More on New Counter Information Technology postage labels - and receipts etc

My thanks to W.U. for sending a couple of letters from the Aldwych New Counter Information Technology (NCIT) trial, and then sending on the receipt and certificate of posting.

The labels on the envelopes are as before, and the receipt is similar to those which are dispensed from Horizon, although Horizon receipts have a longer entry for each barcoded item - basically each one might produce an individual receipt which doubles as the certificate of posting.

Horizon Certificate of Posting for ordinary item of mail (left), and for Special Delivery mail (right)

From NCIT the receipt is much as usual, but the Certificate of Posting is quite different, using a different typeface but also with details of expected delivery timescale.

NCIT Financial receipt for three labels (left), and new-style Certificate of Posting (right).

Covers and label

1st class Signed For letter with NCIT generated barcode and (L) at lower left (as on Horizon)

2nd class Large Letter with QR-type code for confirmation of delivery, as on Horizon labels.

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Glasgow Prestwick Airport to be Royal Mail's intl e-commerce hub in UK

Reported in the STAT Trade Times Glasgow Prestwick Airport is to be Royal Mail’s newest international e-commerce hub in the United Kingdom (U.K.).

Prestwick was selected by Royal Mail due to the numerous benefits it offers over alternative airports throughout the U.K. including offering up to half of the cost of landing at some U.K. hubs, says a release from Prestwick. 

“We are confident that our new fast and efficient e-commerce solution will offer customers real cost savings against other U.K. air cargo hubs while also ensuring they meet their customer delivery-time promise,” says Nico Le Roux, Development Director, Glasgow Prestwick Airport. 

Florrie Kuang (left), Senior Business Manager – China Office, Royal Mail Group, and Jules Matteoni (right), Operations Director, Glasgow Prestwick Airport. (Photo: Glasgow Prestwick Airport)

"We are a full in-house operation, from ground handling and warehouse handling, to fire services, and air traffic control, which allows us to offer greater flexibility. Carriers only need to make one call to our operations line, and we take care of everything. This streamlined process is a significant advantage.” 

Jules Matteoni, Operations Director, Glasgow Prestwick Airport adds: “This joint solution with Royal Mail allows us to provide full visibility with traceability from touchdown to customer delivery and the potential to save on lead times through simplified processes. This is great news for our cargo customers, the airport, and the region.” 

“We are excited to be working with Glasgow Prestwick Airport to offer a cost-effective and efficient international e-commerce solution," says Vivian Davies, Director, Global Imports, Royal Mail. "Prestwick has no flight restrictions, congestion or curfews on both inbound and outbound flights, offering round-the-clock availability, which is key for the fast turnaround needed in the e-commerce sector. By partnering with Prestwick, we are confident we can offer our existing and new international e-commerce customers an unbeatable service on both delivery time and cost.”

We won't see Royal Mail's Titan Aiways Boeing (pictured here at Exeter) at Prestwick as they stopped using it in 2013.

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Christmas 2021 forgery may be from a different producer to most

I was shown a new forgery this week which does not have all the hallmarks of the usual Chinese forgery productions.

It was far glossier than most, and the perforations were not up to the usual high (matching) standard.  It's the 2021 1st class Large Christmas stamp.  Now forgeries of the Machins were already better than this, so it's not a case of all the older forgeries not being of high standard.

This isn't a great photo but it was the best I could manage in a church hall!

Forged 1st class large Christmas 2021 stamp

Has anybody seen any others like this?

UPDATE 15 July.

My thanks to Lew who has sent this image of a block of 4 that he bought.  He notes that the barcodes are identical and the scan is PC: 00000000000000  - just like the RM publicity photos.

Block of 4 forged 1st class large Christmas 2021 stamps, with identical datamatrix codes.

 

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Post Office betrays postmasters yet again: Fury as bungling Post Office publishes names and addresses of SPMs.

I'm not writing much about the Post Office Horizon Scandal these days.  The Inquiry is progressing, but if you tired (as I did) of watching the corporate amnesia rife at the top of Post Office Ltd, affecting directors, Chief Counsel, other lawyers, and other senior managers, take a look at the evidence yesterday of Second Sight's Ron Warmington and Ian Henderson.

