There is no end to some peoples ingenuity in ‘Manufacturing’ covers that should not actually exist. Here is a cover that appeared on Ebay , with the vendor suggesting someone actually producing it on the first day in Camden Town – but only Special Delivery items were processed on the first day ,suggesting the item has been backdated.

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.

A first day cover is shown.

First Day Cover from the First Day of Operation at Old Street (205)  Crown Office , London EC1

Continuing from the Gold Machin Horizon Trial Postage Label FDC that fetched £95.54 related items are continuing to break all records for prices realised at auction for ‘recent’ philatelic items- demonstrating  the enormous interest in ATM Philately items. Yesterday (18th July 2009) a ‘First Day Cover’ of the new ‘Smartstamp’ Style Post and Go label issued only on 30th June 2009  and with a face value of 30p realised £32.00!

Post & Go (Wincor/Nixdorf) New 'Smartstamp' Indicia Label on FDC

Similarly, a small selection of used Post and Go labels fetched £9.19 – a nice premium over face

Don’t forget many of these items are available from both my Ebay shop and my Blog Shop.

UK ATM Philately-The Modern Collecting Alternative!

Record Breaking UK Modern FDC! Camden Town Gold Machin Horizon Label

A limited number of First Day Covers were produced for the new Machin Head Horizon Labels

– If you wish to purchase FDC s or other items please visit my Online Shop or my Ebay pages.

UPDATE- RECORDING BREAKING COVER- The above cover and similar items have commended record-breaking prices when auctioned on Ebay..  The current record being £94.54 !

Commencing 8th June 2009, The UK Post Office commenced an hitherto unannounced trial of  a ‘Horizon label’  incorporating a Machin head. This new label, printed by De La Rue  was a gold label incorporating a new type of security slit design, described as ‘thumbnail’ .

The purpose of this trial was to establish the ‘usability’ of such labels in a busy operational environment  (Camden Town High St Crown Office, London NW1) with a view to a future rollout of the new design labels to further products (This initial trial was limited to all items posted by Royal Mail Special Delivery (Either the 1pm or 9am service) and to further branches.

There has only been a limited number of these labels printed and the branch will only be using these until supplies are exhausted- further labels will be printed dependant on the outcome of the trial and will not be necessarily of the same design.

A limited number of First Day Covers were produced – If you wish to purchase FDC s or other items please visit my Online Shop or my Ebay pages.

Post And Go Labels are getting so popular with collectors that the first forgeries of First Day Covers are now appearing on Ebay!

As can be seen from the image below – Labels with a very high session number of 7066, issued from the Galleries Machine  have been stamped with a Glasgow ’10′ Double Ring CDS of 8th October 2008.

But- 1) Only low numbers were issued in Bristol on that day and it was a few months before that session number was reached.

2) How did the cover travel from Bristol to Glasgow in the same day?

Glasgow '10' Faststamp First Day Cover Forgery 8 OC 08

Royal Mail  Security have been notified of the misuse/missappropriation of this handstamp- all covers with this datestamp should be viewed with suspicion.

Obviously a Forgery- produced with intent to deceive.