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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Interruption to our normal service

Due to the recent hospitalisation and now convalescence of a close family member there will be fewer updates here, and service from the web-shop may be slower than normal.

I will use this space to add details of what we have that you may be waiting for, with the assurance that I will send orders and reserved items out to customers as soon as possible.

1. As noted in the relevant blog posts (but not yet on the website) the Great War stamps in the prestige stamp book are not the same as those printed in counter sheets. 

The pictorial stamps issued in sheets have two phosphor bands except for the 'Starburst' painting and 'We Will Remember Them' poetry stamps, which are all-over phosphor.  We now know that all 6 pictorial stamps in the PSB have all-over phosphor which means that at least 4 will have a separate listing in some catalogues.  They are certainly different stamps and we now have them in stock.


2. First day covers of the Machin stamps from the Great War PSB, the three new booklet/business sheet stamps issued on 31 July, and the Commonwealth Games booklets will be added to the web-shop soon.

3. More Poppy Maximum cards will also be added to the web-shop in the near future.  Part of the proceeds of these will go to the Royal British Legion National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.  If you haven't been, it is a very impressive and moving place to be.


4. PHILAKOREA
We have supplies of the 'GB' codes stamps from Edinburgh, and the KR stamps have now arrived. Customers who pre-ordered have been contacted: if you have not received an email please look in your spam folder, and email me if you haven't had one.  (The image, right, shows the machine with the Philakorea screen.)

Korean stock includes Undated and MA13 Machins from two machines, Undated Union Flags from three machines including JE01, and the Jersey Flag stamps.  We also received three different covers, for these variations.  Smilers stamps are arriving soon.


5. Update 20 August.  BPMA Airmail exhibition opened today with new Post and Go stamps.  And guess what? The brown Machins exist undated and with MA13, probably not surprising, and the blue are MA12.
What is surprising is that BPMA produced a Presentation Pack as well as FDCs.  But they only had 100 Packs for sale on their website !!  Do they think that there are only 100 Post and Go collectors worldwide?  OK, so not all of them would buy it, but at £12 it wasn't expensive and I am certain they would have sold nearer to 1,000 than 100 and thus added to the funds available for the new museum.

Anyway, they are already on eBay, as are the strips of stamps.  I'll not be doing any FDCs for these and don't have any stock.

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Post and Go: York and Korea

Earlier posts have outlined the 2014 Post and Go Roadshow programme (see here)  We will not be going to York or Korea but I am trying to make arrangements to get a limited supply of material from both shows.

YORK STAMP FAIR 18-19 July
Kiosks A003 and A004, previously at Stampex, will be present dispensing Machin and Union Flag stamps.  As usual, we cannot tell beforehand whether these will be undated, MA13 or even MA14.  What is certain is that they will have the new 60g values, and the 97p stamp will have the dual inscription Euro 20g /World 10g

We will not be able to get stamps on the opening day, only Saturday, so will only supply mint, not FDC.

The Collectors Sets will be 1st - 1st Large - E20/W10 - E60 - W20 - W60

New compared with Salisbury and Stampex are the E20/W10,  E60 and W60 stamps, so those who want a simple collection of one of each will only want these three values to add to their earlier strips.

If you would like any of these please email as soon as possible so that orders can be consolidated and arrangements made.

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PHILAKOREA World Stamp Exhibition 7 - 12 August

Royal Mail A003 and A004 and Jersey J001 kiosks will be present with the 'Philakorea 2014/World Stamp Expo' caption being on Machin and Union Flag stamps from the Royal Mail machines and on Jersey Flag and Union Flag stamps from J001.  These will have KR in the datastring.

Stamps with GB in the datastring will be available from Royal Mail Tallents House and with JE from Jersey Post's Philatelic Bureau via mail order.

We have tentative arrangements to obtain stamps from the exhibition with KR code but can take no more orders.

If you would like mint stamps from Korea please email (see top right) immediately and we will get what we can.

Collectors wanting the GB- or JE-coded stamps are advised to apply to the respective bureaux direct.