But today's news online today and in print tomorrow I should think, is from Sam Greenhill at the Daily Mail.  

 

In the latest example of staggering incompetence when all eyes are on them, Post Office Ltd has published on its website a very private 'Confidential Settlement Deed' - with unredacted details of 592 former sub-postmasters including full names and addresses of people who are shortly (or not so shortly) likely to receive substantial sums of money.

The article in full (my highlighting).

The bungling Post Office has published the names and home addresses of the postmasters it persecuted during the Horizon scandal.

In what appears to be a staggering data breach, 'cavalier' workers printed their private details on its website for anyone to see, the Mail can reveal.

Having already ruined many lives by falsely accusing them of stealing, the Post Office's latest betrayal has been branded an insult to injury – and furious victims alerted by the Mail are vowing to 'make them pay'.

On the very day its IT specialists are being grilled at the Horizon inquiry, the alleged data breach marks yet another breathtaking IT failure for the organisation. It published on its corporate website a dossier of 592 wronged postmasters who were involved in suing the Post Office in 2019 - showing their full names and home addresses including postcode, making it easy for anyone to find them. Many are poised to receive significant sums of money in compensation for Britain's biggest ever miscarriage of justice, and told of their anger at their home addresses being exposed.

Humiliatingly, the document containing the details is entitled 'Confidential Settlement Deed' and spells out in black and white that its contents are private. It is even signed by the Post Office's own senior lawyer – and yet it has been posted onto its website in full.

After the Mail informed the Post Office this afternoon, it changed its website to remove the offending list. But former postmasters are 'incandescent'. And the embattled Post Office now potentially faces another investigation, this time by the Information Commissioner who takes breaches of personal data extremely seriously.

Last year the commissioner levied a £1million fine on the Ministry of Defence for losing the data of 245 people.

The 592 former postmasters whose home addresses have been published were among the group involved in bringing High Court class litigation against the Post Office in 2019. Hundreds of innocents were bankrupted, jailed or driven to suicide after being wrongly accused of plundering their own tills between 1999 and 2015, when money appearing to be 'missing' from their branch accounts was really the result of glitches in the company's Horizon computer system.

The list includes those who brought the scandal to life in ITV's acclaimed four-part drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office which triggered national outrage at the way the former pillars of their communities were tormented.

Wendy Buffrey, 64,who ran a branch in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, with her husband Doug until their malfunctioning Horizon terminal invented a £36,000 shortfall and she was prosecuted as a thief, said: 'I'm incandescent. I'm just so angry. We all thought they couldn't do any more to us than they've already done.

'They need to pay for this. It's yet another thing they've done that could potentially destroy one of our lives. They just don't stop, do they?

'People out there in the outside world know that we're all going to get compensation payments - and all our home details are out there? It's absolutely horrendous.'

Nichola Arch, 53, falsely accused of theft at her Chalford Hill post office in Gloucestershire, said: 'They seem to be completely incompetent. Our personal information is out there for anybody, and that is absolutely disgusting. To say it's adding insult to injury is the understatement of the year.

Nichola Arch, 53, was falsely accused of theft at her Chalford Hill post office

'People know that, due to the extent of this scandal, people are going to get compensation. Now if they've got our names and addresses, people know exactly where that money is, and that can bring out all sorts of anxiety to victims because they'll be thinking, 'God is somebody going to break in?' It's horrific.'

Deirdre Connolly, 54, who ran the post office in Killeter, Northern Ireland, with her husband Darius until they were falsely accused of stealing – and was even asked if they had 'taken the money for paramilitaries' - said: 'I can't believe it. My home address is on that website? My home, my family - what the f***?'

Her husband, 53, claimed: 'It's absolute incompetence. The fact that they can't keep people's names and addresses private tells you all you need to know about how they run their computer system.'

