New Ink Jet Cancel for iLSMs

Stardate: 220612

Since the beginning of the year (2012), ink jet cancels have been used with intelligent letter sorting machines at a number of Royal Mail mail centres - see previous blogs. A new version has recently appeared at Exeter and now at Thames Valley (Swindon), Dorset and S.W. Hants and Jubilee Mail Centres. This version is very similar to that used by the IMPs - Integrated Mail Processors. 

I recently obtained examples of two of these cancels from iLSMs 3 and 7. These are illustrated below.

iLSM 3

iLSM 7

With the intoduction of "Branding" over the next few months, more new versions of these cancels are expected.

Request to all UK Wincor Faststamp/PAG Collectors

Stardate:100612
For the last two years, I have been trying to piece together the usage of the Wincor-Nixdorf Propostal 2000 kiosks throughout the UK with very variable results. Most of the data has been obtained from personal observations, reports from PMSC members, ebay and a few other contacts. The websites with my findings are listed in yesterday's blog.

I would welcome reports of usage for any and all kiosks throughout the country. Session numbers, date and faststamp available along with any additional data from the receipt are needed to build up the overall picture.

I would like to build up a series of pages giving what information is available. The basic layout would include the office id, postcode, number of kiosks, the address of the post office and the first date of use. This would be followed by what information I have on the usage at that office and then any pictures, etc associated with the office. A sample is given below.

020511	BS1 3XX
3 (initially 2)	The Galleries, Castle Gallery, Broadmead, Bristol, BS1 3XX.
8/10/08

First machines in service in the UK. Some kiosks converted for use to sell Bird pictorials on 17/9/10.  New font (font type 2) on Faststamps from 11/9/10. Third kiosk added late 2010. Date unknown (Dec2010?): Kiosk 2 at session 71326 and kiosk 3 at session 3824. Kiosk 2 printing normally with font 2 but kiosk 3 was printing a large gap between office id and transaction number. Upright of d plus e of “worldwide” on the pictorial area. 10/1/11 kiosk 3 at session 4654. 12/1/11 Machin faststamps on kiosk 1 and at session 73004. PO logo on receipt. 14/1/11 Kiosk 3 vending Machins font 2 at session 4996. Wide gap variety. No logo on receipt. 10/1/11 kiosk 3 at session 4654. 22/1/11 Kiosk 3 at session 5596. Worldwide faststamp using larger type (font 1) for “Up to 10g” while rest in font 2. Machin version in use. PO oval being printed on kiosk 3 receipts on 22/1/11. All kiosks used to sell second set of Bird pictorials on 24/1/11 Kiosk 1 at session 74188, kiosk 2 at session 73642 and kiosk 3 at 6045 on 26/1/11. Spacing error and 10g Worldwide in bold on kiosk 3. Spelling error on receipt “Broamead”. 2/2/11 Kiosk 3 vending Birds 2 font 2 at session 6806. Wide gap variety. No logo on receipt. 7/2/11 Kiosk 3 vending Birds 2 font 1/2 at session 6986. Wide gap variety. No logo on receipt. 12/2/11 Kiosk 3 vending Birds 2 font 1/2 at session 7438. Wide gap variety. No logo on receipt 16/2/11 Kiosk 3 at session 7683. 20/7/11  Kiosk 1 vending Birds 3 font 2 at session 8559. PO oval on receipt. 15/2/12 PO oval logo on receipts from all 3 kiosks. Kiosks 1 and 3 vending Birds4 while Kiosk 2 vending Machin. Kiosk 1 at sessions 1212-3, kiosk 2 at sessions 846-7 and kiosk 3 at sessions 31396-7. Strong suggestion that kiosks 1 and 2 have recently been re-set.

For most offices, I have only one or two bits of information whereas for a handful I have enough to show trends in usage.

If you can fill in any information of usage at any office, either comment below or email me at pmechuk@gmail.com.

Attack of the Biro

Stardate: 090612

Two more covers from my “massive” mailshot have just dropped through the letterbox. Two envelopes with the Three Crosses, Swansea first day cancel. The envelopes were stamped and posted in Exeter by a member of staff at the Bedford Street Branch on my behalf. My thanks to the manager and staff there and at the other offices who have responded to my mailshot request.

The receipts have the PO oval that has been adopted as standard since the V2 software update. The address has a minor variation from the normal. The first line has the street name in lower case. The rest is in normal upper and lower case. The postcode has no gap between the outward and inward parts of the postcode. The data is presented below in the same format as the tables in previous blogs

EX1

021519

Exeter

21/5/12

K1 84953 Flag K2 -------- K3 --------

Kiosk 1: First line of address in lower case on receipt. Rest as normal. No space in the postcode

The big problem with the envelopes occurred downstream from the post office and the special handstamp centre. It probably happened in the “last mile”. Someone attacked the faststamps with a biro!!!!

