Post and GOne – Royal Mail announce P&G Closing at Christmas 2023.

Royal Mail Stamps and Collectibles has announced the closure of Post and Go.

"Following a thorough review of our Post & Go Kiosks we have taken the decision to end all remaining Post & Go activities by the end of this year.

"Several factors have contributed to this decision including the fact that there has been no new Post and Go issues for several years and the change of Monarch would now require new issues to be re-introduced.

"Existing kiosks will remain operational through until Christmas, including a final overprint on certain kiosks, details of these will be shared by our operational partners at IAR soon. 

"All remaining Post & Go kiosks will shut down on 31st December 2023 and be removed from all sites shortly afterwards."

Background to Post and Go, original website article 2008.

 

Original Wincor-Nixdorf installation at Birmingham Post Office October 2008.

Edit: NB this announcement only applies to Royal Mail machines provided by IAR, installed in museums.

I have enquired as to the situation regarding Jersey Post, Guernsey Post and Gibraltar Post which all use IAR machines, and about Post Office Self-Service Kiosks which use different machines.

UPDATE 5 September - replies from Postal Administrations.

 

Guernsey Stamps

@guernseystamps

Good morning. We have no plans to withdraw our Post & Go machines. We'll be releasing our 2024 stamp schedule in the near future with full details of what's coming up next year.

 

Jersey Stamps

@JerseyStamps

Morning  We also have no plans to withdraw the machines, keep an eye out next year for new issues!

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Post and Go at Scottish Congress

As previously announced there will be no Royal Mail P&G presence at the Scottish Philatelic Congress in Perth this year (20-21 April).

However, the offshore islands and Gibraltar have been persuaded to attend and IAR reports that they will each be dispensing two types of stamps.

Congress organisers have confirmed that there will be no facility for orders by post this year.

With Royal Mail having postponed attending events and having looked at previous years it was felt there was not a significant demand for Jersey stamps.

Collectors who are interested in obtaining these stamps are advised to contact the relevant postal authorities who may be selling them via their bureaux.

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Post and Go overhaul

As previously mentioned, Royal Mail are cutting back on the Post and Go programme this

year,  although they have not made a specific announcement about just how much.  Already we know that they are not having kiosks at either Spring Stampex or the Scottish Congress in Perth, and I have been told unofficially that they will not be taking their machines to the political party congresses in the autumn. 

Partly because of this we have taken time to look over our Post and Go stock and ensuring that all our stock is actually listed in our webshop, that all is in the correct category and will be selected under the 'Faststamps/Post and Go' heading.  We've also adjusted many prices - now is the chance to get some you may have missed many at lower prices than advertised elsewhere.  Included are stamps printed in Australia, Hong Kong and Korea, and some of the newer digital printing versions of earlier stamps.

As with Machin Security Stamps, when Post and Go (or Faststamps as they were called) were first FS numbers.
While we were waiting for Gibbons to produce the first entries, we set about our own numbering system, partly because we wanted to list the stamps logically in our stock. So those available from Post Offices and elsewhere with no additional inscriptions were allocated
produced, there was no catalogue listing. When Stanley Gibbons catalogue editors did compile a listing it was fairly straightforward, with one catalogue number assigned to each of the five original values.

The localised or commemorative inscriptions (variously and incorrectly described as either underprints or overprints by some) to stamps sold at Stampex and international exhibitions, are in the FT series.

Stamps issued from machines at the BPMA, Postal Museum, local stamp fairs and exhibitions, and military and other museums and attractions are listed in FV series. We stock very few of these.

Our stock is listed on our webshop here.   The software arranges stock in a certain logicality, but it is not completely intuitive even in our system.   Some first day covers are also available.

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Party Conference Season Produces Post & Go Collectibles

With the country's political parties lining up for their annual conferences I am reminded by

WhiteKinght's Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog* that Royal Mail usually take a stand and have their Post and Go machines producing stamps with specific inscriptions.  On some occasions Smilers stamps have also been available.

The Liberal Democratic Party met at Bournemouth from 16 to 19 September but I have not yet seen any news that any Post and Go stamps were sold at the Conference just as there were no such items in 2016.§

The Scottish Nationalist Party will meet at Glasgow from 8 to 10 October. Stamps were dispensed at last year's conference so we might expect similar stamps with the additional inscription "Glasgow" again this year. 

The Labour Party will meet at Brighton from 24 to 27 September so look out for Post and Go stamps with additional inscription "Brighton". 

The Conservative Party will meet in Manchester from 1 to 4 October and so one might expect Post and Go stamps with additional inscription "Manchester" being sold there during the Conference.