Ron Warmington, the forensic investigator whose firm Second Sight was hired to probe the faulty Horizon system in 2013, said: 'As if we needed to see another example of Post Office incompetence! This is an extraordinary breach of the confidentiality undertakings with which Post Office so heavy handedly insisted that we must all - and for all time - comply. It seems that Post Office deploys far greater firepower in protecting its own data than it does in protecting data that names its victims.'

Lord Arbuthnot, the peer who has championed the postmasters for years, told the Mail: 'I long ago stopped expecting much, if anything, from the Post Office, but for them to publicise the personal details of the group litigation claimants is incompetent.

'Amongst so many other criminal offences committed by the Post Office, this alleged data breach is yet a further intrusion into the privacy of sub-postmasters and their ability to put the matter behind them. And it answers the question as to whether the Post Office has learnt and improved: it hasn't.'

The names and home addresses are listed in a 47-page legal agreement, signed on 10 December 2019, which brought the High Court class action to a settlement mid-way through the trial. The Post Office apparently intended to publish on its website a 'redacted' version of the legal agreement, with personal details covered by a censor's black ink. But instead, the document was posted with everyone's personal details on full display.

Raoul Lumb, a partner at law firm SMB who specialises in data protection, said it appeared 'a remarkable breach' of the UK's data protection laws known as GDPR and showed 'a cavalier disregard for the rights of sub-postmasters'.

He said: 'The document, which is clearly marked as confidential, exposes the names and addresses of every sub-postmaster who was a claimant in the Alan Bates and others v Post Office litigation.

'It is particularly embarrassing for the Post Office because clause 12 of the document is a clause which explicitly obliges all the parties to 'keep [it] confidential'. Given that, it's difficult to see any justification for the Post Office to have made it public in a completely unredacted form.'

He said the Post Office has a duty to report the breach to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), and added: 'The leaking of it will no doubt cause further distress to sub-postmasters who have already suffered enough. You would expect the ICO to take an extremely dim view of the breach given the clear expectation of confidentiality and the vulnerability of the data subjects named in it. It would not surprise me if the commissioner levied a fine to penalise the Post Office for this seemingly very basic failure to manage its data securely.'

The Post Office said: 'The document in question has been removed from our website. We are investigating as an urgent priority how it came to be published. We are in the process of notifying the Information Commissioner's Office of the incident, in line with our regulatory requirements.'

The ICO said: 'We have not received a data breach report on this matter. Organisations must notify the ICO within 72 hours.'

No words from me are necessary.

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60 Seasons of the Red Arrows RAF Aerobatic Display Team - 20 June 2024

Not for the first time Royal Mail is issuing stamps depicting the Red Arrows RAF Aerobatic Display Team. The first, in 2008, was issued coincident with the 60th anniversary of the Farnborough Air show (and centenary of the first flight in a powered aircraft in the UK), and the second (miniature sheet) was issued to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force.

Now the 60th season of the Red Arrows displays is marked with a set of 8 stamps, miniature sheet, prestige stamp book and medal covers.

Previous issues

2008 Air Displays Smilers Sheet with 1st class Red Arrows stamps.

2018 Red Arrows miniature sheet - RAF Centenary.

The new stamps

Set of 8 stamps (4 x 1st, 4 x £2) marking 60th season of Red Arrows displays.

The stamps, in se-tenant pairs, depict:

1st class: Red 1 (1967), Diamond Nine formation (1968), Gnats looping over RAF Kemble (1976), Gnat with Hawks, which replaced Gnats in 1979.

£2: Synchro Pair inverted pass (2003), Vixen Break manoeuvre (2007), last flight with Avro Vulcan XH558 (2015), Coronation flypast (2023).

Miniature sheet of four stamps (2 x 1st class, 2 x £2.50) marking 60th season of Red Arrows displays.

1st class: Red Arrows over Niagara Falls, North America; Red Arrows over Akrotiri coast, Cyprus (training base).

£2.50: Red Arrows over Paris, France; Red Arrows over the Pyramids, Egypt.

Background image: Red Arrows over Greece.

Technical details

The 50 x 30 mm stamps were designed by Interabang, printed on gummed paper in lithography by Cartor Security Printers in sheets of 60 (4 sheets) perforated 14.  The 146 x 74 mm miniature sheet is also gummed and has stamps 41 x 30 mm perforated 14½ x 14.

