Collecting on a Shoestring 3: Upgraded Printers on Integrated Mail Processors 2008.

 During 2008, new Post Jet Ink Jet Printers were installed on Royal Mail Integrated Mail Processors (IMPs). The Postal Mechanisation Study Circle (PMSC) and the Postmark Society covered the introduction throughout the Royal Mail Network.

I was able to monitor the use of these printers in Manchester over 2008-9 and put together a reasonable collection of envelopes showing the various slogans used over this period along with finding the odd irregularity which subsequently were reported in the PMSC Newsletter. This study runs to 63 pages but I do not intend to illustrate every item.

I do not write up my collection(s) as such but annotate the page NOT the item, in pencil, with any appropriate note, comment or observation. These notes are primarily for my benefit but it also documents (for others) the history behind the item. It also allows major changes to be made to the page rather than making up a new page for each change.

This blog entry illustrates a possible collection based on relatively common material that was obtained via the post and by putting envelopes in to the post at regular intervals. Some items were obtained by asking at (or writing to) the Mail Centre if items could be processed on a particular machine.

Royal Mail operates around 137 Integrated Mail Processors (IMPs) and Extended IMPs (IMPEX) machines. These machines cancel, code and sort the mail.

Manchester originally had six of these machines. These were upgraded with the PostJet printer around May 2008 but the earliest reported dates for sightings of the cancels produced by these are tabulated here.

IMP	Earliest
1	29/7/08
2	14/7/08
3	15/5/08
4	5/6/08
5	23/7/08
6	4/8/08

Four more machines were installed in 2009 bringing the total up to 10 at this Mail Centre. Three of these were transferred from Oxford and the fourth from South East Anglia Mail Centre (SEAMC)

IMP	Earliest	Notes
7	31/3/09	Formerly Oxford IMP3 (machine id 134)
8	28/5/09 as IMP 7 19/6/09 as IMP 8	Formerly SEAMC IMP7 which was ex Swindon IMP2 (machine id 139)
9		Formerly Oxford IMP1 (machine id 132)
0	18/8/09	Formerly Oxford IMP2 (machine id 133)

Let’s start by looking at just one of the IMPs at Manchester. Envelopes were dropped in the post over the period from 29 July 2008 to 4 February 2009 as well as “regular” items. This allows one to build up a picture of what cancellations were in use and when. A sequence of IMP1 cancels is given below. Data from this and other IMPs at this and other offices were used to generate the table. Some of this data may also be obtained via the two societies listed above. Try Googling them for membership details or if you have a specific inquiry.

Reduced Form Cancel

From observations and liaising with others (eg PMSC, etc) one can build up a picture of usage of slogans. This table lists cancels used from May 2008 to January 2009. This cam be extended using data from various sources but is here only to illustrate how one can use “normal” mail as part of a study in to the postal history of an area. Similarly, one could build up a collection of cancels from your local town or village over a period of time. Stamp and Postcard fairs can be excellent sources for this material.

Slogan	From	To
Reduced form cancel	Continuous
Please Print*	15/5/08	13/8/08
Nominate your hero	30/7/08	13/8/08
Moving home	24/8/08	1/9/08
RAF stamps	9/9/08	19/9/08
Recruiting Now	19/9/08	26/9/08
Pride of Britain	30/9/08	31/10/08
Children in Need	3/11/08	18/11/08
Christmas Pantomime	24/11/08	30/11/08
Checking Posting Dates	3/12/08	23/12/08
Recycle	22/12/08	29/12/08
Children’s Champion (2 Versions)	2/1/09	10/1/09
Safe Box	15/1/09	18/1/09
Please Print	19/1/09

* Please Print is the default slogan cancel.

Similarly with the other machines at this or any other Mail Centre.

These cancels consist of four parts – the return marker (boxed double arrow), the data block (giving date, Mail Centre, time and a number string), the slogan and the wavy lines to cancel the stamp. The number string is very useful as it contains three pieces of data – the machine identity, time (half hour period) and the item number. All of the number strings above start with a “1” hence this is IMP 1. The next two digits give the half hour period that the item was processed in and run between 00 and 47 where 00 corresponds to the half hour from midnight. The last five items are the item number.

It should also be noted that this data is also coded in the tag code which is the set of bars added just under the cancel (see the safe box cancel above) but that is another long and complicated story as to extracting this data from the barcode. Some aspects as to decoding these barcodes are still commercially confidential and not generally available to the collector. All that I will say is that for those with a mathematical interest may wish to consult texts on Reed-Soloman correction systems. However, in the majority of cases, it is easier just to use data in the cancel if one is present.

I may return to examine other items from this section from my collection to illustrate other areas where collecting day to day items can be used to study the postal history of an area without costing a fortune.

iLSM and Branding

A lot seems to be happening at Royal Mail postmark wise. The intelligent Letter Sorting Machines (iLSMs) have now got a new version of ink jet cancel and a new format cancel is being wheeled out over the Integrated Mail Processors (IMPs). Examples of both have arrived on my doorstep.

This is an example from iLSM 1 at Glasgow and is very similar in format to the IMP cancel. The number of bars depends on the size of the envelope in the same way as the previously reported iLSM cancels.

A number of private companies such as UK Mail and TNT have downstream access to the Royal Mail system and get a massive reduction in the price of last mile delivery (ie to the doorstep). Royal Mail now feel that it is important to stress who is actually delivering the mail to the customer and has come up with adding their cruciform logo and "Delivered by" to the mail. The prospect has the bigger companies worried.

An example of this new format cancel from Bath IMP3 is shown above. Similar markings will be appearing on PPI and meter paid items.

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.

Jubilee Mail Centre iLSM Cancels

Stardate: 140512

Further to my previous entries, it is now clear that there are four sizes of font being used in the new cancels that are being trialled at Jubilee, Edinburgh, Mount Pleasant, Swindon (Thames Valley) and Bournemouth. The table presented here summarises the four versions and how to identify them.

Type/ Version	Letter Height (mm)
1	2½
2	2
2½	3
3	3½

Unlike IMPs and Stamp Cancelling Machines (SCMs), envelopes are not presented for stamp cancelling inverted. The cancellation that the item receives is based on the envelope size presented and hence the variation in the size of the cancellation that the envelope receives.

Intelligent Letter Sorting Machine (iLSM) Cancel

Stardate:110412

On my blog of 14th March 2014, I illustrated a new ink jet cancel that was in use at the Jubilee Mail Centre (JMC) in Feltham. (Close to Heathrow). This type of is being introduced throughout the country gradually. All of the iLSMs at JMC have been equipped with ink jet printers. The machines at South Midlands MC and now SW Dorset (at Bournemouth) are equipped with the ink jet printers and producing similar cancels.

Another version of cancel at JMC has now been seen in which "Jubilee" is in italics. Reports that I have received suggest that there may be at least four versions from this office.

The example is dated 27th March 2012. The actual identity of the iLSM may be obtained from the tagcode which is the four state bar code at the top of items from Britain. The tagcode associated with this cancel is also present in the image.