Twelve Kiosks, Four Offices and One Day (and no Partridge in a Pear Tree)

Yesterday, I had a day off from my duties. I had to go to Croydon for some information. I used this as an opportunity to visit four offices. These were Croydon (009013), Broadway (010011), Trafalgar Square (015010) and Farringdon Road (100003).

I can report that Croydon now has FIVE Wincor-Nixdorfs. According to information received, kiosks 4 and 5 were installed around April 2012. At the same time, kiosks 1 and 2 were modified to card only operation. All five kiosks were vending Robin stamps. Kiosk order (left to right) is 4, 5, 3, 1 and2.

Royal Mail have re-released the Robin stamp from the Birds 1 set for Christmas 2012 on 6 November 2012. Easiest way to identify the Christmas version is by having a pair.

Both of the Broadway kiosks were vending Robins as was the Farringdon Road office.

Trafalgar Square had kiosks 3 and 4 with the Robins while Pigs were available on kiosk 1 and Cattle on kiosk 2.

Collecting on a Shoestring 7: Visit to a Post Office

Q:  What is the most obvious way of starting a collection?

A:  Visit the local post office.

It sounds obvious but what exactly does one say at the counter? Probably, it would be best to time your visit to a quiet period. That way the counter staff should have more time to help you and you certainly won't upset the people in the queue behind you.

The most common stamps that you will find available are the definitive stamps. In Britain, these tend to be the Machins but each of the four countries has its own "pictorial" definitives. Obtaining example of each mint (unused) will give you a start. For some collectors, the important part of the sheet is the bottom left hand side which has the "cylinder" details and is usually collected as a block of six. But that is the road to another speciality. There are also booklets of stamps.

It may also be possible to obtain examples of recent comemmorative/special issues. These are usually available from the philatelic bureau (in UK) for up to 12 months but there may be some available in the counter book. Some of the main post offices still have someone who deals with philatelic inquiries and should be able to help. William IV Street/Trafalgar Square, in London, has one such position.

Note that these stamps should NOT be mounted in your album using stamp hinges. Either us Hawid strips or use a stockbook to store mint stamps. Some albums are available that allows one to collect used  which a mounted directly on to the page and mint stamps slotted in to "pockets" on a clear leaf over the page.

Royal Mail have about 150 offices equipped with Wincor-Nixdorf ATMs marketed as Post and Go to the customer which allows the purchase of stamps for a number of services as well as allowing the payment of other goods. These kiosks can have a definitive Machin version or a pictorial issue. That depends on which roll is withdrawn from stock to refill the kiosk. There are labels that look like the computer generated Smartstamps. There are some, including myself, who collect these.

When abroad, it is always worth a visit to a post office. You can compare their services with the your at home service. But most of all you can add to your collection at face value rather at dealers' prices.

Good hunting.

Wincor-Nixdorf and Hytech Cattle

I was fortunate to re-visit the Autumn Stampex event on the 28th September for the release of the Cattle faststamps. I wanted examples from both the Wincor-Nixdorf and the Hytech on the first day.

I stopped off at William IV Street/Trafalgar Square to obtain examples of the "normal" Wincor stamps. Kiosks 1 and 2 were vending sheep and kiosks 3 and 4 were producing the cattle stamps. I purchased single examples of the faststamps from kiosks 1 to 3 and two sets of six first class stamps from kiosk 4 to fill FDC requirements.

The Wincors produced were as expected - font 1 and with the normal ident (015010). The datastring is as normal - 015010 4-06244-01. The receipt had one minor variation - the address was all on one line and in lower case lettering. Of note is the session number, 06244, which is low. This would suggest a resetting around the 17th July. This is about the same time as the 000000 fault on kiosk 1 which was also reset about that time.

The Hytech produced a new form of datastring which includes letters - A9GB12 A1-000259-06. The "A" in A1 indicates a kiosk which may be used by the public, "B" is a backroom kiosk and "C" is for Philatelic Bureau produced items. The basic receipts for the Hytech are much simpler and yet more complicated than the Wincors but come in two or more parts - the basic order receipt (illustrated) a card receipt (not illustrated) and a receipt for any collector's strips.

The fonts in use in both kiosks for printing the stamps now seem to match each other.

Both sets were cancelled by the Stampex first day cancel for this set.

Autumn Stampex Part 2

I managed another visit to Stampex today for the release of the Cattle faststamps. Cover was arranged and off I went with my first stop being William IV Street/Trafalgar Square (015010). Kiosks 1 and 2 were vending sheep and 3 and 4 the cattle stamps. A set from kiosk 3 was purchased and put onto FDC (which was subsequently posted at Stampex). Individual examples from each kiosk were purchased. 

Trafalgar Square Kiosk 3 (28/9/12)

Kiosk 4 has been producing a variety on the receipt were the address is on a single line and in lower case text.

Trafalgar Square receipt from 26/9/12. This format was also seen on the 28th.

Next stop was Aldwych (008010). There  was the suggestion on a blog that a third kiosk may have been installed. I can definitely state that there are still two kiosks at this office vending cattle stamps.

