Following on from their introduction at Europhilex 2015, the latest design of Horizon Postage Label has now been seen in day to day use in operational (not event) Post Offices.
The example shown is from Moorgate Post Office a few days prior to relocation of that office.
At Europhilex 2015, as is usual with International Exhibitions in London, as well as the usual Royal Mail ‘Philatelic’ offering, an operational Post Office was established on the gallery.
As part of this and similar to London 2010 where the now widespread ‘Gold’ Horizon had its ‘First Day’ , Post Office Ltd introduced the latest updated design of Postage Label, with reduced size Queens Head (to allow for more information to be printed) and change to a colour more reminiscent of ‘2000’ Machin stamps.
The first day of use (and therefore introduction of the base label) was 13th May 2015. This is believed to be followed by a limited use in selected branches in the following weeks.
As can be seen, as well as the change of colour, the design features a reduced size Queens Head (Previously announced by Royal Mail at the BPMA Friends Open Day at Debden a year ago on 17th May 2014) and a ‘precancel’ to serve as a reminder that items bearing labels cannot be reused, even though they are not routinely postmarked or cancelled.
The increased ‘white space’ is understood to be made available for a future change in the overprint itself.
New NVI and OV stamps plus a Horizon label
Monday 30th March 2015 – ‘Tariff Day’ , the day that Royal Mail change their prices. Some up and some down -including some significant drops in the Medium Parcel rates and penny or increases so most other rates.
One of the main changes to interest to collectors is related to the introduction of a new international ‘Large Letter’ size and related increases to the international weight bands for Letters.
But what does this mean to collectors of Postagelabels and Post and Go Stamps ?
With the demise of the Wincor-Nixdorf Post and Go we are left with the NCR units in the Post Office network plus the IAR units in Royal Mail operational and fixed ‘Philatelic’ locations.
NCR and IAR NVI Stamps
These have been updated to include the two new “100g Letter’ stamps for the new weight bands (replacing the previous 60g step). The collectors set has been updated accordingly.
NCR OV Stamps
To reflect the introduction of the new International Large Letter size, new Large Letter text has been added to create new OV stamps as applicable.
These appear with a ‘LgLetter’ description and are available in the A, IS, IT and ITS versions.
Our catalogue has been updated accordingly. Please ask for a copy.
Horizon Labels
One Horizon label has been updated. For details of this change watch this space.
On 2nd April 2013 a new system of “Size Based Pricing” was introduced by Royal Mail. This resulted in the introduction of two new sizes and so new Horizon indicators – ‘Small Parcel” (1SP 2SP) and “Medium Parcel” (1MP 2MP) were introduced which replaced the ‘Packet’ Size (Both of which are available as either 1st or 2nd Class). In addition the ‘Standard Parcel” (SP) service was withdrawn.
As the size based proces also applies to British Forces numbered destinations via the BFPO corresponding indicators of BSP and BMP were also introduced.
As we enter Advent the Hytech machines at Camden Pop-Up shop have a updated ‘Date identifier’ – with the Text String ‘rolling over’ to ‘ADGB12’ on the 1st of December.
See post below for detail of the Hytech ‘Next generation’ Text String. Originally the Text String was ANGB12 and now is ADGB12. This means the MA12 Hytech Christmas Robins with a ANGB12 identifier are now obsolete.
The first ADGB12 Session number for A3 was 226 and A4 was 225.
On Monday 29th September 2011, two new ‘accounting codes’ were added to the existing printed overprint applied at the time of posting to the Horizon label.
There are 33 different “Royal Mail” codes and 4 different ‘Parcelforce’ codes- the table below shows the different codes that apply to each Label Identifier.
The ‘RM/PF ‘ Code maps to the Indicia- The ‘PPUK ‘Code maps to the VAT Rate.
How do I work out what VAT is applicable to my item?
The applicable VAT rate for a particular postal item is determined by its destination.
For items being sent inland or within the EU then most items are ‘Exempt’ –
However, some Premium services are Standard Rate -e.g.-Special Delivery Next Day where
any ‘Add-ons’ are applied (Such as Saturday Guarantee) plus Airsure and Parcelforce “Express” services.
Outside of the EU then items are ‘Zero’ rated (including the Channel Islands).
Example codes:-
Special Delivery’ – Next Day would be ‘y4’,
Next Day with Sat G’tee is ‘y6’ and
SD to Channel Islands is ‘y5’
Please do not copy this information without attributing the source – Copyright Postagelabelsuk.com 2011
A change to the Horizon postage labels has taken place today, which has resulted in some additional codes being added to the overprint, to be used for Post Office internal accounting purposes for example it will be possible to identify which product a ‘SD’ label refers to – SD by 9, SD next day, SD to Channels Islands etc, as each different type will have a specific code added.
The two additional characters have been added at the end of the ‘Postage PaidUK’ and ‘Royal Mail’ or ‘Parcelforce’ lines. An image will added as soon as possible.
In a widely expected change and to simplify the transaction, on Monday 18th April the Gold Machin Label identifiers ‘MOR’ and ‘RPR’ were discontinued. A new identifier ‘RSF’ was introduced for circumstances where a ‘Home Shopping Return’ requires a ‘Recorded Signed For’ add-on. This means that a max value of 77p is possible.
For a full and updated list of current and past Horizon label identifiers see :-
We have now received the First Day Covers back from the handstamping centre from last weeks Stampex trial of Hytechs Postalvision equipment, which produces slightly different versions of the Machin Post and Go Stamp (detailed below) . These are available for purchase in our ATM shop as well as via Ebay.
The Trial of Hytech “Postalvision” Post and Go kiosks is currently in full swing at the Spring Stampex in London. On the first and second days the two machines did brisk business with collectors keen to obtain examples of the unique Machin strips that were available.
The Hytech machines use the familar Machin head Post and Go stamps, vending the ‘collectors strip’ of 5 values similar to the Wincor-Nixdorf kiosks but the machine IDs are two digit (instead of single digit ) –
machines 21 and 22 are in use.
Examples are available for sale via our Ebay shop or using our ATM shop.
Postage Labels of the UK-The Modern Collecting Alternative