Royal Mail – You do a great job and you have some wonderful staff but it is a pity that one or two let you down. Unfortunately, that happens in many organisations – a lot of work and excellent service by the many is let down by the odd one.

Under normal circumstances, this would not be a problem. Most people would discard the envelope as its contents would be the most relevant part of the item. For stamp collectors, the stamp and/or the envelope are important. With normal first day covers, one can return the cover and get a replacement. Normal stamps do not have an indication as to when they were sold printed on them but faststamps do. A replacement from this office and kiosk would have a session number in the order of 86000 plus given that more than two weeks have since passed since the day of release whereas I would estimate genuine first day items from this office to have session numbers in the approximate range 84900 to 85000.

I started a number of websites to document the usage of these Wincor-Nixdorf kiosks and to try to assist collectors determine the validity of the items that they are being offered. These websites are:

https://sites.google.com/site/pmechuk

https://sites.google.com/site/pmechuk1

https://sites.google.com/site/pmechuk2

https://sites.google.com/site/wincoralbum1

https://sites.google.com/site/wincoralbum2

If you can help by filling in the large gaps in data on each kiosk that has been used, either leave a comment on this blog site or email me at pmechuk@gmail.com.

Brent Park Post Office - Tesco

Stardate: 030612

A comment left on the Norphil blog site indicated a previously unknown (by me) kiosk at Brent Park, London NW10. I made a visit to this office on the 2^nd of June 2012 to investigate. The post office is in a Tesco not far from Neasden underground station (if you know the area) or a long walk and a bus ride if you don’t! The office has one kiosk but it was out of order on this date.

Kiosk in situ at Brent Park Tesco

Normal kiosk at the Blackfriars Office in Central London

If you look above the keyboard in the Brent Park photo, the coin slot is missing. I am only aware of four kiosks that did not have coin or banknote payment facilities. These were at Tudor Street, London, EC4Y. However, sometime between June 2011 and 13 December 2011, kiosk 4 was removed from this location. A photo of the kiosk at Blackfriars is included for comparison.

The kiosk at Brent Park Tesco has a “4” stuck to it, no coin slot and no banknote reader and, therefore, I suspect that it may be the missing fourth kiosk from Tudor Street. Can anyone confirm that this is the ex Tudor Street kiosk?

Since the Brent Park kiosk was out of order, I can not give the identification number for this location.

Wincor Survey Results

Stardate: 030612

It has been about two weeks since the flag issue’s release and what has come back has dried up. Twelve out of thirty-nine offices targeted in the mailshot failed to return anything for some unknown reason. In some instances, it may be that the request and/or payment failed to get through because it went missing in the sorting office. One item from this mailing is known to have arrived at the destination complete except for the payment which went missing en route.

Other previous mailings have also disappeared with payment. All were processed at the same outward mail centre. I can only guess what happened to the missing correspondence.

Unless otherwise indicated font 2 were in use in all of the kiosks reported.