Back to Charing Cross underground and the Northern line to Euston then change to the Bank branch to Angel and the Design Centre. I arrived around 12.30 and the Royal Mail stand was quieter than it was on the morning of the first day but it was still doing good business.

Kiosk A1 was set up to just sell the cattle stamps while A2 was vending both jubilee flags and cattle. The cattle stamps were also available from B1 and B2 from the counter. I purchased examples from all four kiosks and prepared a cover using stamps from A2.

Kiosk B1 at Stampex (28/9/12)

The presentation packs were also available. The stamps have the data string A9NL12 C2-051840-06.

Final stop was Old Street (028003) where the same blog reported that two more kiosks were due at the end of July. This office has undergone quite a make over giving it a more spacious layout by removing some office space. There are four kiosks numbered 2, 1, 3 and 4. Kiosk 2 was out of order during my visit but other three were vending the cattle stamps.

 Old Street Kiosk 3 (28/9/12)

Old Street Kiosk 4 (28/9/12)

In the last Stampex  blog entry, I mentioned the number of receipts issued for an order. As well as the receipt for the overall order, receipts were produced for each of the collector’s strip and another for the card payment. All but the card payment receipt are illustrated here.

Finally an example of the flag stamp from the new kiosk (number 3) at Clapham on the 26th September with the associated receipt.

Wincor Office Ident Error!

Stardate: 120712

On one of my rare days off as a carer (10 July), I managed to run around London to visit some relocate post offices with Wincor ATMs. I also visited a few of my regular offices to update the data on session numbers and what faststamps were available. I managed to visit 10 offices and 18 kiosks in about six hours. So it was a case  of in to the office, buy a first class faststamp and receipt from a kiosk before moving on to the next without noticing much on either at the time of purchase.

When I got back home, I sorted out my "stash" of faststamps and receipts only to find a rather usual office and kiosk ident - 000000 as the office ident and 0 as the kiosk - on a receipt from William IV Street/Trafalgar Square. Kiosks 2, 3 and 4 were giving the correct office ident of 015010.

Example of the 000000 office ident with the 0 kiosk ident.

Receipt from kiosk 1 pretending to be kiosk 0.

Kiosk 2 was vending pigs and kiosks 3 and 4 were vending sheep faststamps. See my Wincoralbum1 and
 Wincoralbum2 websites to see the evidence.

This Little Piggy...

Stardate:270412

Tuesday the 24th April say the issue of yet another new set of Faststamps from Royal Mail. This set is the second of the Farmyard animals theme and depicts six different pigs. Examples from kiosk 1 at Trafalgar Square/William IV Street (015010) post office are illustrated below. Also on this date Aldwych (008010) and Broadway (010011) offices in London were also vending the pigs from all kiosks. 

St Albans (010033) threw up a nice surprise on the 25th April with font 1 appearing on the pig Faststamps.

 

Note that Hytec versions of these faststamps are available in presentation packs.

I would welcome further reports of these and other Witncor and Hytec faststamps and PAGs. 

e-mail address: pmechuk@gmail.com

Trafalgar Square/William IV Street PO (015010)

Stardate: 160412

I am hoping to get to this office once more on the 24th April for two reasons - the new Pig Faststamps and to see whether the proposed two new kiosks have been installed. The post office is just off of Trafalgar Square. This office commenced using the Wincor kiosks on the 21st October 2009. Four kiosks were installed and up to the end of March 2012 are still in operation. A suggestion in a magazine and from conversations with staff suggested that two more kiosks are due soon.  

The first two images show the office and the third shows the four kiosks in situ. If one intends to photograph these machines, it is prudent to ask permission. It saves on awkward problems.

One aspect of these machines that I have been trying to piece together, is the usage rates of these machines. There is no way that one can get a breakdown as to what services are being purchased but one can obtain an indication as to how often the kiosks are used each day. In addition, by studying the serial numbers printed on the stamps and when purchased, one can determine approximate dates when the counter was reset and, in one instance, when kiosks at a post office changed their office id and kiosk number (Cambridge 007113 changed to 008113 in February/March 2011).

The Trafalgar Square office is one that I have managed to monitor for some time through material sent to me and from visits. The table below lists the session numbers that I have for each kiosk associated with the date of purchased.

Date	K1	K2	K3	K4
21/10/2009	1	1	1	1
10/08/2010	25188	26252	25276	24736
16/09/2010		29224
17/09/2010		29405
25/09/2010		29915
24/01/2011	40174	39903	39030	38699
19/05/2011	50898	48913	48079	47718
14/06/2011	52987	50782	49984	49668
12/07/2011	55652	52996	52086	52306
14/09/2011	61190	57628	57594	54494
16/09/2011	61397	57748	57754	57659
03/11/2011	65822	60874	61828	61310
22/02/2012	77450	70961	72499	71910
24/02/2012	77750	71183	72738	72132
12/03/2012	79570	72763	74425	73880

From this data, one can estimate that the usage is around the 100 sessions/day mark. If you can add data on session numbers and dates for any kiosk at any office, please post as a comment or via the normal pmechuk website.