Acknowledgements: Ray Hanna of the Red Arrows, Red 1, 1967 © Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo; Diamond Nine formation, 1968 © IWM RAF-T 8173; looping over RAF Kemble, 1976 © Richard Cooke/Alamy Stock Photo; Gnat with Hawks © Peter R March; Synchro Pair inverted pass, 2003 © Peter R March; Vixen Break manoeuvre, 2007 © Peter R March; last flight with Vulcan XH558, 2015, image courtesy of UK MOD © Crown copyright 2015, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0; Coronation flypast, 2023, image courtesy of UK MOD © Crown copyright 2023, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
Red Arrows over Niagara Falls, North America © Brian Lawrence/Alamy Stock Photo; Red Arrows over Akrotiri coast, Cyprus © Jamie Hunter, Aviacom; Red Arrows over Paris, France, image courtesy of UK MOD © Crown copyright 2021, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0; Red Arrows over the Pyramids, Egypt, image courtesy of UK MOD © Crown copyright 2023, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0; background image of Red Arrows over Greece, image courtesy of UK MOD © Crown copyright 2021, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0

Prestige Stamp Book

A 24-page booklet packed with everything you need to know about the Red Arrows as they celebrate their 60th Display Season in 2024. Written by aviation author, photographer and journalist Peter March, the book traces the beginnings of the ‘Reds’ from their first public display in 1965 and uncovers the fascinating precision and teamwork that goes into every jaw-dropping display.

The stamps and stunning photography in the book tell a story of precision, skill, and sheer exhilaration as the Red Arrows paint the sky with their trademark red, white, and blue trails. Officially licensed by the MOD with a hologram of authenticity on the back cover.

PSB details: Pane 1 contains 4 x 1st class stamps; Pane 2 contains 4 x £2 stamps.

Pane 3 is self-adhesive and contains 2 x £2 King Charles III definitive stamps coded M24L MPIL.

Pane 4 contains the same stamps as the miniature sheet on ordinary gummed paper, and the same as  those in the actual miniature sheet.  The high values are £2.50, not £2.20 as shown on the pre-issue image.

UPDATE: my apologies to CH who sent this image over a month ago, before I was able to put the blogpost up, and I forgot to add it when I did.

This shows serially numbered holograms from two different PSBs.

Ministry of Defence Holograms on reverse of two Red Arrows prestige stamp books

Products

Set of 8 stamps, miniature sheet, presentation pack, first day covers (2), stamp cards, press sheet of 12 miniature sheets, medal cover (edition of 5000), framed stamp set.

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It's advertised for sale but does not exist: 1st large KC3 business sheet.

When the King Charles III Business Sheets were issued a notable absence was the 1st class Large Letter sheet.

We were told at the time that this "had not yet been printed". 

King Charles III 1st class Large business sheet.

At the time the Royal Mail website warned that:

Please be aware that the stamps you receive may feature an image of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, rather than King Charles as shown, depending on stock levels and usage.

But in mid-May we were told that all Queen Elizabeth II Datamatrix Machins would be taken off-sale from 1 June 2024.

As several people have pointed out, the caveat on the website remains, but the withdrawal from sale might indicate that the King Charles sheet has now been printed.

Not so!  The end of May withdrawal of the Machins was from philatelic sale: although the information came from the Stamps & Collectibles (S&C) side of Tallents House, it had been assumed that it applied across the board.

But no - the retail side (ie website) continues to sell Queen Elizabeth stamps while they last, in accordance with the wishes of His Majesty (and basic business sense) - to minimise any environmental impact.

I'm advised that the King Charles 1st Large Business Sheet is unlikely to be printed this year, but that it should appear some time in 2025.  

We hope that the S&C team are told early enough to make an official day of issue, so that collectors and dealers can produce first day covers. 

News snippets June 2024

This post has a collection of short pieces not really warranting a whole blog post of their own.

Beyond the Definitives

Last year we discussed what products would need to change apart from postage stamps, with Horizon and Post & Go Labels being obvious examples.