Some pictures from Korea - thanks Michael:

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News update - while we were away....

Some news has been added by contributors as comments on previous blog posts.  This is a resume of news that has been sent by email.

The roll-out of NCR Post and Go machines seems to be gaining momentum, so the List of Post Offices with NCR machines may not be up to date.  Lists have been compiled by others, and I will try to find a way of making these available to our readers.

From Brian in Northern Ireland

"Belfast main office at Bridge Street/High Street is the only office in Northern Ireland with PandG machines. Previously it had 2 Wincor Nixdorf machines. I was surprised to see that they had been replaced by 4 NCR Machines (67 to 70). I was told they went live on Easter Tuesday 22nd April.
All 4 machines have Machins. Office number remains 011704 on all 4 machines.

1st Class etc. strips: All are MA13
2nd Class strips: 68 and 69 are MA12 whereas 67 and 70 are MA13.

I also enquired as to whether any machines had been installed elsewhere in N. Ireland and was told not at present."

John reported that Truro has 4 NCR mchines live from the 8th May - so no more accusations of misdeeds there!

Julia reported that Croydon's 6 NCR machines were live by 14 May.

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Several people sent pictures of the new stamps from BPMA showing the stamp costing 97p with the new Euro 20g World 10g inscription (Thanks Chris, Doug)

Many people reported that the same change did not happen on NCR machines as Royal Mail had told us it would (I'm following this up still).  Tony reports also that:
"I met with the Manager of the (Muswell Hill London) branch who was not even aware of the 28th April introduction date for the change."

And of course the change did not happen on Wincor-Nixdorf machines as I found when I visited the northern-most Post and Go office in the country at Inverness.  I took the opportunity to get some Union Flag Post and Go stamps, an interesting choice in view of the independence referendum campaigning going on at the moment! I also bought this while I had the chance.  In my experience few people have kept the Post and Go Labels mint or on cover, and the opportunities are reducing daily!

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PhilaKorea - Stuart reports that Jersey Post have decided not to take their Post and Go machine to Korea for the international exhibition.

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British Films Miniature Sheet
John was the first of several to report that the copies in Post Office branches have the bar-coded selvedge as the Buckingham Palace sheets did.  I queried this with Royal Mail and can now confirm that this is not only deliberate but will be so for the forseeable future; the official response:

The inclusion of the barcode margin was at the request of Post Office Ltd. All Royal Mail products need to include barcodes as standard.

We decided to add the margin to avoid putting the barcode in the design area of the product. The sheets sent out from Tallents House have had the margin removed because it is not intended to be part of the collectable product.

Thanks to Chris for the image.

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Post and Go Faststamps on the road 2014 - exhibition programme

In September last Royal Mail provided details of the 2014 Exhibitions at which

there would be Post and Go machines dispensing Faststamps.  At the time there was some doubt about the accuracy of the list, not least as they provided April dates for the autumn Stafford Stamp Show.  A new list has now been provided in Royal Mail's Philatelic Bulletin, but I am not totally convinced that this will prove to be completely accurate.


In this post I re-publish the original information with the new details in blue.

Machines A2, A3 and A4 are public access machines; Machines B1 and B2 are used in the back-office at Stampex and Faststamps are sold over the counter on the Royal Mail stand.
Note where only two machines are in use, A4 is only listed for January at York, being replaced by A2 for all others.
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NOTE: We have no reason to believe that MA14 codes will appear early in the year, eg at Spring Stampex.  Bear in mind that the MA13 printings appeared only in the second part of the year it seems likely that the MA14 will not appear until the middle of this year.  (Of course the flowers stamps should have MA14 codes if any.)