Link to MyRoyalMail about 2016 Labour Conference.

* WhiteKnight has far more information about Post and Go than I do, and his latest epistles include news of various emanations from Post and Go machines IN Gibraltar - which are more 'valid' than the similar ones sold at London Stampex.   He also mentions in non-PandG news that Swiss Post are now operating from Gibraltar as they are from some of the Spanish island tourist destinations.  Attractive stamps but unless collectors pressurise the catalogue producers they won't be included in mainstream catalogues.

UPDATE: WhiteKnight's latest update includes pictures of the Post and Go stamps from the Brighton Labour Conference.

UPDATE: PostageLabelsUK has  pictures of the stamps and more pictures of the stand.  Also available on eBay.  § Explanation of the absence of PandG from the Lib-Dem Conference is because it coincides with Stampex, and those in charge of the machines can't be in two places at once.

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Autumn Stampex report

As usual I went to London Stampex in Islington on Thursday.  It was moderately busy with several people looking at the exhibits - there were many displays of postal history, and some good examples of Machin decimal covers, which it is always good to see as more attention is being given to modern material.

The Royal Mail stand was reasonably busy with the relatively new Royal Mail staff from Sunderland who have thereby met the collectors face-to-face and thereby learned more about their idiosyncrasies!

As far as I know - and I've had few reports - there have been no Post and Go errors. A steady dribble of people were buying some of the stamps, but it is no longer a battle.  If you left a credit card in the machine you wouldn't now find the next buyer rushing over to give it to you, but could go back a few minutes later to collect it!

Left to right: Machin Anniversary with Autumn Stampex 2017 inscription (only 1st class)
Poppy MA15 with WWI Battle of Passchendaele inscription (6 values)
Mail by Air collectors set of 6 values.

Jersey and Guernsey both had Prince Philip inscriptions on their flag stamps, with Jersey selling their new Fruit and Berries set and Guernsey continuing the Lighthouse stamps issued in February.

(As in all cases, click on the images for larger views)

The Post and Go offerings from Gibraltar Post were a surprise as I hadn't seen any publicity about them before Stampex, and can't find anything on the official or IAR website.

The Year of the Rooster stamp, issued earlier in the year and available at Spring Stampex in the usual strips of 4, was this time sold with the additional inscription Autumn Stampex 2017, and the collectors strip, this time of of 6, consisted of Local 50g, Spain 50g, UK 20g, EU 20g, Worldwide 20g and Worldwide 40g stamps.  The other reel dispensed what I think is a new issue - not mentioned on the Gibraltar Post website.

These were available in the same Collectors Strip values as the Year of the Rooster shown below.

As for the rest of Stampex, I don't go intending to buy much and this time ended up with far more modern British postal history than I expected!  I'll report on them on my other blog in due course.

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Royal Mail Stamps and Post and Go at Autumn Stampex 2016

For the first time in a while it appears there will be no Machin Post and Go stamps at Autumn Stampex this year (14-17 September).   According to the Royal Mail Post and Go webpage:

Royal Mail Kiosks A009, A012 and A014 will be in operation at Autumn Stampex.

All machines will carry the new issue Ladybirds designs as well as the Poppy design with a Battle of the Somme pictorial overprint. 

Jersey machine JE01 will carry the new issue Beetles designs along with the Jersey Flag. The flag design will carry a ‘Battle of the Somme’ overprint. 

Guernsey machine GG01 will carry the Bailiwick Life designs along with the Guernsey Flag. The flag design will carry a ‘Battle of the Somme’ overprint. 

Gibraltar machine GI01 will carry the International Year of the Monkey design alongside the Gibraltar Flag. The Gibraltar Flag design will carry a ‘Gorham’s Cave World Heritage’ overprint.

The Ladybirds and Somme Poppy stamps are also available to pre-order via the IAR website.

So there will be nothing new for Machin collectors, as there is no prestige book associated with the Agatha Christie special stamp issue on 15th September, which is yet another set of se-tenant pairs.

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New York 2016 FIP International Philatelic Exhibition - Post and Go

As mentioned several times earlier, Royal Mail (and other) Post and Go machines were at New York's international stamp show at the beginning of the month.  And not only (we're told) did their agents not have any Machin definitive stamps, there was no Machin to be had from the Post and Go machines either!

Thanks again to Chris for providing these pictures, presented for the record - we are not stocking any of these.

