Many faststamp/ATM collectors took the opportunity to visit the various ‘upgraded’ Post and Go Locations  across central London today,  with impressive results. Firstly the Post and Go self-serve facility at Ludgate/Tudor Street provided an unannounced source of pictorial Faststamps having been provided by the Post Office for dealers to obtain large quantities of labels, without impacting other ‘usual’ customers (Ludgate has four Post and Go kiosks and so has capacity for such a facility).

However, much more spectacularly the ‘No 1 ‘ kiosk at the City Of London branch office provided an opportunity to obtain examples of labels where the software upgrade had not been applied successfully and even corrupted the overprint producing a stunning ‘missing  weight’ variant.

The first pictorial “faststamps” went live today at Stampex as well as 31 other Offices and proved to be very popular with collectors both old and new.

Yesterday (Sept 13th)  was the first day of sale for the much anticipated  new Gold Imperforate Horizon labels in Chesterfield.. A first day cover is shown ..

Today (8th September 2010) the Post Office commenced the software upgrade required to issue the new pictorial ‘Birds of Britain I’ Faststamps on17th September 2010

So far two branches in London have been  upgraded ;-

Ludgate Circus -(Machine 4 only) and 205 Old Street.

As a result of these changes the machine printed text changed font and moved to the left.

It is expected that all branches that will vend the new ‘Birds of Britain’ Faststamps will be upgraded between now and the Birds First Day of Issue.

Click here to buy a cover ..

 The Post Office have indicated that carrying on from last years successful roll-out of 

 Wincor Propostal kiosks, a further 50 units will be installed in a mixture of

new locations and additions kiosks in existing locations. 

The first six locations are listed below, with the full 50 installations expected

 to be completed by Christmas.

First Cover Sold for £47

contact me at postagelabelsuk@gmx.com

The ‘Type 2’ Gold Machin labels went live today, in a single branch trial at Old Street Crown Office in London.
These labels are as ‘Type 1’ (with psudeo-perforations) but with imperforate edges and rounded corners. It is believed that these have been issued in response to feedback regarding the ‘peelablity’ of the perforated labels. The next stage will their introduction at Chesterfield Branch Office, next week.

For each label shown there is/was a Welsh ‘Bilingual’ version available and two label overprint types- Thin and Thick lettering as well as two Machin gold label types (Original and the “August 10” type).

This makes 44 label overprints (22 English 22 Welsh)  in 2 print styles (Thick and Thin)  on 2 different gold Machin label types as well as the existing white labels whose stocks are currently being rundown ~ who said that ‘The modern collecting alternative’ of UK Postage Label collecting was boring, easy or without variation?..

Don’t forget, however, that many of these labels already have a limited lifespan of future availability- The original white labels are no longer available for Post Offices to order , the ‘Thick’ style (From the original Horizon software) overprint only has a matter of weeks left before it is completely removed – the first variant of the Machin gold label will be not replaced and rumors of plans (apparently)  to remove some of the ‘rarer’ indicators before Xmas ’10 have been circulated…So..fill those gaps now!