London's Postal Museum re-opens with Post and Go fundraiser.

 Press Release

 

The Postal Museum announces the reopening of its Post & Go machines with new commemorative overprints 

LONDON, 14 May 2021 – The Postal Museum is set to resume the operation of its two Post & Go machines as the Museum reopens to the public on 20 May 2021. Both kiosks will be in their usual locations The Postal Museum’s Welcome Space and Mail Rail entrance, no admission ticket will be required to access the services.

Additional safety measures are being introduced such as a hand sanitizer station, a queuing system and information on how to scan the NHS Test and Trace QR code located near the machines.

The machine in the Welcome Space will vend a collector’s strip of 1st and 2nd class Machin stamps with an overprint “Wish You Were Here” and a distinctive postcard symbol celebrating The Postal Museum’s new exhibition marking 151 years of the British postcard.

In addition to Post & Go stamps, a First Day Cover and a Presentation Pack containing both 1st and 2nd class Machins with “Wish You Were Here” overprint will be available to purchase from the museum’s shop and online at shop.postalmuseum.org from 20 May.

Both Post & Go machines are available at The Postal Museum from 10.30 and throughout the museum’s opening hours (Thursdays to Sundays). Please check the full revised opening hours at www.postalmuseum.org/visit-us/.

The Postal Museum Post & Go stamp with re-opening "Wish You Were Here" inscription.

 

UPDATE 25 May: My thanks to MC for providing these images from the machines at The Postal Museum, and this commentary.

Year coding on TPM Machins is 'unclear' as the 'postcard' part of the overprint design obliterates the coding! At least one dealer on site reported the situation.

The Mail Rail kiosk, still AO12, is now back in the Mail Rail area over the road (when I got over there after TPM, it was apparent that there had been a delayed start due to 'technical issues'). 

First day covers were available on site at TPM (limited edition of 300 but, unusually, not individually numbered) but Presentation Packs (similarly, 300 issue) were only available to order via the web due to 'production issues'. Staff did, however, provide a code to interested attendees for web ordering so that there will be free postage when despatched, hopefully next week.

 

Mail Coach, Union Flag, and PO Underground Railway Post and Go strips from the Postal Museum's machine A001 with first 2021 service indicators.

Machin Post and Go strips (1st & 2nd) from the Postal Museum's machine A001 with first 2021 service indicators.

Post & Go strips from the Mail Rail machine (A012) at The Postal Museum with first 2021 service indicators.

These are posted for the online record, but we are not stocking them.

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Postal Museum Post and Go News

From a Press Release

Post & Go overprints to mark 50th anniversary of The Queen opening the National Postal Museum available at The Postal Museum
 
LONDON, 16 January 2019 – The Postal Museum has announced today that Royal Mail Post & Go overprints marking the 50th anniversary of The Queen opening the National Postal Museum, forerunner of The Postal Museum, will be available from its Post & Go machine from 13 February 2019.

Two designs will be overprinted to commemorate the first National Postal Museum being opened by The Queen at London’s King Edward Building on 19 February 1969. The Machin commemorative 1st class in six colours, replacing the standard Machin 1st class, and the Mail Coach in all values. Both designs include an additional inscription

The Postal Museum
NPM 50 

and will run until further notice.

A Presentation Pack containing a collector’s strip of the Machin commemorative design (all 1st class) and a collector’s strip of the Mail Coach (all values) as well as a First Day Cover with 1 x Machin commemorative 1st class, and 1 x Mail Coach 1st class will be available to purchase from The Postal Museum’s shop and on-line from the beginning of February.

The Post & Go machine is available at The Postal Museum during normal opening hours.

Please see www.postalmuseum.org for more information.

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BPMA to sell rare stamps to fund new home

From a Press Release 26 March 2013:


SOTHEBY’S TO SELL DUPLICATE STAMPS FROM
THE BRITISH POSTAL MUSEUM & ARCHIVE
IN LONDON IN JULY 2013

The Most Important Archival Sale of Stamps Ever To Take Place

Auction To Benefit a New, Publicly Accessible and Permanent Home for BPMA’s Collections at Calthorpe House in London, Due To Open in Early 2016

Second Auction To Take Place in February 2014

Sotheby's is delighted to announce a sale of stamps from The British Postal Museum & Archive in London on 11 July 2013. The auction will comprise material duplicate to the archive collection, with proceeds to benefit the new home of The British Postal Museum & Archive, which will be situated at Calthorpe House on London’s Mount Pleasant site and is scheduled to open in early 2016. A second sale, comprising entirely different duplicate material to the first auction, is scheduled to take place at Sotheby’s in London in February 2014.

Stamps from ‘Registration’ or ‘Imprimatur’ sheets are among the most highly prized items among stamp collectors. Only two of these special sheets were ever produced for each stamp in this sale. The BPMA is to retain the original sheet which, due to its protected status, will never be sold; Sotheby’s will present for sale elements of the duplicate Registration sheets. Sotheby's auction is a unique event, since no other examples of these items will be made available, and as such, represents a once-in-a-lifetime event for collectors.

