August is off to a flying start following the victory of the England Women's Football Team in the European Championships final against Germany on Sunday.
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Publicity image of Slogan postmark for England - Women's European Football Champions
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"Following England women’s spectacular 2-1 win against Germany at Wembley Stadium last night, that saw them crowned European Women Football Champions, Royal Mail will be applying a special congratulatory postmark to stamped mail from Monday 1 August to Saturday 6 August."
Congratulations
England!
Women's European
Football Champions
31 July 2022
It's just about possible that mail processed Sunday night might have the 31 July postmark - please let me know if you have seen one.
First pictures from JE, who also writes: "I doubt whether any mail would have been processed on Sunday night with this slogan. Engineers have to download thee slogan at a change of shift, and Preston
(for example) does not sort mail on Sunday nights. I understand Saturday's postings are cancelled and sorted on Saturday afternoon, and inward mail (from other Mail Centres which should not need cancelling anyway) is sorted on a Sunday morning shift, ready for Monday delivery."
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Congratulations England! slogans from Preston (Lancashire and South Lakes), and Edinburgh Mail Centres.
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The top picture is on a DL envelope and so in four lines; the centre picture is on a c5 envelope and should be 5 lines but the lower line and datastring are missing.
UPDATE 7 August: Some more pictures of the Football postmark. First from MM showing the reverse format on square envelopes. M asks if the wavy lines are too close together, but that is deliberate to avoid the barcode. Tyneside NE/SR 03/08/2022
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| Congratulations England! slogans from Tyneside NE/SR Mail Centre 03/08/2022. |
The alternative format on a letter from me to a customer, postmarked
Norwich 01-08-2022 Also cancelled with the Dereham CDS producing a particularly nice 54p (catalogued £1.50 vfu). Another exaample of "use it or burn it" as we clear stocks of Machins.
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Swap-out cover from Norwich Mail Centre with Congratulations England! slogan 01-08-2022
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UPDATE 9 August: now that the football and the Commonwealth Games are over, Royal Mail is starting its campaign to publicise the end of stamps as we know them and urging people to use them up.
I expect this slogan to be used nationwide for long periods from now until the end of the year, interrupted by significant events, such as Christmas. This is one that we received on mail this morning, from Preston Mail Centre, 08/08/2022.
Use up your
non-barcoded stamps
by 31 January 2023
Or swap them out for
new barcoded ones
visit
royalmail.com/barcodedstamps
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Barcoded stamps slogan, Lancashire and South Lakes (Preston) 08/08/2022
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UPDATE 17 August: thanks for other examples sent during the week. This one from BM from Swindon also 08-08-2022.
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| Barcoded stamps slogan, Swindon, 08/08/2022 |
Then there is the reversed format from Tyneside (10/08/2022) - and a normal one - both unnecessarily on envelopes with printed (digital) stamps. Thanks MM for these.
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| Barcoded stamps slogan, Tyneside NE/SR, 10/08/2022 |
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| Reverse Barcoded stamps slogan, Tyneside NE/SR, 10/08/2022 |
OTHER POSTMARK NEWS
Thanks to a Bournemouth member of the Stampboards forum, we learnt that Post Office Ltd has introduced a new style of counter date stamp. Still self-inking, this appears to be similar in operation to the one I use for putting the return address on envelopes, but it also has wheels to change the date.
Thanks to the kind people at Boscombe East post office, I can show both devices and the impressions they produce.
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Boscombe East PO self-inking metal-framed datestamp (right) and new type with Morse Code border.
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| Boscombe East PO new type of datestamp with Morse Code border. |
In Morse, the border spells out the letters of Post Office, although Morse purists would argue that there should be bigger spaces between the letters than between the elements in each letter.
The SPM writes: We are indeed one of the first offices to trial the new date stamp, there’s not been many changes over the years but from the ‘bang bang to the SID and now to the ‘stamper’. The name is a little small, and there is no town shown. And the date is one piece, so will only last as long as it lasts. Three separate reels would be better. (But it might not last that long!)
Let us know if you see any others, please.
UPDATE 17 August: According to RW the existing datestamps at Paignton only go to 2022 so their replacements may be like these.
On the other hand, as this is a trial, there may be trials of other devices taking place at other offices. Apparently this device costs just under £50, whereas for the metal ones Post Office charges SPMs over £100. But how long will they last under pressure?
My old postmaster had a new SID supplied for his Outreach activities and it fell apart in less than two years: he refused to buy a new one and continues to use the old single-ring datestamp 'on the road', while the older double-ring datestamp is used in the office.
Isle of Skye
Although it isn't strictly news, it's not often that we get to see postmarks from Scotland's islands, so here is an example from Staffin, Isle of Skye. Staffin is in the far north-east of the island, about 15 miles north of Portree.
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Staffin, Isle of Skye, counter date stamp 13 August 2022.
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This is the place where all
news about August postmarks - provided by readers or discovered by us -
will be posted. Please check back and refresh the page before sending
anything which may have already been sent since you last looked: this
will save you time scanning and writing. Variants on postmarks already
shown are also welcome.
