Frama
Stardate: 190312

I was flicking through some of the images that I have collected over the years. In 1984, I had to visit the south of England on business and realised that I was within striking distance of Southampton and the Shirley District Office. So I found myself with a handful of change in front of a closed post office hoping that I had enough to obtain a range of values from a live machine.

The building appeared as a 1960s style unit attached to a 1930s style unit as can be seen above. The arrow shows the position of the Frama machine in situ. The three photos show the machine with two different value plaques above the choice buttons. Below that is a close up of the cash display.

Most Framas sold were probably via special packs. Initially two packs were available - a small pack with the three values shown on the cover below and a larger pack with values for a halfpence to 16p. Later  16.5p and 17p values were added.

The kiosk was in operation for about a year between 1984-5.

The kiosk at Windsor produced the only major variety - white labels when a wrong roll was put into the machine. After withdrawal of the Framas, a machine appeared at the National Postal Museum. London. It also sold white Framas but of a different design and included the word "Specimen".