Commenting on the collection of stamps to be offered for sale at auction, Richard Ashton, Sotheby’s Worldwide Philatelic Consultant, said: “This selection of material from The British Postal Museum & Archive includes numerous items that are of the utmost rarity. Now in my 50th year as a professional philatelist, I have never seen such an important sale of its type. Many are the only examples of their kind ever to come on to the market. Quite aside from their rarity, these extraordinary stamps are also of great beauty – engraved to the highest standard by leading masters of the day. There are magnificent sheets of the 'Seahorse' stamps of King George V, and important blocks with Registration Certificates on the reverse of the reigns of King Edward VIII and King George VI. Collectors will never again have such an opportunity to purchase such rare and beautiful items.”

Commenting on the sale, Adrian Steel, Director of the BPMA, said: “As well as offering collectors an exciting opportunity to acquire rare and important philatelic material, we are thrilled that this sale will directly support the development of the BMPA’s new home. Whereas currently our world-class collections are held in storage and therefore largely hidden from public view, the new British Postal Museum & Archive will make our collections, and the story they tell of British communication, industry and innovation, available to everyone. We hope that everybody who supports this sale will feel proud to be playing their part in restoring Britain's postal heritage to its rightful place on the national and international stage.”

The first stamps printed from an approved and finished printing plate are called ‘Imprimaturs’. Once printed these would be taken from the printers to two receiving 'officers' who would subsequently type an endorsement on the reverse of the sheets and would often pencil annotations on the front side. The resulting sheets are called ‘Registration’ sheets; they are characterised not only by the endorsements and annotations mentioned above, but also by the fact the sheets have no perforations. These magnificent signed and dated 'Registration' blocks have never previously been available to collectors. The sale will include some 50 or so complete Registration blocks, as well as stamps (‘Imprimaturs’) taken from the Registration sheets: single stamps, pairs, blocks of four, and larger blocks which contain important archival notes in the margin.

In the July sale, collectors will have a choice of selected issues from the reigns of King George V (Seahorse issues), King Edward VIII and King George VI (definitive issues). The auction comprises 191 lots and is estimated to bring in excess of £5 million. Details of these stamps will be available in due course. The second sale in February 2014 comprises entirely different material.

BPMA Robin Faststamps replaced by Flag stamp this week

I thought that the seasonal Robin would disappear from the BPMA Post and Go machine right after Christmas, but I was wrong.  Now Stuart has directed us to this from the BPMA's website. 

The Union Flag will be in use from Thursday this week, so if you are visiting Stampex, take a walk (or the bus) down to Freeling House, Phoenix Place, London WC1X 0DL.   It's a 15-minute brisk walk from the Angel Underground station.

21 February 2013

A new stamp design will be available at the Post & Go machine in the Royal Mail Archive from Thursday, 21 February 2013. The 'Christmas Robin' will be replaced by the Union Flag with the special overprint reading "The B.P.M.A.". 

Visitors to the BPMA can purchase the stamps by credit / debit card only during our opening hours. An official First Day Cover featuring the new Union Flag design will be available from the BPMA online shop from 25 February 2013.

We do not have any stock of these at this stage.  When we have stock available for sale we will announced it in the blog.

UPDATE: Thanks to Chris we can now show the Collectors set and receipt

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New London Home for BPMA

News Release>
22 March 2012>

Plans for a new home for The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) were announced today by the BPMA, Royal Mail Group and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The new Postal Museum will provide access to the BPMA's unique collections of 400 years of postal, social and design history, including photographs, posters, vehicles, pillar boxes, employment records of millions of people and a world-class stamp collection.

Under a plan endorsed by the Government, the new centre will be established at Calthorpe House, on London's Mount Pleasant site, where the country's oldest mail centre is located. It is close to the existing home of the BPMA at Freeling House, which has very limited space for exhibitions and displays.

Royal Mail Group will grant a lease of 999 years for Calthorpe House, a property which will provide a secure foundation for the BPMA once redeveloped and extended. Agreements have been signed with Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd (POL) for a £6m long term, low interest loan to fund the conversion of Calthorpe House to meet the basic needs of the organisation. In addition, Royal Mail and POL are providing other support, including a £500,000 grant.

A fundraising campaign by the BPMA will be launched shortly to raise the remaining funds required to create a state of the art museum and visitor facility. The BPMA is an independent charity set up in 2004 to care for two significant collections: The Royal Mail Archive and the collections of the former National Postal Museum. It is the BPMA's mission to increase public access to these collections, making the story they tell of communication, industry and innovation accessible to everyone.

The new centre will allow the BPMA to exhibit objects from its fascinating museum collection, which is currently held in storage. It will also include educational facilities for visiting schools.

More details on the BPMA website > http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/page/calthorpehouse

This is very good news!

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BPMA - We're not going to Swindon after all.

We've waited for a comprehensive National Postal Museum since London's King Edward Building was sold in 1998.  The British Postal Museum & Archive, currently based in Freeling House, Mount Pleasant, with stores at Debden in Essex and a Community Museum at Blist's Hill in Ironbridge, had big plans for a new centre in converted railway premises in Swindon.  They even secured some Heritage Lottery Funding. 

But the main part of the funding was still down to Royal Mail - and it is now reported that as Royal Mail have decided they cannot afford this funding, the BPMA trustees "have decided not to continue with plans to develop a new base in Swindon, Wiltshire."

See their blog statement here.

The country which invented the postage stamp hasn't had a postal museum for 13 years.  So, let's pass the hat round and see if we can raise £20 million between us.  Given the number of collectors and businesses which make money from the hobby, it ought to be possible, surely?