The upgrade to the smaller font to all Post and Go machines is complete, but some upgrades have been more successful than others, with some stubbornly refusing to change font. Shown is a example of Cambridge kiosk No.1 with ‘corrupted’ printing, which has been seen at Bristol and other locations.
This error came from the Harlow Post Office Post & Go machine, which had the Birds II stamps in it for ONLY FOUR DAYS in February 2011!!
Harlow Post Office was a non Birds office at the time and should have only issued the standard Machin type faststamps!
However nearby Milton Keynes Post Office ran out of Post & Go Faststamps at the end of 2010 and Harlow PO let them borrow some of theirs.
When Milton Keynes eventually got new stock in it was all Birds II stamps and to repay Harlow, they sent them Birds II instead of Machin type faststamps, which they put in their machine!!!
When Royal Mail discovered the mistake they instructed the staff at the PO to withdraw the Birds II stamps immediately and replace them with Machin type faststamps which they did on 23/02/11.
All machines have now been upgraded to the smaller font and Birds series 3 stamps.
UPDATE:- This unique set is available here
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 :-
Whilst looking through some ‘Hytech’ vended Post and Go Stamps I have come across some where the security overprint does not cover the whole of the stamp~there is a discernible and noticable gap at the base of the stamp where the print does not reach the bottom of the stamp. Upon checking with other dealers they have noticed the same on a handful of stamps purchased at Spring Stampex 2011 and have confirmed that at least one whole strip of five with this error on each stamp exists.
On April 1st 2011, The roll out of the ‘Type 2’ font commenced with the upgrade of Kiosks Nos. 1-3 at the Ludgate Circus ‘Tudor Street’ self-service facility. Shown is a last and first day cover showing the adjacent session numbers of the stamps vended either side of the upgrade. The upgrade have continued throughout this week, with those sites in London not already upgraded to the Type 2 receiving the new font.
Exclusive!- It has today been confirmed by Royal Mail that the Post and Go Birds 3 Faststamps to be issued on May 19th 2011 will be available from all Post Office branches equipped with Post and Go kiosks.
Our full list of kiosks is available here https://postagelabelsuk.com/?page_id=497
The third set depicts the birds that can be found on or close to Britain’s lakes, rivers and streams and are shown below:-
Farringdon Road, London Ec1 Post Office has just moved down towards Farringdon station. The new branch has been totally refurbished to the latest standard and includes a Post and Go Kiosk…
Upon enquiry with the staff it was confirmed that the kioks is the one orginally installed at Hastings Old Town Post Office but with a new branch code of 100003 and the counter reset- Note the font has not been upgraded to the new, condensed style.
We are offering for sale a mint strip of 5 , complete with relevent receipt.
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.
Royal Mail have indicated that as part of the ongoing development of Post & Go they are planning to trial a new machine at Stampex next week in place of the standard Wincor Post and Go machine.
The information provided states “The trial machine will not provide the usual self-service functionality and so will be operated by staff at the counter positions. It will only vend a full set of overprints on the Machin design stamps. The overprints have the same typeface as the Wincor offering and so will only appeal to specialist collectors. ”
RM have said that they may be able to offer the pictorial Birds 2 version as well depending on availability of a second machine and space constraints.
Information continues stating “We are trialling the machine with a view to installation in Tallents House to provide a more effective offering to the trade when larger quantities are required for new issues. Depending on the suitability of the machines they may also be installed in post offices at some point in the future but there is no planned installation programme to date.”
So a very interesting Stampex in store for postage label collectors- Watch this space for the latest new on these developments..
Postage Labels of the UK-The Modern Collecting Alternative
