Thursday 10 January 2019

More catch-up news from 2018

As I said in the review of the year, the last couple of months of the year were unseasonably busy due to the multiple variations in sheet stamps which ISP/Walsall managed to contrive.  It's almost as if it was deliberate but it certainly doesn't seem to have been a deliberate Royal Mail policy.

So I'm now adding a few more news-bits from emails sent during that period, showing items which may be of interest.

Firstly, at the beginning of November DP sent these pictures of the Post and Go 2nd class values printed on 1st class Machin stock, and the early (29 October) release of 2nd class Winter Greenery at Ilford.



WHSmith run offices seem to have problems in obtaining 2nd class labels. Ilford and Romford seem to have at some point used every part roll they had in the 2nd class printers of their SSKs, so it wasn’t surprising to find the 2nd class Winter Greenery (CL18S) being used early on 29 October.


One SSK at Worcester had the 1st class Machin stock in the 2nd class printer.


In December MC found the Mount Pleasant DO and sent pictures of the screen options on their Post and Go machine - I don't think we've shown this before although that machine has been there for a while and other preceded it in other locations.

The machine had three options : Make a payment, 1st Class stamps and 2nd Class stamps.  The second picture shows the data string on the DO machine above one from a Post Office NCR machine.

 

We understand that the Post and Go machine M011 at Ministry of Defence Abbey Wood, Bristol (first mentioned here) was removed some months ago, probably in the summer of 2018.  

There is no confirmation on the IAR website, which still shows the picture of its original location.   My informant, who works on the site, thinks that the machine has been removed from the site and is unaware of any relocation within the vast complex of offices.  (Picture from Google maps.)


 


DO in London sent this picture of a nice phosphor shift he found on a 1st class MTIL M14L stamp.  Shifts are not unusual, but this is nice one to have in a collection.
 

Another picture of the same stamp, showing the M14L and MTIL coding:

 




5 comments:

  1. I don’t suppose you know the date the 2nd class on 1st class Machins from Worcester. They could be the first use of the R17Yal stock albeit incorrectly?

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you click on the image you can see a larger version which does indeed shoe R17YAL for those.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The 2nd class on R17YAL was bought from Worcester WHSmiths on 6 November 2018 and was loaded into the printer on 5 November 2018, I don’t know when the roll was changed, it could have lasted until 13 November 2018, as they were having difficulties in getting 2nd class labels and they were under instructions not to load the Winter Greenery until 14 November 2018.
    The Moorgate 2nd class and receipt on the above image should have been these.

    Another single kiosk office
    053946 Burnham (slough) using an ex Crown Office Machine which is averaging 1000 transactions a month.

    A blog post on the Martins McColl’s website indicates that they will also be getting SSK in some of their branches. AS they seem to be taking on more offices it will be interesting to see if they retro fit SSKs to existing offices or they put them in to new offices yet to open.

    DP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are SSK's in Co-Op's now according to Stuart Leigh's excellent checklists, namely Plympton and St Budeaux in Plymouth

      Delete
  4. Please can you confirm that this nice upwards shift of the phosphor bars is really on the 1st-class NVI ex retail book of 12 (MTIL/M14L)? I know about such a shift from the 'Commonwealth Games' retail book (MCIL/M14L).

    ReplyDelete

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