On Wednesday 18 February 2015, to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of novelist and pillar box pioneer Anthony Trollope, The BPMA will be using a special commemorative inscription on Post and Go stamps.


The Trollope inscription will be printed on the standard and second class Machin, and will feature an illustration of the BPMA’s Channel Islands pillar box from c.1853, which will also be in the Museum foyer.

The text for the underprint will read: ‘The B.P.M.A. Trollope 200’. The Union Flag stamps, also dispensed from the Post and Go+ machine, will not feature the commemorative inscription.  A range of philatelic products featuring the Trollope issue including presentation packs and first day covers, will be available from the BPMA online shop. (The datastring should be A2GB--)

As well as the commemorative inscription, the BPMA is undertaking a number of other activities to celebrate the Trollope bicentenary including a touring exhibition and a talk by BPMA Senior Curator, Julian Stray. Further details can be found on the BPMA website.

The stamps will be available from the BPMA foyer during standard opening hours until 5pm on Thursday 30 April.


Thank you to all those who have sent comments telling of the news that is being published both by Royal Mail and IAR.  This piecemeal dribbling of news by the authorities makes cohesive reporting very difficult, so apologies if some of your comments are being rejected rather than published.  I am grateful and will try to consolidate all the comments into the main blog post.

UPDATE 4 February
The Royal Marines Museum and National Museum of the Royal Navy have advised that they do not expect the content of their Post and Go machines to change, so are not expecting to have the Working Sail stamps. 

UPDATE 4/5 February
Machines A003 and A004 will make a last appearance at Stampex this month and will relocate to become static machines, A003 in March and A004 later.  

Meanwhile the IAR site shows machines A007-A010 which are awaiting allocation, currently being in store at Twickenham.  It also shows A005 (not at Stampex in 2015) is shown as a development machine in Bristol although it was at Spring and Autumn Stampex in 2014 and is now at the Royal Marines Museum. (Perhaps the site has too many pages for one person to keep up-to-date?  I know the feeling!)

 I have yet to hear Royal Mail's reasoning for having the static machines which have cryptic or trite inscriptions on the labels at anything other than philatelic or postal locations.  Most collectors know of The BPMA but how many people refer to The NMRN, or The RMM.  What next? Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is always referred to as HMNB - Her Majesty's Naval Base so The PHD would be inappropriate.  In any case, the NMRN is included under the HMNB umberlla, and the RMM is dealt with within the HMNB website.  The same person at the base is responsible for Post and Go operations at both museums.

 I'd really like to hear from somebody who visits either museum as a tourist, with observations on just who buys these stamps and where they post them, for surely ordinary tourists don't buy these rather dull stamps just as souvenirs of their visit?