Horizon Labels bearing the head of the King have appeared, but not Post and Go - although Royal Mail stopped using Post & Go machines at the end of the year, so no replacement was necessary there. The existing stamps continue in use at Post Office self-service kiosks, although there are trials of a new label which does bear the profile of King Charles.

A couple of readers have reminded me that although there is no postal stationery on sale now other than the prepaid plastic Special Delivery bags.  However the Houses of Parliament, and in particular members, are entitled to use prepaid postal stationery which currently still bears the Machin head. Both 1st (provided by RM) and 2nd class (from RW) are in use.

House of Commons prepaid 2nd class envelope used June 2024.

House of Commons prepaid 1st class envelope used May 2024.

Counterfeit Stamps

Thanks to BB for alerting me to more counterfeit non-definitive stamps being sold on eBay.  The current range now includes the Discworld, Cats, Christmas including miniature sheets, Paddington Bear and Children's TV Classics.  OK, they might be genuine, but it's clear from this photograph that there are no phosphor bands whereas there should be two.

2022 1st class 'Cats' stamps which should have two phosphor bands....

Catalogue Numbers

Thanks to CN who has alerted me to changes of numbers of the King Charles booklets in the Stanley Gibbons Concise Catalogue 2024, as follows:

TB2 - 4x 1^st   now    CB1

TC2 - 8x 2^nd   now    CC1

TD2 - 8x 1^st   now   CD1 

TE2 - 4x 2^nd L now   CE1

TF2 - 4x 1^st L  now    CF1 

.............

M24L printings

CN also tells me about the new printing of the booklet of 8 x 2nd class stamps, now with M24L year code.  Here's his picture:

King Charles III 2nd class booklet stamp coded MEIL and M24L, 2024 printing.

JH has provided a good photograph of the whole booklet.

King Charles III 2nd class booklet with stamps coded MEIL and M24L, 2024 printing.

Philatelic Bureau mail

Back in 2014 we reported that Royal Mail was using real stamps (stuck over the PPI) on sendings of bulletins from Tallents House.  Sadly this practice didn't last long.

Set of 2014 Butterfly stamps used on mailings from Royal Mail Tallents House, Edinburgh.

Few philatelic bureaux do use stamps on their sendings (Isle of Man and Greenland do, I think), but Guernsey has made up for not using stamps by advertising them on their envelopes!  My thanks to RM for sending this and other interesting material.

Guernsey Post envelope used in 2024 for sending out stamp orders, illustrated with examples from previous stamp issues.

That's all for now, thanks for reading, and keep sending your news - thanks!

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June Slogan Postmarks and other interesting postal markings.

May was quiet with only one new slogan, but we have already had the first for June - will there be any more, though?  

Remember when new stamps were announced with a slogan, and sometimes specific to a particular stamp or location.  Those were the days, and with computer-generated ink-jet, there is no manufacturing costs of slogan dies as there were in the old days.  So the paucity of slogans mus be down to a change in policy and a lack of people available to generate them.

Christmas stamp design winner

East Kilbride New Town

If this month follows the practice of previous years we could see, Father's Day, Pride Month, Loneliness Awareness Week, Armed Forces Day (and possibly Reserve Forces recognition), and Dog Awareness although that might be in July.

However, the first slogan of the month marks the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in World War 2.

JE was the first to send a picture (from Preston Mail Centre) but it is unnecessarily on a postage paid envelope (C9 license, King Charles stamp), so I'm using this one supplied by RS from Bristol Mail Centre - it's better than the one I received this morning from SE Anglia (Chelmsford).

D○DAY80
6 June 2024

D-DAY80 slogan from Bristol (BA,BS,GL,TA) Mail Centre 01/06/2024

Update: JE has now been able to add the iLSM version of the D-Day slogan, from Edinburgh Mail Centre.  Apparently dated 31 May this was allegedly posted on 4 June!

D-DAY80 slogan from Edinburgh Mail Centre 31/05/2024

We understand that the default Heart Foundation slogan resumed on 6 June.   (Update)  Here's an example from Chester & N Wales Mail Centre on 16/06/2024

British Heart Foundation (default) slogan used at Chester Mail Centre 16/06/2024.

