Overwhelmed with overprints on Post and Gos

 

We start with no less than three new BPMA Post and Gos. A 'Series A' issue with code MA13 in the old values from mid February. Then the updated 'Series B' with MA13 and then the same 'Series B' on Flag type labels. These last two were only available from 24 March 2014 so you can see how few will have been produced with the old set of values, making these two strips particularly scarce.

Next we have two 85th Scottiosh Congress issues - one on the plain Machin labels and the other on Flags. These are both 'Series B' and also were issued after the rate change so have the new sequence of values. Let's give Post and Gos a rest for a moment and deal with something much simpler.

A Cartor printed England regional £1.28 has appeared with the vignetted style of phosphor. The 2012 printing just had very wide phosphor bands with the same density throughout. This has just sneaked out without anyone telling us so look out for it.

A strip of 'Series B' old values on undated Machin labels.

2nd Class Post and Gos now with MA13 codes - you really would think they'd be MA14 by now! Just shows how slowly some rolls are being used up.

The new values produced on the old Wincor machines. On commentator remarked how poorly the 60g had been set up by the engineers, hinting that they might not have been too bothered knowing that in a week or so's time their contract was up and the new NCR type machines would be replacing theirs anyway.

Now some more M14L and MA14 codes

M14L De La Rue

M14L De La Rue

M14L De La Rue

M14L MTIL

M14L MCIL

MA14 MBIL

This has been an expensive time and led me to wonder seriously if I should give up on the Post and Gos. I have had to reorder the overprints which I had abandoned briefly because they can be the sole source of some changes at times. If they were just an existing issue with an overprint then I am happy to let them go but where they appear first or even seem to be the only example of a particular type then I do need them.

It has been interesting to see how dealers are reacting to all this. One has very efficiently supplied as many pairs of the new values as they can whilst another is still looking as, theoretically, whatever roll can go in the machine could have the new values printed on it and no doubt some offices somewhere have an old roll or two lying around that will surprise us in years to come and mean that we can never be entirely sure which may or may not appear with the new values.

So far no-one has offered the NCR type of Open Values, other than someone on Ebay, where I got my 'set' of pre rate change values. B Alan Ltd appear to be thinking about supplying a few samples on each colour of background for those who order them. They are regarding them as similar to the old larger label that could also have a whole range of denominations. The difference, though, is that this label is distinctly stamp-like, specifically Post and Go-stamp like, same dimensions, perforations and so forth. So if you collect Post and Gos then I really do think you will kick yourself hard in years to come if you don't include as many denominations of the new ones as you can find or afford.

Just as the Post and Gos have changed in just a short while, so too will these Open Values - different alignment, font changes and, who knows, use on rolls of Flowers or whatever. Keeping my lists up to date, though, has been a nightmare with so many variations: Flag or Machin, date or no date code, font type 2 or 4, series A or B! Crazy. I am still on the verge of abandoning them but probably won't. As for the NCRs, I actually prefer them as 'stamps to collect' to the pictorial Post and Gos but whether I will be able to figure out any sensible way to determine what to collect has yet to be seen.

No, I didn't leave the £1.47 stamp in clothes that got washed by mistake

 

 Post And Gos continue to multiply. Now we have the definitive set with the new Type 4 font and these appear, annoyingly, on background designs both with and without the date code MA13. You'd have thought they would at least have made that MA14.

Furthermore and further requiring credit card action are two more overprints. Stampex 2014 and The BPMA continue to get publicity from these issues. They, too, will appear in two versions, dated and undated backgrounds. Strangely, I took the decision not to collect the overprints but still get them on my standard order with my dealer but I don't get the Flags changes. Something odd there which I'll have to attend to. The Flags are a sort of alternative definitive that crops up from time to time when no-one is too sure what roll to put into machines. It really does seem to have a pretty random appearance profile which is why I would actually like to have them and will just put the overprints up for sale.

