So what was available from Spring Stampex 2012?
I have had many messages regarding what was available from Spring Stampex 2012. Certainly the Royal Mail stand appeared to be doing a brisk trade in Postage Labels from the now ‘standard’ configuration of two self-service machines (Back in their ‘February’ configuration of Nos.21 and 22) and two ‘back office’ machines (Nos 23 and 24).
Wednesday started off with the left hand self service machine (No. 21) dispensing the ‘Diamond Jubilee’ overprint – and this continued until the close of the show uninterrupted. This was mirrored in the back office by machine (No.23) for the first day of the show.
The right hand self-service machine (No.22) was fitted with ‘Birds 4 ‘ stamps (as the current issue) until Friday where it was (as the first day of issue) replaced by the new ‘Farm Animals- series 1 – Sheep’ stamps.
Things in the back office where slightly different as due to the large demand for the Sheep stamps both back office machines had to be brought into service to print these and so the overprint was temporarily removed from machine No. 22 and used for ‘Collectors strips’ on Friday and Saturday. (It was re-introduced for a time on Friday and then removed again on Saturday)
Therefore Sheep stamps exist from machines 22, 23 and 24.
Diamond Jubilee stamps exist from machines 21 and 23 only
Birds 4 stamps exist from machines 22 and 24 only.
The back office machines produced collectors sets of 36 (6 x 6 ) or collectors strips of 6 for the Birds and Sheep issue or collectors strips of 6 for the Diamond Jubilee overprint.
The self service machines had been modified to prevent ‘pulling’ by some collectors/dealers to manufacture their own ‘varieties’- this appeared to be successful and although the odd ‘hiccup’ was noted where misprints did occur- those that did were ‘real’ !
Any questions ? As usual -please contact me at postagelabelsuk@gmx.com
Mach |
Wed 22nd Feb 2012 |
Thu 23rd Feb 2012 |
Fri 24th Feb 2012 |
Sat 25th Feb 2012 |
21 |
Machin |
Machin |
Machin |
Machin |
22 |
Birds 4 |
Birds 4 |
Sheep |
Sheep |
23 |
Machin |
Machin + Sheep |
Machin |
Machin + Sheep |
24 |
Birds 4 |
Sheep |
Sheep |
Sheep |
Sheep stamps were printed in advance of First Day to ensure dealers pre-orders
were ready on first day- in these cases the receipts will show the FDOI.