the Jersey Stamps webshop. Well, that saves you all a trip to Jersey!
Presumably the Royal Mail Union Flag stamps will NOT be valid for postage in Jersey so will not the fact that a machine situated in a post office in Jersey dispensing Union Flag stamps to the general public be terribly confusing to ordinary mail senders who use th machine to obtain their postage stamps?
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily. Some post offices in both Jersey and Guernsey sell UK stamps so that their residents have them when they land in UK, and don't have to go looking for a post office when they arrive.
DeleteThank you. Interesting. I can not help but think that a tourist might easily be confused and we might find examples of British stamps used in Jersey coming through in the mail on postcards and so on. Which of course will be very interesting. Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at these - http://tinyurl.com/k7xrjmb
DeleteBritish Butterflies used in Guernsey and delivered to Norfolk, and not just one of them
Sorry to go on about this but now that the Union Flag Broad Street stamps are being sold from the Jersey Post Office website but not the Royal Mail Philatelic Bureau, does this mean that the Union Jack stamps are actually Jersey Post Office stamps and valid for mail usage in Jersey and not on mainland Britain or are they still British stamps valid on the mainland and not in Jersey? Presumably they can't be both. Have they actually made this clear?
ReplyDeleteThe stamps being sold from the Broad Street branch of Jersey Post are in the same category as those sold by Royal Mail in Trafalgar Square, Glasgow, Harrow, Cardiff, Norwich and any other PO branch in the UK - they are Union Flag Royal Mail Post and Go stamps. The same basic stamp was sold from Royal Mail Tallents House in a pack. They are SG catalogue number FS39-44a.
DeleteAll these stamps have different data strings; indeed the data strings have changed over the last two years and they exist from Wincor-Nixdorf, Hytech, NCR, Royal Mail Second Generation self-service kiosks and all have different details in the data string at the foot. The fact that these have the Broad Street caption, and the data string JE02 is what makes them look different. They are still only valid for postage in the Royal Mail system.
I don't think either Jersey or Royal Mail has suggested anything different, and nobody else has suggested that my assumption may be incorrect. If it is, then I apologise.
Although I can't see them on Royal Mail's website at present, their Stock List has included stamps from Canada Post (Guide Dogs), Jersey Post (Man of Steel), the USPS - Harry Potter is on the latest (10 June) Stock List, and on the website > http://shop.royalmail.com/great-british-film/usps-harry-potter-souvenir-booklet/invt/20140511 so the idea of selling the stamps of another country is well established.
DeleteThank you. It's very interesting because the Broad Street inscription makes this a separate stamp from the run of the mill Union Jack stamp and since it is not available in The United Kingdom this must be a very rare example of a stamp produced in a foreign country and sold only in that foreign country where it can not be used for mail but which is not available in the country where the stamp is actually postally valid!
ReplyDeleteIndeed. It makes you wonder whether - if Royal Mail were not aware of it AND were watching things closely, they might think it was a private overprint like those for the Salisbury Show on the 2nd class. Must buy some and test the system!
DeleteHeaven forbid, though, that Royal Mail find out - they'll be changing the software on NCRs to print the branch location on their own!
DeleteWhat is the UK VAT policy on buying the RM valid stamps from Jersey, if bought from the bureau/machine they add the local tax?
DeleteMy understanding is that the stamps bought from the machine are sold at UK face value. There is no UK VAT to pay.
DeleteThose which are exported by post to the UK are charged at 5%. Those posted elsewhere are subject (or not) to the rules of the importing country.
Stamps bought on the island and taken to the UK for use would not be affected. However if a dealer went from the UK to Jersey and imported (sat) £1000-worth then they probably ought to be declared in line with normal import rules.
The cynical part of me thinks that this is an 'experiment' to see what the public appetite is like for various overprints on a frequent basis. If its a disaster then they havent wasted any money on UK machines. If, on the other, hand its a success I can see it being rolled out across all the NCR sites with a myriad of overprints or worse still 'adverts' .
ReplyDeleteI understand your reasoning.
DeleteThe two postal administrations are separate - but that doesn't, of course, stop RM suggesting it to Jersey and "following the experiment with interest" !
Dare I say it but I rather like the idea of locally relevant overprints on Post And Go machine-dispensed stamps. When I visit other towns and cities in Britain I often think it would be pleasing to have a local stamp to use on a postcard to home as a philatelic souvenir of my visit. Of course Universal Mail already produces local postage stamps but they are only for use on international mail so they are not very useful for sending a souvenir from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham for instance. Of course the vast number of potential items which would result would make completist Post And Go collecting almost impossible on financial grounds alone but I personally gave up spending my money on trying to keep up to date with everything that appears a while ago.
ReplyDeleteThe UK Flag "Broad Street" stamps sold by JE02 kiosk at the Saint Helier Post Office are subject to 5% VAT.
ReplyDeleteThe VAT is declared on the receipt. Selling price for the collector strip is 7.79 GBP.
If you buy the Union Flag strip online, you get charged £8.18 (which is about 10% above face) plus postage.
ReplyDelete‘The basic Union Flag collectors set with our mainland prices printed on them cost £7.42 face plus 5% VAT which is 37p making a total of £7.79. Added to this is the Jersey GST (Goods and services tax) also at 5% which is 39p making a grand total of £8.18 if brought from the Jersey Post Philatelic shop plus the postage which also has VAT added’.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the explanation Brian. I assume your quote is from somewhere on the Jersey Post site. However, elsewhere:
Delete"This Mint Royal Mail Collectors Strip has been vended from the JE02 machine and will be supplied in a glassine bag to ensure that you receive your order in pristine condition. A local tax (GST) of 5% is included in the price as the labels have been vended direct from the JE02 machine at Broad Street."
By contrast, the ordinary bureau Post and Go stamps and the Philakorea stamps, printed on the back-office machine at Jersey's bureau, were charged at face value (£4.07) plus 5% Royal Mail reduced rate VAT making £4.27.
I wonder if the new machines (which look like IAR produced them) at Broad Street dispence the Post & Go labels or are they a new type. Have these new machines replaced JE02?
ReplyDelete