Another entry in the 'When Is A Stamp Not A Stamp' competition.

This arrived this morning. It looks like a normal 2nd Class Machin stuck on an envelope but it isn't. The stamp design has been printed on the envelope and it also looks as though the cancellation and other entries below were printed at the same time.

I remember Machin design 'stamps' being printed on envelopes and cards years ago but I have not seen anything like this at all for a long time and certainly not featuring something so similar to a current 'normal' stamp. Even the perforation has been printed and that I certainly don't recall noticing before.

The use of a QR code suggests it isn't an ancient type of label being used rather later than intended but something reasonably of the moment.

It would be nice to know what this is all about. Is it someting commercial organisations can buy in bulk? My guess is that it has been printed by the organisation under some kind of licence (like we can print our own labels on-line). I tried tweeting and mentioning @RoyalMail which usually gets a response but nothing of help has appeared so far and it will now have disappeared from everyone's streams anyway.

It may well be that some of you get hundreds of these and have been getting them for years and my rather limited amount of post has precluded my seeing any. A brief note as to what others we should look out for would be appreciated from those who know.

Back to that 81p

Well, if the many scrutineers at International Security Printers can miss it then so can I! The 81p in the British Inventiveness prestige booklet is sea green but it should have been holly green - the colour of the De La Rue self adhesive issued in March 2014. The sea green version dates back to 2008! So that is what all the fuss was about.

I am not sure it need make the stamp any more valuable, though, as it would have been a different item anyway, both as a new printer and with its security code.

38 denominations and counting

Sometimes I don't quite know why I do things but I wondered just how many different denominations might appear at current rates on the new NCR Post And Go Labels. I guess these may also be what you'd find on Horixon labels too. I haven't covered huge great packages or International Tracked or all sorts of Special Delivery before, during and after breakfast services. The list below, though, should cover all the prices up to about £5. It may be of interest to someone.

If anyone cares to let me have the previous rates then I can add them to this table and that would then be a pretty complete list. Having said that, I don't yet know whether the NCR labels can, indeed, be used for all these services. It may be that some aren't possible. That would be nice to know and I could then cut the list down a bit.

One thing's for sure. I have now decided that I shall not be setting out to collect mint examples of each one!

£ Price	Type	Weight	Service
0.53	2nd Class Letter	<100g td="">	UK Std
0.62	1st Class Letter	<100g td="">	UK Std
0.73	2nd Class Large Letter	<100g td="">	UK Std
0.81	Small Parcel	<20g td="">	Int Economy
0.93	1st Class Large Letter	<100g td="">	UK Std
0.97	Letter	<10g td="">	Int Standard	Wordwide Z1	Worldwide Z2
0.97	Letter	<20g td="">	Int Standard	Europe
1.17	2nd Class Large Letter	<250g td="">	UK Std
1.24	1st Class Large Letter	<250g td="">	UK Std
1.28	Letter	<20g td="">	Int Standard	Wordwide Z1	Worldwide Z2
1.43	Letter	<60g td="">	Int Economy
1.47	Letter	<60g td="">	Int Standard	Europe
1.48	2nd Class Large Letter	<500g td="">	UK Std
1.63	2nd Class Letter	<100g td="">	Signed For
1.72	1st Class Letter	<100g td="">	Signed For
1.83	2nd Class Large Letter	<100g td="">	Signed For
2.01	2nd Class Large Letter	<750g td="">	UK Std
2.02	Letter	<100g td="">	Int Economy
2.03	1st Class Large Letter	<100g td="">	Signed For
2.15	Letter	<60g td="">	Int Standard	Wordwide Z1	Worldwide Z2
2.27	2nd Class Large Letter	<250g td="">	Signed For
2.34	1st Class Large Letter	<250g td="">	Signed For
2.36	Letter	<100g td="">	Int Standard	Europe
2.38	1st Class Large Letter	<750g td="">	UK Std
2.58	2nd Class Large Letter	<500g td="">	Signed For
2.75	1st Class Large Letter	<500g td="">	Signed For
2.80	Small Parcel	<1kg td="">	UK Std
2.80	Small Parcel	<100g td="">	Int Economy
3.11	2nd Class Large Letter	<750g td="">	Signed For	Signed For
3.20	Small Parcel	<1kg td="">	UK Std
3.20	Letter	<100g td="">	Int Standard	Europe
3.48	1st Class Large Letter	<750g td="">	Signed For
3.48	Letter	<100g td="">	Int Standard	Wordwide Z1	Worldwide Z2
3.65	Small Parcel	<250g td="">	Int Economy
3.70	Small Parcel	<250g td="">	Int Standard	Europe
3.80	Small Parcel	<2kg td="">	UK Std
3.80	Small Parcel	<100g td="">	Int Standard	Wordwide Z1
3.90	Small Parcel	<1kg td="">	Signed For
4.00	Small Parcel	<100g td="">	Int Standard	Worldwide Z2
4.30	Small Parcel	<1kg td="">	Signed For
4.75	Small Parcel	<250g td="">	Int Standard	Wordwide Z1
4.90	Small Parcel	<2kg td="">	Signed For
5.05	Small Parcel	<250g td="">	Int Standard	Worldwide Z2

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.

40th Anniversary : 5 June 2007

A bit more Machin news beginning to appear at last - and rightly so with the 40th anniversary of the appearance of the 4d stamp way back in the Summer of Love days. I really shouldn't remember them as well as I do but that's another story!

More pics and news to come but there's a new £1 in ruby, the old violet one will officially go away but not before they stick it in a miniature sheet so that'll be another addition. I also have a feeling there'll be more too. Updates on some other recent issues to follow shortly. Just moved - that's my excuse, and I'm self-adhesiving to it.