2014
York 17 - 18 January
Reel A Flag, Reel B Machin in both A3 and A4 machines on both days

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Spring Stampex 19-22 February - contents the same on all 4 days

Machines A2 and A3 - A: Spring Blooms, B: Machin with additional inscription
Machine A4* - A: Union Flag;    B: Machin with additional inscription, 4 days
Machine B1 - Spring Blooms on both reels, all 4 days
Machine B2 - Machin with additional inscription on both reels, all 4 days.
* Bulletin shows this as A3 as well, which must be an error

UPDATE 16 January: Royal Mail have advised that the overprint will be

Stampex 2014

19-22 February

Machines: According to the Postagelabelsuk blog new 'Series B' machines will be in use in 2014, starting at Stampex.  These will be taller and have improved capabilities.  The datastring will be 

B2GB14 A001-0000-001

B indicating series B, and A001 being the machine number.  Machines A002, A003, and A004 will be the self-service machines at Stampex.

UPDATE 31 January:
The Union Flag stamp was not originally intended to be provided from the Back-Office machines (B1 & B2).  However as these machines are new, showing a new datastring, Royal Mail have made the Union Flag available from machine B2. 
I don't know whether this will be on all four days.

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Salisbury 14-15 March
A2 and A3 - A: Spring Blooms, B: Machin (no added inscription) on both days

Perth - 85th Scottish Congress 11 - 12 April
Machines A2 and A3:  A: Union Flag, B: Machin on both days
Added inscription on both stamps for the 85th Scottish Congress

York 18 - 19 July
Reel A Flag, Reel B Machin in both A2 and A3 machines on both days
UPDATE 10 June: Units A003 and A004 will be at York: the Union Flag and Machin stamps will have the new Euro 20g / World 10g printed on the 97p stamp.

Philakorea Seoul 7 - 12 August (Bulletin table shows only 'Day 1' and 'Day 2')
A2 and A3 - A: Flag, B: Machin on all days, with Philakorea 2014 inscription on both stamps.  GB versions of both will be available from Tallents House.
UPDATE 10 June: Units A003 and A004 and Jersey's J001 will be at Seoul.  See more here.

Autumn Stampex 17-20 September ('Flowers' = Symbolic Flowers, first day 17 Sept.)

Wednesday 17 September

Machine	Reel A	Reel B	Reel A	Reel B
A2	Flowers	Union Flag ≠	Flowers	≠ Union Flag
A3	Flowers	Union Flag *	Flowers	Union Flag *
A4	Union Flag ≠	Machin ≠	≠ Union Flag	≠ Machin
B1	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers
B2	Union Flag ≠	Machin *	≠ Union Flag	Machin *

≠ The original information indicates that the only Flag stamp with additional overprint will be available from a public-access machine (A3B), and the only Machin stamp with additional overprint will be from the back-office machine (B2B).  This is unchanged in the Bulletin.

If this is so there will be added pressure on the queues at the Royal Mail stand with customers requiring the overprinted Machin stamps.

Thursday 18 September

Machine	Reel A	Reel B	Reel A	Reel B
A2	Flowers	Union Flag *	Flowers	Union Flag *
A3	Flowers	Union Flag *	Flowers	Union Flag *
A4	Union Flag *	Machin	Union Flag *	Machin
B1	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers
B2	Union Flag *	Union Flag *	Union Flag *	Union Flag *

No overprinted Machins available from any machine, which seems odd as this is the day of the Seaside architecture new issue.  No unoverprinted Flags.

Friday 19 September

Machine	Reel A	Reel B	Reel A	Reel B
A2	Flowers	Union Flag *	Flowers	Union Flag *
A3	Flowers	Union Flag *	Flowers	Union Flag *
A4	Union Flag *	Machin	Union Flag *	Machin
B1	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers
B2	Union Flag *	Machin *	Union Flag *	Machin *

No unoverprinted Flags from any machine.

Saturday 20 September

Machine	Reel A	Reel B	Reel A	Reel B
A2	Flowers	Union Flag *	Flowers	Union Flag *
A3	Flowers	Union Flag *	Flowers	Union Flag *
A4	Union Flag *	Machin	Union Flag *	Machin
B1	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers	Flowers
B2	Union Flag *	Machin *	Union Flag *	Union Flag *

This updated information shows the Flag in B2B, meaning that there is no overprinted Machin stamp available from the public machines, only from the counter of the Royal Mail stand.  No unoverprinted Flags from any machine.

