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Meter News Page 122-1 of 8 December 2010
Editor: Alastair Nixon, 7 Bramblegate, Edgcumbe Park, Crowthorne, Berks, RG45 6JA. Tel: +44 (0) 1344 775378
Email: [email protected] Web site: http://www.meterfranking.co.uk
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Meter of the Month
Further to page 96-1, Peter Mantell reports a second example of an ‘Alignment Test’ printfrom an IS-350 machine. Again, your editor has managed to separate out the test printimage from the original which was superimposed with a normal frank, shown below:
Pitney Bowes Connect+ FC
Peter Mantell reports our first sighting of a Connect+ machine where the user has made use offull colour printing – and what a beauty it is! It is not known whether this is a new standard‘built-in’ slogan.
Acknowledgements
My thanks this month go to David Crotty, Harold Effner, Peter Huss, Richard Goring, PeterMantell, Tom Mullins, Richard Peck, Robert Rowe, Peter Wood and Ray Woodward-Clarke fortheir reports and communications.
Meter News Page 122-2 of 8 December 2010
Latest Numbers
Below is the list of ‘Latest Numbers’ as at the end of December 2010 – with updates shown inred. Please could I have the next reports by 27th January, thanks.
Frama (UK)
Matrix F2, F4, F6 F1000864 30.11.10 Reported by PMEcoMail FSC356948 03.08.10 See MN 118MailMax FSC909446 04.09.09 See MN 107
Francotyp-Postalia
Optimail T402872 12.10.09 See MN 108Optimail 30 F04112549 10.08.10 See MN 121Centormail 240/300 FC5110455 02.11.10 See MN 121MyMail FM2119908 01.07.10 See MN 121MyMail FM2650076 14.09.10 See MN 121Ultimail FU3115620 21.09.10 See MN 119
Neopost
IS-330 N1051313 08.12.10 Reported by PMIS-350 (Ex IJ-25) N1177459 29.11.10 Reported by PMIJ-65 N1208315 30.10.09 See MN 109Various upgraded N1240555 29.10.10 See MN 121IJ-80/90/110 N1254276 02.11.10 See MN 121Various upgraded N1290069 29.11.10 Reported by PMIJ-35/45 N1318119 03.12.10 Reported by PMIS-460 (Ex IJ-50) N1373506 18.10.10 See MN 121IS-420 (Ex IJ-30) N1385241 11.06.10 See MN 116IS-440 (Ex IJ-40) N1390334 18.11.10 See MN 121IS-480 N3014459 15.12.10 Reported by PM
Pitney Bowes
DM50, 55 PB064805 06.12.10 Reported by ANConnect+ 1000 etc. PB550725 30.11.10 See MN 121Connect+ 10FC etc. PB555266 17.12.10 Reported by PM, see p122-1DM 400, 450, 475 PB615307 03.12.10 Reported by PMDM100i, 150i etc. PB852832 29.11.10 See MN 121
Advanced MailAACJ-CB PB550337 22.09.10 See MN 120
.The following series have now been relegated to the Dead Series as they are no longer beingmarketed by Pitney Bowes on their web site: PB13, PB14, PB2, PB3, PB4, PB52 and PB7.
My thanks also goes to Richard Goring for his ‘Latest Number’ report this month.
Overseas News – Ireland
It has now been confirmed that the Irish meter (serial IS56004) shown last month on page121-9, was actually applied by an IS-480 machine (and not by an IS-350 machine}.
Meter News Page 122-3 of 8 December 2010
Recent Interesting Items
In the table on page 121-3, it was stated that the Pitney Bowes Connect+ FC machines hadserial prefixes beginning with PB555 as it was assumed that only these new machines wouldhave the full colour printer fitted.
Your editor now reports that Pitney Bowes have fitted a full colour printer to one of their ownDM810/900 machines – serial PB524487, as shown below. Effectively, it turns this machineinto a Connect+ FC machine.
An example frank from the same machine using the old printer is shown here for comparisonpurposes.
It will be interesting to see whether, in future, any other users fit a full colour printer to theirexisting machines. Reports will be welcome if you notice any, examples from other users -particularly if they are from a non-PB5 series.
Further to pages 121-6 and 122-1, Richard Goring reports another user (Giles Insurance)who has purchased a Connect+ machine, serial PB555223.
Again, the user has not really made use of the full colour printing facility. The frank does notincorporate any slogan, and only features an unimaginative black colour for the returnaddress.
