We cannot be sure that the information here is accurate and will remain unchanged, based on the situation in previous exhibitions and the Scottish Congress at Perth.
As far as we know machines from Jersey Post, Guernsey Post, Gibraltar PO, will join multiple Royal Mail machines at the Business Design Centre from 13-16 May 2015.
Royal Mail
The new Heraldic Beasts designs will be issued on the opening day, 13 May (click on the link to see the set and special day of issue postmarks). Royal Mail will have three machines at the show, and the will dispense stamps as follows:
Machine
|
Reel A
|
Reel B
|
Overprint*
|
A006
|
Heraldic Beasts
|
Machin
|
Machin
|
A008
|
Heraldic Beasts
|
Union Flag
|
None
|
A009
|
Heraldic Beasts
|
Machin
|
Machin
|
* Overprint reads 'Europhilex London / Penny Black 175'
Stamps may also be pre-ordered from the back-office B001 machine - I have no idea whether these will also be available from the Royal Mail stand. At some Stampex events they have been, at others they have not. A009 will be alongside the stand with a bar-code scanner, so it may be expected that customers will buy their Post and Go stamps when they buy other packs, cards, albums etc which have bar-codes, via the machine.
B001 will produce Machin stamps with the Europhilex overprint, and Union Flag and Heraldic Beasts stamps without.
The usual exhibition Smilers sheets will also be available in 10s or 20s.
Guernsey Post
... will be selling their Guernsey Flag stamp with a Europhilex overprint from GG01. I have asked for clarification regarding sale of the Union Flag stamp. Collectors will recall that we were originally told that the Guernsey machine at Stampex would have a Stampex overprint, but stamps were sold without it from the Machine. Stamps with the overprint produced from the back-office machine were sold at Guernsey's stand.
Jersey Post
We are awaiting confirmation from Jersey Post regarding their attendance and what they will be selling from JE01. It is likely to be a Jersey Flag stamp with a Europhilex inscription and the Protected Species stamps which were launched at Spring Stampex.
Update: Jersey post confirmed the Jersey Flag with Europhilex inscription and Union Flag, but have now corrected this to Protected Species. The Europhilex stamp will apparently NOT be available from their stand, only from the machine.
Royal Gibraltar Post Office
We understand that Gibraltar will launch it's Post and Go machine at Europhilex with machine GI01 dispensing stamps showing the Gibraltar Flag from reel A, and the Union Flag from reel B. We have been told that the Gibraltar Flag stamp will have a Europhilex overprint, but this seems unlikely in view of what happened with Guernsey at Spring Stampex. I'm awaiting confirmation from RGPO.
Whilst we know that UK stamps are sold in the Channel Islands (for SAEs to the UK), I have no knowledge of whether RGPO also sells UK stamps. The presence of British Forces in the colony would not make this a necessity as there is also a British Forces PO presence.
UPDATE from Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau 7/5/15
Unfortunately we do not have any information on the Post and Go
stamps yet.
Hopefully we will have some more info when the machines arrive
to Gib hopefully very soon.
According to the IAR website, GI01 will reside at Gibraltar House in London's Strand between Europhilex and Autumn Stampex. So there will apparently not be a machine in the colony until later this year or even next. So they are selling outside the colony a stamp which - presumably - will be valid for postage in the colony, but which is not available there.
The sad thing is, to mangle a phrase, "You COULD make it up - and you would be right!"
UPDATE:
Thanks to readers who have pointed out additional information buried in the IAR website. I'll leave the links in the comments, but will only be adding extra information to the blog post when I have it from the postal authorities concerned, given the conflicting information provided in the past.