Royal Mail UK - New York Skyline from Sea Travel set, and Union Flag (no year code)

Jersey Post 'Arms' (with show logo) and Guernsey Post 'Bailiwick Life'

Jersey and Guernsey Flags also with show inscription, from Danny at ATM World

Gibraltar Year of the Monkey and, possibly, Barbary Ape

Royal Mail Transport Post and Go at Spring Stampex 2016

Somewhat earlier than in previous years Royal Mail have announced the Post and Go availability for Spring Stampex, to be held at Islington's Business Design Centre from 17-20 February 2016.  

As announced earlier here and in more detail on our website the Royal Mail issue ties in with their

celebration of 500 years of the Royal Mail.  In addition to the set of six transport-themed Faststamps, a single-design roll depicting the steam locomotive will also be available. As with the Hong Kong sea front stamp, this will be digitally printed so quite different to the gravure-printed set of 6 available at Post Office branches. There has been no announcement as to whether any of the new stamps will be available at Royal Mail enquiry offices.

It seems more than likely that this will also make an appearance at the Steam GWR Museum in Swindon which is celebrating the 175th anniversary of the GWR works at Swindon in November.

The Stampex machine line-up will be
UPDATED: see this wholesale revision 22.1.16

	Reel A	Reel B
A011	RM Heritage	Machin*
A012	RM Heritage	Machin*
A013	RM Heritage	Locomotive
JE01	Jersey Crest	Jersey Flag**
GG01	Bailiwick Life	Guernsey Flag**
GI01	TBC	TBC

*Additional inscription: ‘500 Years of Royal Mail’  
** Additional inscription: ‘500 Years of Postal History’

Jersey Post is taking the opportunity to issue a new design showing the Jersey Crest in various colours, and Guernsey Post is issuing a new 6-design set entitled Guernsey Life, which is wild animals.  Click on the country name to see the press releases on the IAR website.  One thing which is odd about the Guernsey statement is that each of the designs is allocated a 'value', eg the Blond Hedgehog is identified as being on the UK Large Letter stamp, but I would have expected it to be possible on the island and maybe at Stampex to produce any stamp with any denomination. 

The Royal Mail stamps from machine B001 are all available to pre-order via the IAR website although the Stampex event page doesn't yet have any details of the stamps available.

To avoid carrying excess stocks in a declining market, I am not planning to carry any stocks of Post and Go stamps from the public-access machines.  We will have limited supplies of single 1st class Machins and 1st class Locomotives from the B001 machine.

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Stampex Post and Go News and other things!

Autumn Stampex seemed to be a quieter event than usual, possibly because we had already had two events at the Business Design Centre this year.  Royal Mail released the new Sea Travel Post and Go faststamps on Wednesday (day 1) but visitors on Wednesday found that once again all was not smooth sailing with the machines. 

I haven't heard of any problems with Royal Mail's output but the Jersey and Guernsey (and Gibraltar?) machines were not operational until the middle of the afternoon on day 1 due to card machine problems, and then the meagre supplies of Jersey stamps were exhausted before the end of the day!

Royal Mail's Post and Go news webpage was silent as to what might be expected, although the IAR website once again provided some information in advance.  It was only after I started checking my purchases and found I had stamps from machine A009 that I realised that IAR's statement that A006, A007 and A008 would be present was wrong.  A009 replaced A007, although the IAR site still states that A007 was at Stampex, and is silent on A009. (Thanks to Anonymous for reminding me of this.)

The set of 6 Sea Travel stamps were as expected.  The BPMA had announced some months ago that the machine in their foyer would be loading a single-design Lion Heraldic Beast roll (with added BPMA inscription) on 16 September, and in just before Stampex it was confirmed that this would also be available at Stampex, with no extra inscription.   Nobody has explained why this roll was produced, nor whether any other Beasts will appear as single-design rolls - maybe the Dragon for PO branches in Wales (or maybe a Welsh museum?).

Vince Patel reports a glitch on the first purchase from the Guernsey machine, which produced 8 stamps, only one of which had the correct Longest Reign inscription as shown (left).  I noticed on eBay a similar error from Jersey Broad Street (right).

Vince writes that the second collector who purchased stamps spotted the error and reported it: the error was rectified immediately. (See whole strip at the foot of this post.)

One more time: Gibraltar.
Is Royal Gibraltar PO aiming for the most different stamps in the shortest possible time?  How many stamps in a Collectors Set?  The Collectors Set produced in May at Europhilex is shown at lower left, consisting of

Local Standard, UK 20g and 40g letters, EU 20g letter, Worldwide 20g letter and Registered Fee.

