Rather suprisingly an ‘unoffical’ overprint of ‘2nd Class Large’ Machins bearing a  Stampex back office code line has appeared as if they originated from the Royal Mail machines at the Salisbury stamp show. However no back office facilities were provided at Salisbury and so really must be viewed as a ‘Private overprint’ produced elsewhere.

As can be seen from the image the ‘overprint’ -‘ Salsibury Stamp Show 2013’ is rather crude and appears to wander from  left to right and up and down between the stamps.

Does anyone have any further information on these ? Email Brian  Postagelabelsuk@gmx.com . This seems a rather worrying development from a collectors point of view.

Today, 15th March and tomorrow  Saturday 16th March, the Salisbury Stamp show will be taking place at the Five Rivers Leisure Centre, Hulse Rd, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1 3NR.

As part of  Royal Mail’s Post and Go Tour 2013 two Post and Go machines  vending Post and Go ‘Machin’ and ‘Union Flag’ stamps along with   ‘Post and Go Instant Smilers’ .

The Post and Go stamp offer- the same from machines A3 and A4  – is Machin and Union Flag and aligning with Royal Mails recently published policy, no special overprint is being provided for these smaller provincial stamp fairs.

As with this years Spring Stampex the smiler sheet available includes a ‘venue specific’ image in ‘position 1’  and a choice of either an image taken on an ipad in the venue (A gold postbox is supplied for this purpose)  or some pre-prepared generic images.

Royal Mail have just issued the detail of the Tariff changes for 2nd April 2013.

The headlines are that 1st and 2nd Class basic rates do not change- either Letter or Large Letter varities.

Some international rates (e.g. 40g ww) reduce.

This should result in three new machins and some updated ones

From a Post and Go point of view the cost of a collectors strip (That we all love) is unchanged.

Current Price       Price from 2nd April

1st class                            60p                                60p

1st Class Large               90p                                90p

Europe 20g                     87p                                 88p

Worldwide 10g              87p                                 88p

Worldwide 20g             £1.28                             £1.28

Worldwide 40g             £1.90                             £1.88

————                     ————

Total for strip                £6.42                            £6.42

So- carry on collecting Post and Go!

At Spring Stampex 2013 , the continuing development of the Post and Go machines became very evident. Not only were the Post and Go machines for the first time located away from Royal Mail’s main stand, the offering of Instant Smilers via the Post and Go machines signals the ‘independence’ of the Post and Go machines –  ready for the “Post and Go Tour 2013.”

The first in the ‘Tour Series’ of  ‘Red White and Blue’ smiler sheet  includes a ‘venue specific’ image in ‘position 1’  (expected to change at each venue) and a choice of either an image taken on an ipad in the venue (for example in  of the gold postbox ) or a choice of pre-prepared generic images – the image shown depicts the ‘Post and Go’ generic choice.

It has been reported to me that there two versions of the ‘Diamond Jubilee’ Overprint exist. The first a ‘Standard Version’ where the two lines of the overprint are both left aligned – Shown in the top image and a second,  much rarer ‘inset’ version, shown in the bottom image where the 2nd ‘Date’ line ‘1952-2002’  is inset to the right by one character space.

This Inset version has so far been reported from both “Back Office” machines – B1 and B2. It is believed this variation was introduced where the overprint is added and removed between prints of Cattle and Flags.  Reports of ‘Inset’ session numbers welcome. All those so far reported from B1 have had receipt dated on the afternoon of the 28th September 2012- so check yours!

http://www.stampshows.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=5

With thanks to John McCallum via http://pmechuk.blogspot.co.uk/and a correspondent from Australia, the first DIY Post and Go stamps have been reported.

These are likely to have originated from someone who has illegally obtained ‘Blank’ (unprinted) Post and Go stamps and attempted to overprint them to look ‘real’. (although the Post Office in Devon appears to have accepted these as valid).

These are likely to be viewed very seriously by Royal Mail and I would expect an thorough investigation to be carried out with possible legal action for such a serious attempt at fraud.

Anyone with any further sightings of these items please email me at postagelabelsuk@gmx.com .

The BPMA have announced the successful go-live of the installation  of Machine A1 (Previoulsy seen at Spring Stampex this year ) in the foyer of Freeling House , Phoenix Place, London, WC1.

http://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/we-have-a-post-go-machine/

The machine was initially  loaded with ‘Xmas Robins’ and Machins. It is expected that the robins will be replaced by the Union Flag in January and then 2nd Class in February.

The overprint in use in both cases is ‘The B.P.M.A.’.

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.