Stardate 280212
Faststamp/Post and Go Catalogue
Over the last few months, I have become more disappointed with the lack of decent information in catalogues and feel that some people may be using this lack as a way of making money. Therefore, I have made a start at trying to put together such a catalogue. I have a draft version at this time and have solicited comments from a few people. I hope to put it on line in due course with limited restriction on its use and republication.
Restrictions:
1 The copyright remains with me. Any publication must acknowledge "PMECHUK" as the originator.
2 Copies of the catalogue must not be sold without the originator's written permission.
I hope that collectors will make use of the catalogue when it appears. More details on the pmechuk website - just Google the name!.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Spring Stampex - Additional Material
Stardate 260212
I have spent some time today scanning the first batch of Stampex material with other material due early in the week.
On the first day of Stampex, kiosk 21 was the more popular of the two public area. The reason was the new Jubilee Machin Faststamp. Illustrated below is a Collector's strip of the six available values.
As with all new issues, I try to get a first day of each. The Jubilee Machin was treated no differently. The normal Stampex stamp cancel was used to cancel the covers.
To my mind, the Collector's strip seems to be another way for Royal Mail to milk the collector and, going by some of the eb*y listings/offers, some dealers are not adverse to obtaining their two pounds of flesh by inflating the price of the Faststamps. I prefer to just stick with the basic value (1st Class up to 100g) to represent the issue.
Kiosk 22 was vending the Bird 4 faststamps. These were similar to those issued at the Autumn 2011 Stampex. The difference was in the kiosk ident number "22".
First day of Birds 4 on kiosk 22.
A minor flaw was spotted on the 7th and 10th stamps of a batch bought about 1130am on the 22nd. Examples are illustrated below.
Kiosks 23 and 24 differed from those used by the public. They were desk top versions. Kiosk 23 sold the Jubilee Machins and kiosk 24 the Birds 4 an the 22nd and 23rd February.
Examples from kiosks 22 and 24 issued on the 22nd and 24th are illustrated below showing the birds and the sheep issues
Collectors of this material should also note that the presentation packs produced by Tallent's House with six of the first class stamps were available at the show. (Also from Tallent's House and Some Post Offices). The kiosk ident used was 02.
For those new to this field, the data string gives information on the office, kiosk, session and transaction within the session normally but for presentation packs the data string just gives dates and a kiosk ident.
The presentation pack examples above all have the string 002012 02-51840-05. 002012 is the year of issue, 02 is the kiosk ident, 51840 is May 1840 - the date of issue of the penny black and 05 is just a nominal transaction number.
For normal Wincor-Nixdorf equipped offices, a typical data string would be 015010 2-70961-01. In this instance 015010 is the office identifier (Trafalgar Square/William IV Street Office), 2 is the kiosk ident, 70961 is the session number (on 22/2/12) and the transaction number 01 within the session.
Stardate 260212
I have spent some time today scanning the first batch of Stampex material with other material due early in the week.
On the first day of Stampex, kiosk 21 was the more popular of the two public area. The reason was the new Jubilee Machin Faststamp. Illustrated below is a Collector's strip of the six available values.
As with all new issues, I try to get a first day of each. The Jubilee Machin was treated no differently. The normal Stampex stamp cancel was used to cancel the covers.
To my mind, the Collector's strip seems to be another way for Royal Mail to milk the collector and, going by some of the eb*y listings/offers, some dealers are not adverse to obtaining their two pounds of flesh by inflating the price of the Faststamps. I prefer to just stick with the basic value (1st Class up to 100g) to represent the issue.
Kiosk 22 was vending the Bird 4 faststamps. These were similar to those issued at the Autumn 2011 Stampex. The difference was in the kiosk ident number "22".
First day of Birds 4 on kiosk 22.
A minor flaw was spotted on the 7th and 10th stamps of a batch bought about 1130am on the 22nd. Examples are illustrated below.
Kiosks 23 and 24 differed from those used by the public. They were desk top versions. Kiosk 23 sold the Jubilee Machins and kiosk 24 the Birds 4 an the 22nd and 23rd February.
Examples from kiosks 22 and 24 issued on the 22nd and 24th are illustrated below showing the birds and the sheep issues
Collectors of this material should also note that the presentation packs produced by Tallent's House with six of the first class stamps were available at the show. (Also from Tallent's House and Some Post Offices). The kiosk ident used was 02.
For those new to this field, the data string gives information on the office, kiosk, session and transaction within the session normally but for presentation packs the data string just gives dates and a kiosk ident.
The presentation pack examples above all have the string 002012 02-51840-05. 002012 is the year of issue, 02 is the kiosk ident, 51840 is May 1840 - the date of issue of the penny black and 05 is just a nominal transaction number.
For normal Wincor-Nixdorf equipped offices, a typical data string would be 015010 2-70961-01. In this instance 015010 is the office identifier (Trafalgar Square/William IV Street Office), 2 is the kiosk ident, 70961 is the session number (on 22/2/12) and the transaction number 01 within the session.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Faststamps at Stampex
Star Date 250212 .... Just beamed down for a ....
This is my first attempt at generating a blog entry so I don't expect it to be too brilliant.
This week, I have managed to make two very brief visits to Spring Stampex at the Design Centre in Islington, London N1. Royal Mail had a stand at this show. What was of interest to me was the two new Hytec Faststamps that were advertised as being issued during the show - a silver jubilee issue and sheep. The former came out on the 22nd February and the latter on the 24th.
