An Office in Oxfordshire has been mis-supplied with ‘Welsh gold’ labels..

Further to earlier reports, I now have examples of Gold Horizon Machin Labels, issued in Kent in the BR5 postcode area, in error. Additionally, these are of the ‘Horizon Online’ type with narrorower lettering (see below)- of which there are only about 750 Post Offices currently upgraded.

It has been reported today that a distribution of the Gold Machin Horizon Labels has taken place outside of Wales!-to some Branches in Kent – Further details to follow- in the meanwhile-check with your local PO to get some before they are withdrawn..

It has now been confirmed that the First Day of use of the Gold Horizon Labels in Wales was yesterday, April 20th 2010.

 Some branches having received their stock yesterday and all others in Wales receiving it  today.

Shown below is a FDC produced yesterday ‘machined’ (sic) into an inch of its life by the Cardiff FCT.

Please contact me if you would like to purchase a similar cover.

As suggested  in this months Stamp Magazine, It is now understood that the De La Rue printed ‘Gold Machin’ postage labels, previously trialed at ‘Camden Town High Street Crown Office’ will shortly return to use at Post Office Counters ~ This time, initially at least, the distribution of the labels will be restricted to Post Offices in Wales.
This means the overprint that will appear on the labels will be bilingual, giving rise to new varients – as there is currently two styles of overprint in use – one from the original Horizon-enabled Post Offices and the other thinner printing style of Branches that have been upgraded to ‘Horizon Online’. A further complication is that some Branches in Wales produce a ‘English’ overprint.
Additionally, unlike the Camden trial, their use will not be restricted to ‘Special Delivery’ mail and all classes of mail that currently receives a Postage Label will be eligible for a new ‘gold’ label.
UPDATED ~The distribution of the labels will commence from April 19th 2010 , giving a potential First Day of Issue of around the 20th-21st April – but no official First Day facilities will be offered by Royal Mail or the Post Office – but please contact me if you would like to buy any covers.  The labels are from a different print run than that used as Camden Town, but it remains to be see if there are any visual differences!

The distribution will be phased, meaning that branches will receive labels on different dates – there is no instruction to use them over the existing white labels so they will appear randomly.  Watch this space!

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One of the rarest of the current Horizon Postage Label Identifiers is ‘RPR’  – This is only ever used for items being returned under a “Packet Post Returns” Licence where exceptionally the sender has requested the ‘Recorded Signed For’ service – so the label only has a fixed value of 75p (74p from 5/4/10).  The other oddity of note is that this service results in the item having two barcodes affixed- one for the Packet Post Return Licence service and one for the Recorded Signed-For service.

The full list of Wincor-Nixdorf Proposal Kiosks currently in use in the UK, along with branch addresses and their go-live date is now shown here:-

http://postagelabelsuk.com/?page_id=497

This week, the Post office have commenced its roll-out of its latest  software upgrade  (Known as “Horizon Online“). This will result in the appearance of all items printed in a Post Office changing slightly in appearance, which obviously includes Clerk-printed postage labels.

The noticeable features of the new labels include thinner lettering and the removal of the final digit  showing the  batch number indicator. (transaction counter).

“Post Office Ltd told us that the Horizon technology is being upgraded in a project called ‘Horizon Online’, which it expects to produce a fully automated system…”

Obviously once this upgrade is complete, the current series of Horizon Postage labels is expected to become obsolete-So fill those gaps now!

A seller on Ebay has been selling Mint Gold Horizon Machin Labels , without apparently knowing what they are!

And at £10.49 for a pair appear to be VERY cheap! (Given that used ones on cover have fetched £40-£50) . However unused sheetlets should not be available…

These should only appear in a used state, affixed to items and for the Special Delivery Trial only that took place in High Street, Camden Town last year.

So where did these come from? – The seller has sold multiples of these..

UPDATE:- Further Mint labels have been listed here by a different seller.