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.

This blog is all about Postage Labels in the UK- from the first steps in 1984 to the plans in 2008/9 to roll out 700 Nixdorf machines that will include the facility to post letters and packets and dispense the first real ‘Postage Labels’ the UK Post Office has issued since 1984.

I am also including the steps taken to reach this point, including the different types of ‘Horizon’ Labels, the ‘Weigh and Vend’ experiment of 2004 and the close cousins ‘Smartstamps’ .. with which, as  you will discover in the not too distant future, a significant amount of convergence will take place..