The Collectors Set I bought at Autumn Stampex was quite different, being

GI Standard 50g and 100g, UK Letter 20g, 40g, 30g and 50g [in that order!]

So far so good - things change, if the administration finds that a better mix of services is appropriate.  But while the Gibraltar philatelic bureau also sells stamps with the same values, the machines in Gibraltar actually have 12 different service indicators!  In addition to the 6 stamps dispensed at Stampex, the machines at the Parcel Office and Main Post Office produce

Spain up to 50g and 100g, EU 20g and 30g Letter, and Worldwide 10g and 20g letters.

RGPO's postage rates to the UK are 64p for 20g and 12p for each additional 10g; EU & Worldwide rates have a similar pattern but letters to Spain are for 50g, 100g, 500g and so on.  An odd arrangement but at least the stamps do match postage rates.

Were there 12 Gibraltar stamps at Stampex?  I don't know: I used the menu to select the Collectors Strip and I don't know whether a second Collectors Strip was available.  It never occurred to me to look!

All I know is that there are at least 14 stamp values, without looking at variants of additional inscriptions.

Additional images here, including the receipts from Gibraltar Parcel Office showing W Collectors Strip and L Collectors Strip, courtesy of Thomas von Loeper whose eBay listing can be found here.

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Last word for Gibraltar Post and Go stamps

In May we reported on and showed the Gibraltar Post and Go stamps, and lamented the fact

that these were sold outside the colony where they were not valid, but not on the Rock itself.

According to the Royal Mail website this week, things are changing for the better.

Following the success of the GI01 machine, Gibraltar Post will be installing two Royal Mail Post and Go machines in their main post office and parcel office respectively. The machines, GI02 and GI03, will go live from 9 September and carry the Gibraltar Flag design.

Each reel in the machine will offer different values – Reel A- Gibraltar and UK values; Reel B- European and Worldwide values.

As the purpose of this blog is principally to report on stamps of the UK, plus output from Post and Go machines in the UK, this will be the only report on what is happening in Gibraltar.  Readers who wish to keep updated on Post and Go happenings in Gibraltar and the Channel Islands can follow the Royal Mail website or those of the relevant postal administrations.

UPDATE ON THE LAST WORD!  13 September 2015.   From the Gibraltar Chronicle.

A new ‘Post and Go’ machine was unveiled yesterday at the post office by the Gibraltar Government that ‘will make thousands of pounds’ for Gibraltar.  Neil Costa, Minister for Postal Services, said that stamps collectors could take an interest and a German businessman has already spent thousands on Gibraltar’s ‘unique’ product.

The machines, currently on a trial basis and rented for a few hundred pounds a month, were first launched on 15 May at the Europhilex convention in London.

“This was the most important philatelic exhibition in the world,” said Mr Costa. “Jersey and Guernsey Post already have one of these machines and the Isle of Man is also considering one.”

Two have been installed at the main Post Office and the other at the Parcel Office. A pillar box has also been installed inside the Parcel Office for customer convenience.

Mr Costa said that the upgrade will ‘significantly’ cut down queue times, especially during the Christmas rush and during cruise liner visits.

“There’s a lot of technology in these machines,” he said. “It contains a chip and pin option, a barcode reader, it prints receipts and you can post letters and buy stamps. It can also be programmed for different things.”

David Ledger, Royal Gibraltar Post Office CEO, said that the joint project between the Royal Gibraltar Post Office and the Royal Mail has three machines with original stamp marks.

“We have three machines that contain the stamp marks GI01, GI02 and GI03,” he said. “GI01 will be in Gibraltar House all year round, but will visit the Stampex Exhibition in London for four days on 16 September. It will mark the Queen’s longest reign and the Gibraltar stamp will read a special message.”

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Gibraltar Post and Go Stamp First Day Covers now available - but not from us.

As readers will know, The Royal Gibraltar Post Office (RGPO) joined the Post and Go family when the first machine in its livery was present at London 2015 Europhilex on 13 May 2015.

Two weeks before this, I had asked RGPO for details of what would be available, and received the answer:

Unfortunately we do not have any information on the Post and Go stamps yet.

Hopefully we will have some more info when the machines arrive to Gib hopefully very soon.

Also the Gibraltar Post and Go will be available at Europhilex 2015 so you will be able to purchase them by the machine.

Of course it was the machine in London I was asking about!  In the end, as we found, the stamps were dispensed from the machine, but none were available from the Gibraltar Stamps stand.  There were no 'back-office' machine stamps, and no official first day covers of course.

