Is Norwich Sorting Office heading for 21st Century? YES!

Something's afoot at Norwich's Royal Mail sorting office, but we don't know what it is!

Mail originating in much of central and eastern Norfolk is usually postmarked in Norwich, using an old Universal machine which has seen better days and rarely seems to have enough ink to make a good impression.

If this was from Norwich (it's from Mount Pleasant) we would think it better than normal!

But this week our mail is receiving the new Peterborough ink-jet postmark:

This suggests that Norwich's old machine may be retiring at last, and that we will soon have an ink-jet machine.  It may be that our customers will know before we do!  Do let us know!

UPDATE: Our customer Stuart confirms that Norwich now has an ink-jet postmark.  I wish I'd used lighter-coloured stamps!

Royal Mail

Norwich

Mail Centre

11-07-2012

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Do you collect Postal History the Modern way?

Many people think that stamps issued these days are only for collectors.   There certainly isn't much variety on the mail these days, unless you count the variations in the 2nd class blue and 1st class gold.  Incidentally, how often do you see these stamps from ordinary counter sheets, ie without any hidden security code?  Most of the ones I get are from booklets, with business sheets a close second.  Ordinary sheet stamps could be quite scarce!

Over on my other blog, I'm showing stamps actually used.  I'm stuck in the late 1960s/early 1970s at present but will add to it from time to time, and I'll be interested to have your reactions.  Some of these stamps are not in many collections - on cover, doing the right job!



If you're interested in this aspect of collecting, please follow the Postal History blog as well as this one.