Post and Go Faststamp Checklist now available

I am very pleased to report that the Post and Go Checklist is now available to examine online* or download.  A tremendous amount of work has gone into it and it is a worthy addition to your Philatelic Library!

After we produced the Machin Security Definitives Catalogue last year, several people asked about a similar list for Post and Go Faststamps.   I made it clear in October that this was not something I would undertake and invited interested parties to contact me about production and distribution of a new list.  As I wrote at the time, "There is a demand out there - who's up for it? "

I'm happy to say that Stuart Leigh has produced a comprehensive illustrated check-list in multiple parts with a section for each stamp set/design - so if you aren't interested in the Channel Islands, you don't have to download those parts.

Visit the postandgochecklist.yolasite.com website, click on 'CHECK LISTS' below the page title, and then choose the sections that you want.

Part of Title page (right) and sample pages on the machines, and on the Union Flag Faststamps (below).  Click on these images for larger versions.

* Depending on your browser settings you may be forced to download these pdf files, or you may be able to see them in your browser and then decided whether to download them.

Like our own Machin checklist, there may be errors or omissions in the Stuart's list despite the assistance of some well-known authorities on the subject so do use the contact form on the website, to help make sure this is the definitive reference material.

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Royal Mail competitor Whistl (TNT) suspends mail delivery.

Private postal business Whistl - formerly known as TNT - has suspended its door-to-door delivery service in London, Liverpool and Manchester and is consulting 2,000 workers on redundancy.

Whistl will continue to provide a service, but will revert back to using the Royal Mail for the "final mile".  Shares in Royal Mail rose 3.3% after the news was announced.

TNT Post UK launched its end-to-end delivery service in West London in April 2012, and by the end of 2014 had expanded within London and Manchester, as well as to Liverpool.  Under its new name, Whistl, it has been delivering to 2m households, around 7.4% of all UK households, compared to 4.1% in 2013.

But the news will probably be welcomed by London householders, companies and local authorities who have been using the service, as there have been many reports over the last year or so about mail being dumped in hedgerows instead of being delivered.

- BBC News, Sky News, Post and Parcel.


UPDATE 9 December 2015
Example of the whistl PPI (right), on a label stuck over the TNT PPI printed on the envelope.
 

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General Election slogan postmark in use last week?

My fertile imagination thought that this might happen, and I have been told by somebody in Royal Mail that there was a slogan postmark used last week in connection with the General Election.

It would have been used on 5th on 2nd class mail and 6th on 1st class mail - and this would have been after the Penny Black finished and before VE Day 70 was used!

Has anybody seen an example?  Please send pictures by email!

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"Post and Go" of a sort at Taipei show

As reported here, Royal Mail were not selling Post and Go Faststamps at the 30th Asian International Stamp Exhibition in Taipei in April, but International Security Printers did have a machine dispensing souvenir labels.

We can now show examples of these labels which - as it is the Chinese Year of the Goat - show Goat 'stamps' in the illustration, and have the additional printing:

Goat Label

27/04/2015
 

Of additional interest is the CARTOR caption on the goat, suggesting that these - and possibly our own Post and Go Faststamps - are printed not by Walsall in the UK as previously thought but by Cartor in France.

Maybe somebody can confirm which one of the International Security Printers factories actually prints for Royal Mail?

UPDATE 15 May.
Royal Mail have confirmed that although the labels advertise Cartor they were printed by the Walsall arm of ISP in gravure.  Cartor do not have the capacity to print reels.

UPDATE 18 May
Thanks to George Wu of Taipei for sending more pictures including photos of the machine.  George runs the Gulfmann ATM website, covering machine-vended postage stamps/labels from all over the world.

"France's Cartor Security Printing joined with British Royal Mail setting an exhibit booth at the 2015 Taipei Asian International Stampex from April 24 to 28, 2015.

 

"Cartor provided specially printed self-adhesive commemorative labels (no country name and denomination), and the Royal Mail’s Post & Go Series II machine was public demo during all the five days from April 24 to 28, 2015.

 

"It's a really new experience about the Post & Go system to all Taiwan philatelic collectors."

Many thanks George!

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Another Post and Go stamp error - system reset again?

As reported elsewhere the Royal Marines Museum, National Museum of the Royal Navy, and Fleet Air Arm Museums' Post and Go machines were reprogrammed to incorporate a new additional inscription from 8 May 2015.