Imagine my surprise to receive an emailshot from Gibraltar Stamps this morning:

And on looking at their website, I find that they now have stamps with a GI country code, B002 machine number - and they also have first day covers dated 13 May.  But none of these is provided with the customary receipt. The technical information on the website is totally missing, but the FDC is illustrated.

Sadly the most telling part of this is in their description:

Post and Go machines issue a new generation of self-adhesive postage stamps that are rapidly capturing the interest of stamp collectors.

OK, we know that first day covers are rarely produced on the day of issue, being prepared beforehand, or for some time afterwards, and in stock at most bureaux for many months or years.  But is this the first instance of a first day cover not being available from either the philatelic bureau or its trade stand at an exhibition on the day of issue, but being contrived two weeks later?

I suppose RGPO had to wait for the IAR contractor to get back from London (after Essen) and reprogram B002 (which is located in Bristol) to pretend to be a Gibraltar machine.  If the stamps are in Gibraltar, they weren't printed there, and were shipped there in bulk.  Yes, many modern stamps are printed in another country - look how many Royal Mail stamps are printed in France. But the essence of Post and Go stamps is that the base stock is printed at the printing works (wherever that may be), and the black value and machine code is printed on site, the country code indicating the country in which they were printed.  The datastring on these stamps is totally bogus - unless anyone knows otherwise?
 

This is a message I sent to the RGPO (not Gibraltar Stamps which is a separate company), on 10 May, before the exhibition.  No answer was received, so I now make it an open letter to the Royal Gibraltar Post Office which, as far as we know, still doesn't have a public-access machine (if indeed they have any Post and Go machine) in the colony.

Dear Sir

I am concerned that next week the Royal Gibraltar Post Office will be selling in London stamps which are only valid for postage in Gibraltar but which are not being sold in Gibraltar.

I understand that after the London Europhilex event the machine dispensing these stamps will move not to Gibraltar but to Gibraltar House in London, from where the stamps will continue to be available.  Somebody in your organisation clearly thinks this is a good idea, and certain to attract collectors, but why would you produce stamps not available in the Colony for sale only in another country.  That would be like Royal Mail selling a British stamp only in Gibraltar (or the USA, or Venezuela!), or the Canadians selling on only in Monaco or Ukraine.

What are you thinking?

Ian Billings, Norvic Philatelics. 

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London 2015 Europhilex Post and Go report.

As has sadly been the case of late, pre-event information proved to be inaccurate or difficult to obtain once again for the London 2015 event.  (See original information)

Royal Mail's 'Post and Go News' webpage was silent about the whole event which meant that we had to rely on the IAR website or unpublished information from Royal Mail, or contact with the postal authorities.

Two days before the event started the IAR site announced that machine A009 would not be at the exhibition, and would be replaced by A004, which would then move on to a new 'to be announced' static location.  The Royal Gibraltar Postal Service could tell us nothing about the Post and Go stamps - not what would be sold, nor what 'values'.  Information from Jersey about the content of their machine varied according to who was asked!

So what we found was:

The Gibraltar machine GI01 dispensed stamps with their own flag and with the Union Flag (see below for pictures of an original error on some sales):

The Gibraltar stamps are:
Local Standard (22p), UK 20g Letter (64p), UK 40g Letter (88p)
EU 20g letter (70p), Worldwide 20g letter (80p), Registration Fee (£3.00).

The Guernsey machine GG01 produced their own flag with London 2015 inscription, and Union Flag without.

The Royal Mail machines dispensed, variously, Heraldic Beasts, Union Flags, and Machins with a London 2015 inscription.  Some Machins with year code MA13 were available on the first day (13th May) but they were replaced with undated Machins which were still in use on 14th.

The Jersey machine JE01 dispensed Jersey Flag stamps with the Penny Black 175 inscription, and Protected Species stamps launched at Stampex.

As before the Receipts carry the logo of the postal administration - except that for Gibraltar which is anonymous.

 

Errors and omissions

UPDATE
Mike reports that his receipt from machine A006 is dated 10/05/15 - going by eBay listings session 586 was incorrect but the error was corrected by session 606 (see receipt above).

Gibraltar

Robert reports: "As you may know on Wednesday at the start of the Europhliex 2015 on the Gibraltar stand the P&G kiosk was printing a mistake on the Collector Set  i.e the "WORLDWIDE up to 20g Value had "WORDWIDE up to 20g - I understand this was fixed later on Wednesday, but as can be seen on the enclosed Photos.   This was still happening at 12:52 on Thursday 14th."

     ... but clearly it had been fixed by the time I bought mine!

 

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