Pictorial Faststamps: Sheep – 24 February 2012

We all know that the next set of Post and Go Pictorial Stamps will be “British Farm Animals” featuring sheep from around the UK  and will be the first in a series of three issues that will explore some of the many traditional breeds of sheep, cattle and pigs to be found on farms in the UK.

But, as a dramatic departure from the previous ‘Birds’ sets , where these items sold directly from Talents House would have been press-printed in Gravure (and a have very distinct print appearance) Royal Mail have confirmed that, for this issue at least, the ‘set’ stamps and those used on Royal Mail produced FDCs will be printed by Hytech.

The ‘set’ pack containing six 1st class stamps has been redesigned (rotated through 90 degrees) to take the new, but now familiar Hytech  ‘strip of six’ as seen at the last two Stampex shows.

And the good news is that there is no premium for this pack and so it can be pre-ordered at the face value of £2.76 (6 x 1st Class) – a sure sell-out item?

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..

The second set of Faststamps depicting British garden birds was issued on 24th January 2011, one of three sets to be issued this year.  There is two versions – one printed by the kiosk at 31 selected Post Offices across the UK and another press-printed version from the Philatelic Bureau at Tallents House, available in a presentation card.

The labels can be obtained with 5 different service indicators: 1st class & 1st class Large up to 100gr, Europe up to 20gr, Worldwide up to 10gr and 20gr,  singly or in strips of up to 5 of the same value or various values. Thus there are 30 different value/design combinations in total.

Note the Birds Of Britain 2 set was only available on the first day of issue fom Ludgate Circus Branch.

For the machine printed versions, we supply a strip of five different values plus an additional sixth stamp with a extra 1st class faststamp printed by the machine in a particular location.

The presentation card consists of 6 machine printed ‘1st’  Faststamps.

Postage is FREE to all worldwide destinations~ We ship anywhere!

This issue shows (In the order that they are printed on the machine-vended strip):- Collared dove,  Greenfinch , Blackbird,  Magpie, Long-tailed Tit  and Chaffinch.

The stamps are available in two different versions :-Firstly as as a sheet of six different stamps all with ‘1st Class’ press- printed directly from Royal Mail in Edinburgh and secondly, the ‘real’ machine printed  versions (available from

31 different outlets

) with five different overprints.

The Machine printed versions are cut every fifth stamp. The third set of British birds is scheduled for issue in May and the fourth in September 2011 .

The image shows the set of six, with Ludgate Circus self-service facility kiosk No.4 overprint, which was available for the first day of issue only.

To purchase these stamps from our ATM Shop click here:-  https://postagelabelsuk.com/?page_id=929

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.