In March I wrote about postal products which would, eventually, need to be changed following the accession to the throne of King Charles III - post and go stamps (both 'definitive and the pictorial), Horizon & SSK labels, and 'digital stamps' the postage paid impressions used by mass mailers featuring preprinted definitives.
Thanks to a member of the British Postmark Society we can now show the second change, which is to the so-called 'digital-stamp' printed direct onto mailings by large companies, in their Postage Paid Impressions.
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| Preprinted King Charles III profile 'stamp' used in postage paid impression. |
The
barcode is the same on both (it reads: 01 plus 14 zeroes) and is
presumably from a Royal Mail template for C9 licence holders. C9 10002
is the the downstream access licence of whistl (formerly TNT Mail) and
C9 10033 denotes Primepost. (Thanks to JE for these details.)
With the Horizon (and probably SSK) labels already showing the King's head from some Scottish sources, it remains to be seen whether any changes are made to Post and Go stamps or if there are sufficient stocks to satisfy the diminishing number of SSKs in post offices around the country. (See notices of relocations and out-of-service machines in comments on the Post and Go post.)
"The barcode is the same on both" but the whole point of barcoded was that that would never happen !
ReplyDeleteAs the stamp is printed when the envelope is printed, the 'stamp' will always be the same.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the barcode is only included because all definitive stamps must now have a barcode and to print it without would confuse users of adhesive stamps who might remove the barcode.
Yes, but that particular barcode will soon be printed by the million in China !
ReplyDeleteI'd expect that for a genuine user, the C9 licence info could be built into the barcode. So if a scammer uses that barcode for a fake stamp, it will be detectable. But if a scammer prints thousands of envelopes that look like genuine ones; then sells them to an unsuspecting (or dodgy) small business to use for a mailout would they get through and be billed to the genuine holder of that licence?
DeleteNeil,
DeleteNo. envelopes like that would be very unlikely to be copied as, even if a "small business" bought them, they wouldn't be accepted by Royal Mail without the paperwork that accompanies PPI mailings.
I assume that the Mail Centre machinery reads each barcode that passes through it, those on genuine stamps being accepted only once and the one on these digital stamps accepted millions of times over the next few years, but doesn't distinguish between it being on a stamp and being on an envelope. If so the barcode from that new digital stamp printed on forgeries who go through the system without being detected for surcharging, not that those crooks in China are concerned about that as they've already made their money.
Right from the start I don't think Royal Mail has thought these barcoded stamps through properly.
I'll assume you know better how it's supposed to work. We sometimes get flyers from a local restaurant posted to us (probably to every address in the area) DL envelope and second class stamp. That's the sort of business that I could see either buying a batch of dodgy stamps or a batch of dodgy envelopes from a scammer and then just stuffing them in a postbox by the handful. If postie hands that to me and says there's a fee to pay - then I'll refuse it (it's not addressed by name) but if they just put a card through and I decide to pay online - then you bet I'm going to the restaurant and kicking up a fuss. Like you say - the scammer doesn't care - if they think they can sell enough envelopes to make a profit, they will.
DeleteI still don't see how it is feasible to scan every barcode, check it hasn't already been used and separate/mark the envelope for surcharging. The list of "already used" barcodes will be increasing every day so the process will have to slow down - no matter how new the sorting machinery. I suspect it will be a combination of random sampling and checking for "known bad" barcodes plus the expected deterrent effect.
You're right, Neil, the local restaurant could easily fall victim to scammers and this is made more difficult now that so many collectors and dealers who have swapped invalidated stamps will now be wanting to sell the barcoded ones that their customers won't want.
DeleteAs for the matching of barcodes.... Every letter that can be is scanned anyway and the address interpreted in order to add the red barcodes. In some cases this will be by the postcode only but in other cases the address/post town will be interpreted.
I can see that the barcode will be scanned in a similar instant operation. Think of it like a big list of stamps that you have or want in your collection. Everything issued has a number: you list the numbers; Royal Mail list all their numbers.
Every stamp you have, you tick the box; every stamp that is scanned on use (not at point of sale) the box is ticked - it's a simple as a Y/N or 0/1 switch in the record for that number.
If you get another copy of a stamp you look at your list, the box is ticked so you reject it. In RM's case if the 0/1 switch is already set to "I've seen that one", then the mailpiece can be diverted to a box for Revenue Protection to examine and raise the surcharge.
I don't KNOW that that's how it works, but with one of my earlier jobs being in computing I can imagine that is probably how it will work. And it wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't also a counter to say how many had been flagged as worthy of investigation.
Yes - every one that can be scanned is scanned - and the list of postcodes/post towns to be recognised is a fixed size. But the list of stamp barcodes is going to be much bigger. Either it's a list of every barcode printed so far with a Used/Not Used Flag or a list of every already Used barcode which needs to be updated in real time i.e. before the next item is scanned. I doubt that can be made to work at the speed required. Especially since the list of Used barcodes grows every second.
DeleteIf the second part of the barcode is a pointer to the appropriate location on the list, then the problem becomes much more manageable. This is pure speculation on my part (I have no inside knowledge!), but I've yet to see any explanation at all for the second part of the code.
DeleteI too have no inside knowledge, but having worked with IT for many years I can guess at the sort of way this can be done. As NeilB says, it will probably be impractical (or impractically expensive) to validate every scanned barcode in real time, but there are ways that the desired result can be achieved with a specified accuracy - say 90% - without instantly checking every code. It is also likely - in fact I would say certain - that the data will be kept for a defined time - say 5 or 10 years, so the dataset will not increase indefinitely. RM may also have taken a view on the low likelihood of a single barcode being presented in multiple locations simultaneously, which could be used to simplify the process. If I were advising them I would ask what types of fraud they are aiming to detect, and I am guessing that it is the forgers of sheets rather than the individual who takes an occasional uncancelled stamp from an incoming letter and re-uses it.
DeleteJust spoken to Tallents house CS the KCIII make up values and high values definitives will be on offer for pre sale in the online shop from next Monday 14th.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the ones I haven't even announced yet! In fact my embargo date is 15 August!
DeleteI got my order advice note last week on Monday I thought it was a bit premature .
ReplyDelete