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Friday 13 August 2010

Faststamps Lose Their Head


Their Machin head, that is.

About two years ago, the Machin world was all aflutter with the introduction of postage labels featuring the Machin portrait. They are variously called Faststamps and Post & Go labels (after the name of the machine from which they are purchased). One is pictured above.

Now, Royal Mail has announced that the Machin design will be replaced with pictorial images of birds, starting on September 17. The new labels are pictured on Ian Billings' blog here and on the Postage Labels UK site here.

At the time the Machin labels were released, Royal Mail said that the use of the Machin design was to have a consistent brand image across all its products.

Now, I guess the Royal Mail brand has gone to the birds.

And for Machin collectors, the Post & Go labels have Come & Gone.

--Larry

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dont worry there is another version of the Faststamps to come yet..To satisfy Machin collectors..

Brian Sinnott said...

But first- a new varient and a new Machin!- the Post Office have commenced the software upgrade required to issue the new pictorial ‘Birds of Britain I’ Faststamps on 17th September 2010...

Anonymous said...

Royal Mail is treating these new labels as if they were stamps. They are featured in the new collections catalog, they are available from their web store, and a full four pages of the latest Philatelic Bulletin is devoted to them.

And since they are promoting the pre-printed sheeet of six, I guess they do qualify as stamps.

--Larry