I was asked by a couple of collectors of Irish stamps to buy some of their Stamps on a Roll (SOAR) during my visit to Ireland last month.
I had bought one batch previously, but this gave me the opportunity to look more closely and learn about the stamps and the machines.
Aside from being a different format and type of machine to Royal Mail's Post and Go stamps, one important thing about these is that they are available at counters and from self-service kiosks - but the overprinting is different, of course, so there is plenty of scope for study.
The machines are also used for dropping off packages and bill-payment. This is one at Ennis the county town of County Clare.
The machines dispense three pre-set values - Domestic and Northern Ireland (€1.85), Europe (€3.50) and Worldwide (€3.95) for 100g.
At the counter you can theoretically buy stamps of any value, although your experience may vary. At the larger office in Castlebar (Co. Mayo) I was able to buy a set of 1c stamps. At Ballycroy (near Westport, Co. Mayo)) I was offered 10c stamps, and at Shannonbridge (Co. Offaly) they were reluctant to sell me anything less than 20c stamps.
The stamps shown are from the Art on a Stamp series. The 1c stamps are phase 3 which is a set of 4, the other two are phase 2, which is a set of 8. These were the stamps generally available from branch counters.
However, at Letterkeny, Co Donegal, the machine held the set of Irish Culture and Objects series 3 from 2019. For the purist a continuous strip of 16 to incorporate all the designs is desirable but due to the uncertainty of the operation of the machines, two strips of 8 are highly collectable.
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| Irish Culture and Objects series 3 from Letterkenny's self-service kiosk |
I was always in a hurry, not wanting to delay a family holiday too much, so ordered 8 first (because that was all I needed if it had been the other set), and - not remembering all the detail (I don't collect them) - ordered another set and then 4 in case the set total was more than 16.
Sometimes An Post presents a particular challenge to collectors. The History of Ireland in 100 Objects series started in 2017 and many of the stamps are issued in the SOAR range.
However, others are issued in booklets, some NVIs with Domestic, Europe or World values I believe. Obviously the international ones will not be found as easily in Ireland, and the domestic ones not as easily outside Ireland.
A fascinating area of collecting. (But I'm not going to start now!)
I should have asked if any readers here wanted me to get any - I'll try to remember next time we visit.
I had a letter from Ireland which had no stamp on it, but a hand drawn code which looked a little like a noughts & crosses grid, which I assume means postage has been paid and a code given to the sender which will be honoured by delivery. So if I am right Irish stamps will become rarer which may be why you could get some still for sale from 2017.
ReplyDeleteIt's terrible to hear about the start of codes from Ireland as well. I think this will make collecting much harder. Great article though, Ian, about the SOAR stamps which I think make machine-dispensed labels of much higher quality. I have tried to collect the Irish ones, but I like all Irish stamps as they haven't gone mad with their level of issues like other countries (UK, Australia, etc.).
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