Meter News Page 122-4 of 8 December 2010
Recent Interesting Items Continued
In last month’s ‘Latest Numbers’ your editor made reference to a new FM26 sub-series, butthe illustration was omitted in error from the Newsletter. The frank (FM2650076), which wasreported by Peter Mantell, is from Nine Telecom Ltd. and is shown below. Peter also reportsFM2650071 (illustrated on my web site under Series Images).
Richard Goring reports this Invalid Value frank applied by a DM300 model. I believe that thisis the first report of such a frank from this model.
Editorial Note It has occurred to me that the ‘Invalid Value’ design applied by PitneyBowes machines really should be assigned a new design type. The present design (in usesince 1968) is ‘Design H’ and the Watford 4-state design from 1996 has previously beenreferred to as ‘Design I’. I propose, therefore, that in any future catalogue or listing that the‘Invalid Value’ type is referred to as ‘Design J’.
PPI News
Peter Mantell reports a new style Postage Paid Impression (PPI) that incorporates a 6-digitvertical item count to the left of the slogan. It is likely that a Pitney Bowes franking machineapplied this frank.
Meter News Page 122-5 of 8 December 2010
Franking Errors
Peter Mantell has noticed this error in the Advanced Mail block where 5 characters instead ofthe standard four are present in the first part of the code!
The true code is likely to be either ‘AAAB-AY’ or ‘AABA-AY’. The second half of the code,‘RU-ABRZ’, is the ‘Reed-Solomon’ based error correction code and this would, no doubt,allow Royal Mail to correctly identify the true code should they wish to do so.
Further to page 92-1, Robert Rowe reports that the mis-spelling of LEICESTER in the towntie of N1253347 still remains uncorrected – some two and a half years on!
Meanwhile, Peter Mantell has found this mis-spelling of ‘THAMES’ on TN221 from1978.
Further to page 108-3, Peter Mantell reports a second example of a ‘Neopost Specimen’frank produced by an IS-480 (N3 prefix) machine.
Meter News Page 122-6 of 8 December 2010
The Frankopost Tape Printing Models of the 1950s
The standard Simplex machine was unable to print onto continuous paper tape, a featureuseful for companies sending parcels by post. In 1950, two machines were supplied to thePost Office for counter use on parcels. In 1955, a modified machine for normal commercialuse was supplied to Draffens of Dundee Ltd. It was a 25-value machine (Simplex Major) butthe franks were printed in steps of 1d from 1d to 2/1d. The prefix SL was allocated to thismodel, an example is shown below left. In 1957 when the company had been supplied with asecond machine, the printing was changed to read the company name, shown below right.
In 1956, a second machine was modified for Draffens of Dundee Ltd. and numbered SL2.This was arranged to print the normal range of franking values (½d to 1/0½d) in steps of ½d.Specimens from this machine were printed early in 1956 on tape made for Universal Multi-value machine no. UF490, licensed in London W1 as a trial run before sending to Draffens.An example of this is shown below left. In 1957, tape printed with Draffens was used as withmachine SL1, shown below right.
Examples of use of these machines are rarely seen on live mail. However, Ray Woodward-Clarke kindly reports this example from machine SL2, dated 17th June 1959:
Meter News Page 122-7 of 8 December 2010
Meter Thematics from the Past
A meter franking collector from Italy has written to say that he is compiling a catalogue of worldpostage meter stamps with a cycling theme (only road race competitions and champions, butnot bicycles in general). He has, so far, found three examples from the UK, shown below(colour-enhanced from black and white images), and he wonders whether anyone can add tothese. If anyone is able to help, please let me know.
Regarding real people in meter slogans, Ray Woodward-Clarke reports this one of TommyTrinder (Thomas Edward Trinder CBE) who died in 1989 age 80. He was a London-borncomedian of stage, screen, radio & TV (14 million viewers regularly tuned in to watch him atthe London Palladium on Saturday nights.). His famous catch phrase 'You lucky people' alsoappears on the meter.
Meter News Page 122-8 of 8 December 2010
Meter Thematics
Peter Mantell sends this unusual frank depicting Alexander The Magnificent who was theBishop of Lincoln between the years of 1123 -1148. The connection with Newark is thatAlexander built the majority of Newark castle in the early part of the 12th century whilst hewas Lord of the Manor of Newark. The user is possibly the Bishop Alexander Primary Schoolin Newark, but your editor is unable to confirm this. For further information about Alexanderthe Magnificent see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Lincoln.
Peter Mantell sends these two thematics. The first is from the Isles of Scilly Steamship Groupand the second is from the Middlesex County Cricket Club, based at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Finally, Peter Mantell reports this 2010 Christmas slogan from Crane Care Ltd., Birmingham.
My ‘Meter Thematic of the Month’ goes to the snowman on the front page of this Newsletter.