V.E. Day 70

It barely needs saying now that as this was a Post and Go machine change involving the Royal Mail Series II machines, all did not go well.

For some reason the machine at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth reverted to the £7.42 set of labels which ceased to be dispensed on 30 March when postage rates increased and the 60 g weight steps were abolished and absorbed into the 100 g weight steps.

As Chris reports, "it was not until 13:56:12 Session 0522  that the correct rate and price was available. In the time before the change £1500 + worth of stamps were printed by collectors."

(Note that if these were used, the 60 g stamps would be valid for weights up to 100 g!)

The stamps from the Royal Marines Museum (RMM) and the Fleet Air Arm Museum (FAAM) did not have this fault.  It would have been especially surprising if the FAAM stamps had had this error as the machine did not operate under the previous tariff and never did dispense 60 g stamps!

Chris writes:

"Royal Mail really have to address this problem of the ongoing errors. It really is putting people off buying these stamps."

... and I can only agree.  Some people still think this is being done deliberately by Royal Mail or at their behest to create/maintain interest.  I don't think that's so.   Call me gullible, but my contact with Royal Mail about previous errors revealed their obvious displeasure at the numbers of errors occuring and their intention that the flow of mistakes should cease.  Well, the errors that have already been seen this year, show that somebody somewhere is not taking correct steps to ensure that the product is produced as advertised.

I attribute this to a system reset such as happened at Stampex when the Flowers stamps were dispensed with the wrong machine number and wrong details on the receipt.   But should it really be that difficult to get the software right?

When there is a change, the ability to print the previous details should be removed from the machine and from the system.  There should be no question that reverting to a default position creates stamps which Royal Mail does not want produced, which are obsolete, and which are an embarrassment to Royal Mail and add to the enrichment of the few people who can afford to travel to the machine location.

Collectors buying in the secondary market from dealers who have made the journey and bought many hundreds of strips, should be able to get what was intended to be produced, and not a higher-priced error, which the dealer may not even have noticed at the time of purchase (as happened with some of the other Stampex errors).

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More new Machin definitive stamps, and an updated 2015 list.

Four new counter sheet stamps are available from today, along with a further printing of the 2nd class.  

New in stock:

1st class dated 20/03/2015

2nd class Large dated 25/02/15

1st class Large dated 02/04/15

100g Special Delivery dated 07/04/15

An interesting 'error' has occurred on these Special Delivery stamps.  On some sheets the iridescent cylinder number is missing:

The new printing of the 2nd class counter sheet is dated 02/03/15

The list of 2015 issues so far, with Norvic catalogue numbers - 31 new stamps, all MA15 or M15L unless stated:

2911.5        2nd counter sheet
2911B.5     2nd business sheet
2931.5        2nd retail booklet

2913.5        2^nd Large counter sheet

2913B.5     2^nd Large business sheet (very few in stock at present)

2914.5        1^st counter sheet
2914B.5     1st business sheet

2916.5        1^st Large counter sheet

2936C.5     1st from mixed retail booklet (Alice in Wonderland or Comedy Greats)

2937.5        1st Large from retail booklet

2985.5        Special Delivery 100g
2991.5        1st Signed For
2992.5        1st Large Signed For

3001.5        1p counter sheet
3002.5        2p counter sheet
3005.5        5p counter sheet
3020.5        20p counter sheet
3101.5        £1 counter sheet

3133           £1.33 counter sheet
3152           £1.52 counter sheet
3225           £2.25 counter sheet
3245           £2.45 counter sheet
3315           £3.15 counter sheet
3330           £3.30 counter sheet

4001P.4      1p M14L from Inventive Britain Prestige Book

4001P.5      1p M15L from Great War 2015 Prestige Book
4002P.4      2p M14L from Inventive Britain Prestige Book

4005P.5      5p M15L from Great War 2015 Prestige Book
4081P.4      81p M14L from Inventive Britain Prestige Book
4097P.4      97p M14L from Inventive Britain Prestige Book

4133P.5      £1.33 M15L from Great War 2015 Prestige Book

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New Horizon Label at Temporary Post Office in London 2015 Europhilex Exhibitionn

As at London 2010, there will be an operational Post Office at the Europhilex Stamp Show in London, 13-16 May 2015.

