It is with a certain amount of sadness I report that Wincor Post & Go machines are no more in UK Post Offices.

The final curtain fell at a few minutes after 4pm this afternoon where the final operational unit at the Post Office situated in the Swiss Cottage WHSmiths (London NW3) was finally taken out of service .

Yes there is a updated , more modern NCR  kid on the block , but there will always be a certain fondness for the first nationwide “toe in the water” for self service mail in the uk – the Wincor Nixdorf propostal .

What many collectors don’t realise is that this is also the end of “post and go” for the Post Office as the new NCR units are not Post and Go machines – the thinking being that they offer much more than “just post” . They are named “self service kiosk” ( or SSK)  units and so the signage around offices that have never had a a WIncor unit will not mention “post and Go”

The “Post and Go” terminology will live on however , but now will only apply to the stamps produced by Royal Mail .

Self service will never be quite the same again .

A surprise appearance of not one ,not two but three Wincor-Nixdorf printed MA13 Post and Stamps has occurred in the unique Self-service  branch- at Tudor Street, Ludgate Circus, London EC1.

The latest printings appear to have been installed in the last few days, a visit earlier this week has revealed.

It certainly is an interesting development and has provided the last variants of the MA13 Post and Go stamps in the operational ‘Wincor’ format.

Machine 1 – Christmas Robins MA13

Machine 2 – Union Flag MA13

Machine 3 -Machin MA13

On 21st May 2012, Royal Mail are due to issue an updated Post and Go stamp version of the Union Flag stamp originally issued in 2001  in honour of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

This will be available from Royal Mail in the usual ‘Pack’ format (at a bargain face value of 60p) as well as from the numerous Post and Go branches throughout the UK.

The Pack version and those applied to Royal Mail serviced First Day Covers have once again have had the text printed by Hytech in Holland.

Note:- Royal Mail have changed the background for this issue – to a much darker blue colour to improve the appearance of the printed stamps.

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Once ‘V2’ has been activated then the Post and Go machines will offer new products and services, including the facility to process Special Delivery, Recorded Signed For and Parcelforce Worldwide products both inland and overseas. They will also offer a ‘Retail Checkout’ function allowing for  the payment of packaging items such as Jiffy bags and packaging Tape etc via the Post & Go machine.

The new functionality will provide collectors with opportunities to add to their collections in the form of a new stamp , new labels and associated  receipts.

The only visible sign of this upgrade currently is the presence of a newly- fitted barcode scanner just above the Pin Pad in all machines in the network, (except those at Tudor Street as, being sited in an unmanned environment, they will not be offering a ‘Retail checkout’  facility).

Post and Go V2 is due to commence roll-out at the beginning of September to reach at least the ‘Birds’ network by the First Day of Issue of Birds 4 on 16th September.

Full information on the upgrades the  new labels and stamps will appear here as soon as known.

On the Post Office stand the various exhibits, including Identity and Information equipment were  pride of place, including a Post and Go machine with a previously unseen office code of ‘699010’, believed to be that of an internal ‘test’ machine. There were various teething problems with the kiosk on the first day (May 11th) and it was late on on the 2nd day (May 12th) before some stamps were forthcoming. A very limited number of covers dated 12th May 2011 (London EC3 Postmark) were serviced as shown. 

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.

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:-

Machin Head Post and Go stamps have been dispensed from Wincor-Nixdorf kiosks in the UK since 2008.
There are two versions of the print – one printed by the kiosk at Post Offices across the UK and another press-printed version of the original font set available from the Philatelic Bureau at Tallents House 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.
For those that are printed by machine there are two further versions of the oveprint- original and updated font (see below) , for these we supply a strip of the five different values currently available in a special ‘collectors strip’ and offer a choice of machine code (when available) and font.

LEFT- ORIGINAL FONT

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.

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