On the 22nd, I arrived about 20 minutes before the show was due to open. A small crowd had gathered waiting for the doors to open at 11.30. When they did, everyone headed in. My main aim was to get to the Hytec kiosk as quickly as possible. Unfortunately not quickly enough.
Everyone has heard the old jokes about the Germans putting towels on sun loungers at the side of the pool but when it comes to their dealers, they have a tendency to hog the kiosks until they have filled out their A4 shopping list of requirements using at least four different credit/debit cards. Well, this dealer hogged the kiosk vending Bird 4 faststamps and would not budge until he had all of his stock before moving on to the other public Hytec kiosk to obtain the same again but of the Silver Jubilee issue. In total he was on each kiosk for about 20-30 minutes with the queue getting even larger. What annoyed those waiting was that he indicated that he had more pre-ordered from the two kiosks in the back room.
The Hytec kiosks were the same ones as used at the Autumn Stampex 2011 but with one difference - a plastic cover was put over the slot to stop some people generating "varieties" by pulling the stamps during printing. Kiosk 22 is shown above with a close up of the cover below.
Kiosks 21 and 22 were for public use and kiosks 23 and 24 were "in the back" to meet dealer orders and over the counter sales.
Jubilee stamps were available on 21 and 23 throughout the show.
Birds 4 stamps were available on kiosks 22 and 24 on the first two days of the show.
Of interest was the 7th and 10th stamp from session 24. Only those two stamps from the batch bought had the lower half of the data string missing.
The receipts format was similar to that produced at the Autumn Stampex 2011 and was in two parts - one part listing the purchase and the second being a receipt for the card payment. I have illustrated the former part and do not intend to illustrate the latter.
The 24th February saw the rolls changed in kiosks 22 and 24 to the Sheep faststamps that were due for issue that day. Royal Mail also made available the presentation pack for this issue. The kiosk ident used in these packs is 02.
On this visit, I arrived at the Design Centre around 12.30 and it was a case of deja vu. The same dealer was on kiosk 22 filling yet another A4 list of requirements. Again, a queue was building but this time, the patience of some was getting strained. Comments were made to RM staff suggesting some sort of time limit should be put on machine usage to make it fair to both dealers and the public.
I hope to have scans of the material obtained at this show shortly and will include it in a future post.
I also visited the William IV Street/Trafalgar Square office (id 015010) on both dates to investigate the suggestion that there was to be an upgrade in the facilities at this office during February 2012. The date of the upgrade is now mid March and that there will be two additional kiosks bringing the total to six.
On the 22nd, Birds 4 were available on each machine and on the 24th, the Sheep issue was available from all four machines.
This is my first attempt at generating a blog entry so I don't expect it to be too brilliant.
This week, I have managed to make two very brief visits to Spring Stampex at the Design Centre in Islington, London N1. Royal Mail had a stand at this show. What was of interest to me was the two new Hytec Faststamps that were advertised as being issued during the show - a silver jubilee issue and sheep. The former came out on the 22nd February and the latter on the 24th.
On the 22nd, I arrived about 20 minutes before the show was due to open. A small crowd had gathered waiting for the doors to open at 11.30. When they did, everyone headed in. My main aim was to get to the Hytec kiosk as quickly as possible. Unfortunately not quickly enough.
Everyone has heard the old jokes about the Germans putting towels on sun loungers at the side of the pool but when it comes to their dealers, they have a tendency to hog the kiosks until they have filled out their A4 shopping list of requirements using at least four different credit/debit cards. Well, this dealer hogged the kiosk vending Bird 4 faststamps and would not budge until he had all of his stock before moving on to the other public Hytec kiosk to obtain the same again but of the Silver Jubilee issue. In total he was on each kiosk for about 20-30 minutes with the queue getting even larger. What annoyed those waiting was that he indicated that he had more pre-ordered from the two kiosks in the back room.
The Hytec kiosks were the same ones as used at the Autumn Stampex 2011 but with one difference - a plastic cover was put over the slot to stop some people generating "varieties" by pulling the stamps during printing. Kiosk 22 is shown above with a close up of the cover below.
Kiosks 21 and 22 were for public use and kiosks 23 and 24 were "in the back" to meet dealer orders and over the counter sales.
Birds 4 stamps were available on kiosks 22 and 24 on the first two days of the show.
Of interest was the 7th and 10th stamp from session 24. Only those two stamps from the batch bought had the lower half of the data string missing.
The receipts format was similar to that produced at the Autumn Stampex 2011 and was in two parts - one part listing the purchase and the second being a receipt for the card payment. I have illustrated the former part and do not intend to illustrate the latter.
The 24th February saw the rolls changed in kiosks 22 and 24 to the Sheep faststamps that were due for issue that day. Royal Mail also made available the presentation pack for this issue. The kiosk ident used in these packs is 02.
On this visit, I arrived at the Design Centre around 12.30 and it was a case of deja vu. The same dealer was on kiosk 22 filling yet another A4 list of requirements. Again, a queue was building but this time, the patience of some was getting strained. Comments were made to RM staff suggesting some sort of time limit should be put on machine usage to make it fair to both dealers and the public.
I hope to have scans of the material obtained at this show shortly and will include it in a future post.
I also visited the William IV Street/Trafalgar Square office (id 015010) on both dates to investigate the suggestion that there was to be an upgrade in the facilities at this office during February 2012. The date of the upgrade is now mid March and that there will be two additional kiosks bringing the total to six.
On the 22nd, Birds 4 were available on each machine and on the 24th, the Sheep issue was available from all four machines.
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