This facility will accept mail, sell Postal Orders, Bureau de Change and cash withdrawals.  Of interest to collectors will be the new Horizon label, first mentioned in June 2014.   Two operational postmarks will be available, the self-inking date stamp 'Event Office Branch 3' and a 45mm rubber 'Stamp Show 2015' handstamp.  The rubber handstamp will have index 1 for items posted during each day and index 2 for items posted after the last collection of the day.

If anyone requires a reposting facility then items should be sent to:

Post Office Ltd
Model Office
Ground Floor
Finsbury Dials
20 Finsbury Street
LONDON
EC2Y 9AQ

Items must be received by Friday 15th May and will be reposted on the day of receipt.

Please specify handstamp required (SID or Rubber) - only priority items or items of format Large Letter and above are handstamped at Post Office counters.

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Penny Black Day - BPMA and other news.

On the anniversary of the official first day of use of the Penny Black, a number of opportunities are available.

Thanks to Chris N we can show the Post and Go Faststamps available from the British Postal Museum and Archive.

Also on sale today the 1d black / 2d blue gummed miniature sheet, which should be in most Post Office branches, the 6 x 1st class retail booklet which will be in fewer branches on the first day but should reach most of them after the London 2015 exhibition which it advertises is over, and a Generic Smilers sheet, which will be in even fewer PO branches. The generic sheet is the only source of the self-adhesive 2d blue.

And a slogan postmark being applied to letter post today, which will be a rare case of a stamp-related operational postmark being available on and announced in advance of the day of issue of the stamps, not only on these special stamps but also on the BPMA Faststamps.

There are also plenty of special handstamps which are on our website.

More new slogan postmarks - and website update.

Two new special slogan postmarks are in progress this week.   The first has already appeared but was not announced even in Royal Mail's press release; the second had been announced in a press release but will not appear until Tuesday or Wednesday next week!

A simple slogan to mark the 175th Anniversary of the Issue of the Penny Black; stated by Royal Mail to be running from 1 - 7 May we have evidence that it was used on 30 April, presumably for delivery on the anniversary date 1 May.  [Although many people recognise 6 May as the key date for the Penny Black, it was made available on 1 May 1840 but was only valid for use from 6 May.]

So here we have the 30.04.15 version from Preston Mail Centre (Lancashire and South Lakes), and 01.05.15 from Edinburgh MC.

Royal Mail is also using a special postmark to celebrate the birth of the royal princess, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who was born this morning.

The new arrival is the fourth in line to the throne and the Queen's fifth great-grandchild.

Royal Mail’s postmark will appear on millions of items of mail delivered nationwide on Tuesday 5^th May and will feature the copy ‘Congratulations TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their daughter’.

I don't know how much mail is cancelled on Sunday or holiday Monday: if this is to be applied to mail being delivered on Tuesday, then it must be applied to mail posted this morning, the last collections being made mostly by 12 noon.

UPDATE 5 May
From Royal Mail News on twitter:
Good news! We're extending our #RoyalBaby postmark for another day! Pop a letter in the post on Tuesday to celebrate the new #LittlePrincess

...which should ensure that more mail receives the postmark and more people get the chance to collect it if they wish.

Thanks to John E, I can show an example of a real 'Princess' slogan, from Gatwick Mail Centre 02.05.15:

John continues:
"The same slogan was due to be used again today {as mentioned above}, followed by the return of the Penny Black slogan tomorrow and a VE Day (70th Anniversary) slogan on Thursday 7th May!

UPDATE 8 May
As predicted, the VE Day slogan was used for items due to be delivered on Friday 8th May, so Peterborough MC used it on 6 May, having used the Penny Black again on 5 May, both on 2nd class mail.

Website update May stamp issues:

6 May - 175th Anniversary of the Penny Black, miniature sheet, retail booklet and Smilers Generic Sheet

13 May - Heraldic Beasts Post and Go Faststamps
             Europhilex Exhibition Sheet.

14 May - Centenary of World War I - set of 6 and prestige book.

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More new Machins... will we see all 2015 new values before the end of June!?

Today we have four more Machin pictures to show you, three from the World War I Prestige Book, and a new Business Sheet stamp.

These three are from the World War I PSB to be issued 14 May 2015.  The 1p (Norvic 4001P.5), 5p (4005P.5) and £1.33 (4133P.5):

These will be in our webshop soon.

Thanks to Melvyn D for permitting the use of this picture of 2913B.5, the 2nd Large Business Sheet coded MA15 - the printing date is 23/02/2015:

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