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UPDATE 24 June: with the parliamentary general election looming early next month the only likely election-related slogan appeared this weekend, with a reminder to return Postal Votes early.  We had one from Manchester Mail Centre dated 21/06/2024.  I think the slogan reads

Return your
postal vote early
for 4 July election 

with a picture of a postbox and an envelope.

Postal Vote slogan Manchester Mail Centre 21/06/2024

UPDATE 26 June:  Royal Mail have mentioned this postmark on social media, with a mock-up from Warrington dated 24-06-1948

Publicity mock-up of Postal Vote slogan Warrington Mail Centre 24-06-2024

UPDATE 30 June (yes, Sunday - it's raining!).  Thanks to MH for sending a selection of Postal Vote examples including an inverted one from Warrington on 25-06-2024 to compare with the publicity picture above.

Actual impression of Postal Vote slogan from Warrington Mail Centre 25-06-2024 showing the layout actually used, as with the Medway one below.

UPDATE 27 June: RW has sent this example from (I think) Medway Mail Centre dated 21-06-2024, with a totally different layout of the wording on the slogan from that shown at Warrington.

Digitally enhancd Postal Vote slogan Medway Mail Centre 21-06-2024

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OTHER POSTMARKS AND POSTAL MARKINGS

The first postmark of interest this month is a Norwich packet stamp, image provided by JH.  He wondered whether it would pass the threshold for the blog?  Well it is worth showing just because so few people see this sort of handstamp now, with larger items having postage paid by label or with any stamps used either uncancelled or scored out with biro or marker pen.  

The unfortunate thing is that they don't tend to work well with the glossy surface of Post and Go stamps!

Norwich packet stamp with postcode NR1 1AA, used 31 May 2024.

More packet stamps:  MM has sent a similar packet handstamp, dated June 2024 from Preston Mail Centre which includes 'MC' in the text rather than a postcode.

Royal Mail Preston M.C. packet handstamp June 2024

UPDATE 25 June: another packet stamp from MM, this time from Exeter Mail Centre dated 24 June.

Exeter MC / Devon packet handstamp 24 June 2024

 

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UPDATE 19 June.  My thanks to MH of Cambridgeshire for this fine example of the Forres counter datestamp showing a date of 04 JU 24.  This is, today, obviously JUNE.  But later this year how would we know whether it was June or July?  The convention used to be June to be abbreviated to JE and July to JY. 

Forres counter datestamp dated 04. JU 24 on 2nd class Large Machin

The Forres Post Office building has a date of 1911 in the stonework facing the road.  It seems to occupy the whole of the (front at least) of the building: there may still be a Royal Mail delivery office at the back.   The town (ancient royal burgh) is between Inverness and Elgin, in Morayshire.

Forres Post Office, Google Streetview 2023

 

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This cover from NB also belongs on the Postal History blog.   The mark is not uncommon, but I suspect we will see many more uses of it as Revenue Protection are asked to double-check and now that the surcharging of mail with allegedly counterfeit stamps has been halted.

Revenue Protection mark on letter, May 2024.

This is an interesting case: the handstamp is often used on contract mail, or bulk mail which is all underpaid - the wording "correct postage raised" would mean that the sender (Philangles) had been contacted, told what the collective underpayments were and 'invited' to pay the difference - or their RM business account would be debited.

DO NOT SURCHARGE
CORRECT POSTAGE
RAISED BY REVENUE
PROTECTION TREAT
AS 1ST CLASS

The postage paid is 85p, ie fully paid for 2nd class up to 100g.   It is a c5 envelope and could be heavy but I would think the company sought to keep the sending under 100g.   

 After checking it is marked 'treat as 1st class'.  Would this be because it has been delayed by the checking process, or because there was a shortfall and it has been recovered in bulk? 

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If you have any other slogans used this month, or any other interesting postal markings from any period or place, please send them to the email address in the top right of this blog.  Thank you.

Remember, all postmarks appearing in June will be added to this post, so check here before you spend time scanning and emailing. 

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