		MAILSHOT
Post code	PO id	Location	Date on Receipt	Kiosk/ Session/ Issue	Notes
AB11	002801	Aberdeen	21/5/12	K1 19550 Flag
B91	017246	Solihull	21/5/12	K1 74479 Flag K2 61602 Flag
B98	009246	Redditch		K1	No return by 2/6/12
BA1	015504	Bath	22/5/12	K1 8118 Flag K2 45210 Flag	Kiosk 1 address made up of both upper and lower case lettering. Kiosk2 address in lowercase. Has “city of bath”  as top line of address.
BA20	010925	Yeovil	21/5/12	K1 ------- K2 50035 Flag
BN21	017907	Eastbourne	21/5/12	K1 10017 Flag K2 -------	Kiosk 1 address in lower case on receipt.
CO1	010116	Colchester	24/5/12	K1 46964 Flag K2	21/5/12 Receipts not printing. 24/5/12 NORTH HILL in block lettering on receipt.
DA1	002104	Dartford	28/5/12	K1 25033 Flag K2 28186 Flag	Original mailing arrived at this office (18/5/12) without payment – went missing en route. Replacement posted on 21/5/12. Problems with kiosks during the week 21-28/5/12.
DH3	003313	Chester-le-St	21/5/12	K1 15457
DN31	012311	Grimsby		K1 K2	No return by 2/6/12
EH1	003824	Edinburgh		K1 K2	No return by 2/6/12
EX1	021519	Exeter	See Blog of 9/6/12	K1 K2 K3	No return by 2/6/12 See Blog of 9/6/12
EX8	011519	Exmouth	21/5/12	K1  5142 Flag	Address in lower case on receipt. No space in the postcode.
G2	002832	Glasgow	21/5/12	K1  77736 K2  83821-83861 Flag K3  77287	Only examples of K2 returned but receipts from all three kiosks sent.
HR1	008618	Hereford	21/5/12	K1 62300 Flag K2 71249 Flag
IP1	014130	Ipswich	21/5/12	K1 1421 Flag	Address has the town in block capitals - IPSWICH
IP33	004112	Bury St Edmunds	21/5/12	K1  53613 Flag	No spacing in the address on the receipts.
LU1	006134	Luton	21/5/12	K1 69169 Flag K2 63379 Flag	Kiosk 1 had the address in full and in lower case. “=” used between smiths=lane and no gap in postcode. Kiosk2 in block lettering and consisted of ARNDALE 42SMITHLANEMALL.
M2 5	009422	Brazennose St Manchester		K1 K2	No return by 2/6/12
ME10	007941	Sittingbourne		K1	No return by 2/6/12
ME13	010941	Faversham	21/5/12	K1 11522 Flag
MK9	009109	Milton Keynes	21/5/12	K1 13627 Flag K2 16249 Flag	Kiosk 1 has both upper and lower case lettering. Kiosk 2 has the address in block capitals.
NE33	021329	South Shields	21/5/12	K1 3605 Flag K2 30567 Flag
NG1	007227	Nottingham		K1 K2	No return by 2/6/12
OX1	014137	Oxford	21/5/12	K1 5983 Flag K2 5101 Flag	Address on the receipts from both kiosks in lower case. No space in postcode.
PE21	003202	Boston	21/5/12	K1 16322 Flag
PO6	003937	Portsmouth	21/5/12	K1 17520 Flag	Receipts using Ł instead of £
PO16	014937	Fareham	21/5/12	K1 43789 Flag K2 44158 Flag
PR9	005427	Southport		K1	No return by 2/6/12
RH10	007912	Crawley	21/5/12	K1 24519 Flag
RH12	003912	Horsham		K1 K2	No return by 2/6/12
RH16	005912	Haywards Heath		K1 K2	No return by 2/6/12
S40	011340	Chesterfield	21/5/12	K1 57145 Flag K2 66780 Flag
SL6	005946	Maidenhead	29/5/12	K1   ------- K2 39229-20353 Flag
SR1	005343	Sunderland	21/5/12	K1  321 Flag K2  3060 Flag
SS1	009140	Southend on Sea	21/5/12	K1 37066 Flag K2 54136 Flag
TN13	004948	Sevenoaks		K1	No return by 2/6/12
TN23	010925	Ashford		K1	No return by 2/6/12
YO1	005349	York	21/5/12	K1 84330 Flag K2 71859 -71879 Flag
		Visited	on	21/5/12
WC2N	015010	William IV	21/5/12	K1  87328 Pigs K2  79730 Pigs K3  81471 Flag K4  80572 Flag	Only two kiosks had the flag issue – kiosks 3 and 4. The other two were vending the pig issue.
WC2B	008010	Aldwych	21/5/12	K1  38739 Flag K2  23747 Flag
SW1H	010011	Broadway	21/5/12	K1  42997 Flag K2  98502 Flag
SW11	019001	Lavender Hill	21/5/12	K1  26729 Flag
SW4	005008	Clapham High Street	21/5/12	K1 6555 Machin K2 6959 Machin	Both kiosks were vending the Machins. Font 2 restored in both. “newvision®” at the bottom of receipts from kiosk 2. Kiosk 1 includes “London” in the address while kiosk 2 doesn’t.
SE1	004007	Blackfriars	21/5/12	K1 7053 Pig	“newvision®” at the bottom of receipt.
EC3M	030003	Eastcheap	21/5/12	K1 19565 Flag K2 88845 Flag	No address on receipts from kiosk 1.
SE1	006007	Borough High Street	21/5/12	K1 72653 Flag K2 67256 Flag
		Additions
HA1	022020	College Road, Harrow	2/6/12	K1 35561 Flag K2 4915   Flag	Font 2 on this date. Certificate of posting as a blank line between Harrow and the postcode whereas receipt doesn’t on Kiosk 1. (Visited on this date.)
HA1	022020	College Road, Harrow	21/5/12 22/5/12	K1 K2 4300 Flag K2 4423 Flag	Font 1 in use on 21-22/5/12 (Norphil)
AL	010033	St Albans	25/4/12	K1	Pig stamps on sale using font1. (Norphil)
GL1	014523	King St, Gloucester	25/5/12	K1 53890 Flag	Font 1 in use. (ebay)

I would welcome any reports on all offices. Please include date, kiosk, session and issue data. Other observations on the receipt content and format would be a bonus.