Stafford - 7 - 8 November (dates from organiser's website)

A2 - A: Winter Greenery, B: Machin on both days
A3 - A: Symbolic Flowers, B: Winter Greenery on both days

The Bulletin does not show a date for the Stafford Show.  As mentioned in a comment on the original post, the Winter Greenery stamps are due to be issued on 13 November, so should not be available at Stafford unless either the date of issue or the dates of the show are changed.

(Last September's blogpost is now closed for comments.)

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Post and Go Roadshow 2014

UPDATED 2 January 2014 in new post.  This post closed for comments.

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According to Brian on postagelabelsuk, Royal Mail announced during Autumn Stampex their intention to take the ‘Post and Go Roadshow’ to another international stamp exhibition ‘ PhilaKorea ‘ in 2014.

The international show, sponsored by Korea Post, takes place August 7th - 12th 2014. (6 Days) in the ‘COEX Hall’, Seoul.

A similar set-up to that used in Australia in 2013 is expected, along with a suitable overprint (including ’KR’ origin code).  Mirroring the 2013 Australian Stamp Expo, it is expected that ‘GB’ versions of the Post and Go stamps will be available from the Philatelic Bureau.

Well unless Tallents House make available faststamps with the KR code as well as the GB code I suspect there will be quite a shortage of the former.   Getting the Australian ones was relatively easy.  Getting them from Korea will be much more difficult.  I would suggest that collectors start finding pen/e-friends in Korea now!

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UPDATE 6 OCTOBER

Royal Mail have announced the following plan for the contents of Post and Go machines. Note that at Stampex the new stamps will now be issued on Day 1 (Wednesday) instead of Friday.  The plan is subject to change with additional shows, or changes to the contents of machines.

Stafford 8 - 9 November2013
A3 A Robin / A3 B Machin - A4 A Rivers / A4 B Robin on both days

2014
York 17 - 18 January
Reel A Flag, Reel B Machin in both A3 and A4 machines on both days

Spring Stampex 19-22 February
Machines A2 and A3 - Reel A Spring Blooms, Reel B Machin with additional inscription, 4 days
Machine A4 - Reel A Union Flag; Reel B Machin with additional inscription, 4 days
Machine B1 - Spring Blooms on both reels, all 4 days
Machine B2 - Machin with additional inscription on both reels, all 4 days

Sailsbury 14-15 March
A2 and A3 Reel A Spring Blooms, Reel B Machin (no added inscription) on both days

Perth - 85th Scottish Congress
11 - 12 April -  A2 and A3 Reel A Union Flag, Reel B Machin on both days
Added inscription on both stamps for the 85th Scottish Congress

York 18 - 19 July
A2 and A3:   Reel A Flag, Reel B Machin on both days

Philakorea Seoul 7 - 12 August
A2 and A3:   Reel A Flag, Reel B Machin on all days, with Philakorea 2014 inscription on both stamps.  GB versions of both will be available from Tallents House.

Autumn Stampex
Machines A2 and A3 - Reel A Symbolic Flowers, Reel B Flag with additional inscription ≠
Machine A4 - Reel A Flag with additional inscription ≠, Reel B Machin without.
Machine B1 - Symbolic Flowers on both reels
                All the above apply on all 4 days (but see ≠)

Machine B2 - Reel A Flag; Reel B Machin with additional inscription on day 1
Flag with additional inscription on both reels on days 2-4

≠ The information provided shows no additional inscription on day 1 on A2 reel B, A4 reel A - in other words, the Flag from A2B and from A4A will be without additional inscription.  However, as the table we have taken this data from shows the Machin with additional inscription is only available from machine B2/B on day 1, ie the Back Office machine on the Royal Mail stand and not the public-access machines, I'm not at all sure that this is accurate!

Stafford - 7 - 8 November (see comments: official issue date for Winter is 13 November)
A2 Reel A Winter Greenery, Reel B Machin on both days
A3 Reel A Symbolic Flowers, Reel B Winter Greenery on both days

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