Flags will be appearing when I get them. For now you need to look out for them with the new Type 4 font with and without MA13, and in Type 3a font a BPMA Postage Due 1914 overprint again ith and without MA13. (I am presuming it'll be MA13).

As if that were not enough additions to my catalogue list, a batch of 1st Class Stampex 2014 normal definitives were issued with the value inscription 1st Class Large instead of the usual 1st Class. I wasn't lucky enough to get these overprints by mistake, just the corrected ones. Odd that.

Back to fairly normal Machins the 1st Large and 2nd Large stamps from Walsall now have Type 2 slits - there is a clear break top and bottom - so are new stamps. They have MA13 and MBIL in the overprint, being from Business Sheets. Now, it may just be me or the light here but they also seem to have a very bright and clear iridescent overprints. I am sure a new process is being used for that.

 

 

A recent, not very much published change in postage rates has brought along the usual Spring new definitives. There are four new additions to the amazingly still growing list of Machin denominations. Wonderfully bizarre values: 81p, 97p, £1.47 and £2.15. The £1.47 appears to have been left in someone's pocket during a wash cycle but that really is the true colour and not my scanner playing up. I suppose the postmarks will be clear but I would be quite disappointed if I have handed over £1.47 and had that in return. The surface of the 81p, in particular, looks quite scratchy when compared to older issues. All except the £1.47 have blemishes I am not used to noticing. It will be interesting to see whether this is something that all Machins just have and is neither here nor there or whether it is a significant quality matter that gets addressed and, of course, either the replacements of the originals then become collectable in a big way.

 

The Regional issues get in on the act too with each issuing a 97p value. In what must be one of the longer running designs now I think about it, the Northern Ireland lace, Welsh blue (why blue anyone?) daffodil, Scottish thistle and English oak now have nines and sevens inscribed where one were just eights and, in 2001, just the letter E.

Snow for Christmas and even less visible Freshwater Life

Wincor Font Type 2 What you'll find at Post Offices

Hytech Type 3 This is what was in Presentation Packs

Hytech Type 3a from Autumn Stampex 

There are now three variations of the Freshwater Life 3 Post and Gos. The usual two - type 3 ones you'll never see unless people break up their Presentation Packs and type 2 ones you might see if you're lucky to have friends or clients who use Post and Gos and then there's the very rare variety, type 3a, which someone could only have obtained on a couple of days at an exhibition.

I have just shown singles above to make it clear what the font and layout differences are. The Presentation Pack strip is 6 x 1st Class and was illustrated in my last post.

2nd Large finally appear in booklets with MA13 and F codes.

Some M12L Code Ts from Walsall books have been found with a really snowy print, very obvious on closer view as the illustration below shows.

The De La Rue 2nd counter sheet belatedly gets the MA13 code too. You would have thought this one would have been needed ages ago but perhaps people stocked up heavily on the MA12s and are only now going back to ask for more.

More MA13 codes, fish and new Regional shades

Here's some freshwater life you won't find on your envelopes. These are the Post Office Presentation Pack editions. Not that you'll see that many of the 'real' ones printed by people on machines in Post Offices either. They'll be illustrated when I get them so you can see the differences which I expect will be the same as for Freshwater Life I and II but you never know.



Another Post And Go issue you may easily miss. This is the Union Flag with a Coronation overprint and with MA13 in the background. These were available only, to my knowledge, at the Stampex Exhibition earlier this month. As it seems unlikely that the same issue will be available with that overprint and in that typeface again, these could be pretty rare.

Two new Regionals appeared from May. They're not Machins, but I like them. All the Regional pictorial designs are getting pretty ancient and I am quite surprised they've lasted as long as they have. These two are Cartor reprints and the olive has become distinctly sage and the Scottish 88p much deeper.

 

As for Machins - you can now look out for a 10p tan, 1st red and 1st Large red, all three from De La Rue counter sheets with MA13 and no code letter and 2nd Large blue with MA13 MBIL from Walsall business sheets. My lists have been updated with these items.