Friday, June 22, 2012

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.




Sunday, June 10, 2012

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.




Saturday, June 9, 2012


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:






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.







Sunday, June 3, 2012

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 2nd 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.