The BPMA – 80th Anniversary of Inland Airmail -1st Class on 2nd Class Reel ERROR

New Error

As part of this and subsequent software modifications a further ‘incorrect’ setting arose – known as a ‘Carousel error’- where incorrect stamps are added to the ‘Carousel’ that customers select to purchase their stamps. In this case those stamps that are added to the 2nd Class carousel in error (the 1st Class Letter and 1st Class Large Letter Stamps) meant that they were incorrectly dispensed from the 2nd Class reel – but all other purchases were unaffected. This meant that many collectors had visited the BMPA machine, purchased their Collectors Strips (which would have been printed normally) not noticing this error for the many days it had existed. It is known that a dealer from Germany and one from the Netherlands who purchased single stamps had not noticed the error until later as all of their collectors strips had been printed in the correct way on the correct reels . As this is not a ‘reel’ swap then only 1st class and 1st Class Large values exist printed in this way and ‘collectors Pairs’ of differing values cannot exist (as they would have been printed normally). So far only single stamps have appeared on Ebay although multiples of the same value could exist as well . http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/postagelabelsuk/

The upgrade to the smaller font to all Post and Go machines is complete, but some upgrades have been more successful than others, with some stubbornly refusing to change font. Shown is a example of Cambridge kiosk No.1 with ‘corrupted’ printing, which has been seen at Bristol and other locations.

This error came from the Harlow Post Office Post & Go machine, which had the Birds II stamps in it for ONLY FOUR DAYS  in February 2011!!

Harlow Post Office was a non Birds office at the time and should have only issued the standard Machin type faststamps!

However nearby Milton Keynes Post Office ran out of Post & Go Faststamps at the end of 2010 and Harlow PO let them borrow some of theirs.

When Milton Keynes eventually got new stock in it was all Birds II stamps and to repay Harlow, they sent them Birds II  instead of Machin type faststamps, which they put in their machine!!!

When Royal Mail discovered the mistake they instructed the staff at the PO to withdraw the Birds II stamps immediately and replace them with Machin type faststamps which they did on 23/02/11.

All machines have now been upgraded to the smaller font and Birds series 3 stamps.

UPDATE:- This unique set is available here

Whilst looking through some ‘Hytech’ vended Post and Go Stamps I have come across some where the security overprint does not cover the whole of the stamp~there is a discernible and noticable gap at the base of the stamp where the print does not reach the bottom of the stamp.   Upon checking with other dealers they have noticed the same on a handful of stamps purchased at Spring Stampex 2011  and have confirmed that at least one whole strip of five with this error on each stamp exists.

A contributor to this site has reported a nice ‘Miscut’ variety from the Finchley, London  Post&Go Machine, along with the receipt that is generated when the machine detects such an error. Nice One!

The receipt reads “We apologise some items could not be printed, Please present this part of receipt to a member of staff for assistance”.