Atm Stamps

Hello everyone: I am wondering if there is sufficient interest in SCF to start a new topic "ATM Stamps" under General Philatelic Discussions (Non Country Specific).

ATM stamps are issued by many countries (UK, France, Israel and others) and are very attractive. The attached picture shows a strip of new UK Post & Go stamps "sea travel" issued at the 2015 Autumn STAMPEX in London.

Thank you,
Joe K

Seems worthwhile to me. Threads get posted with some regularity, and I have been buying ATM U.S. issues for a few years.

Oh yea, I also really like those you posted above. Very interesting varieties all on one strip. Did you create them one at a time that way, or they are sold in strips as such?

The Royal Mail Post & Go stamps are sold in a variety of combinations (number and value). In most cases they are sold as "collectors strip" which contains 6 stamps with different values. Here is another example of a collector strip (with receipt) sold from Hytech machiine A001 installed at the British Postal Museum and Archive (B.P.M.A.) in London.

Here in the US the ATM stamps are sold at APC (Automated Postal Center) which is a self-service postal kiosk in some post offices. These APC postal kiosks are manufactured by Wincor Nixdorf and IBM. The stamps are typically sold as a group of 10 in two rows (see the USA Flag ATM stamps).

Joe

PMFJI, but can we include clerk-printed meter strips?

Or, are there already strict rules for the ATM category?

PMFJI?

Peter

Computer-vended postage is pretty interesting because you can follow the development of the computer and printer sophistication over the last several decades, as used on the stamps/labels. Many countries and their supplier companies have experimented with different technologies. Some, such as Finland, have given up on automated postage, but many more (Ireland, U.K., Denmark, etc.) seem to be moving quickly into this technology.

Most stamp collectors seem to dislike these stamps. Many of them are "ugly ducklings" and most are self-adhesive. Scott ignores them, but Michel does not. In fact, if you collect computer-vended stamps, you might want to get a copy of Michel's "Automatenmarken-Spezial-Katalog". It covers all of these issues worldwide, and it comes out every 5 years or so. The preface information on the machine manufacturers (Frama, Klussendorf, Monetel, etc.) is very interesting. For English speakers, the drawback is that catalog is German language. If you are familiar with Michel, the stamp listing is easy to navigate.

The internet has more information on these interesting stamps as time goes by. They have certainly grown on me.

Below are Michel #s 1-13 from Singapore. These are the basic design types. As with most atm stamps, there are varieties which mostly involve changes or upgrades in "value and machine #" printers (the black printing).

I guess the question is, where would the topics be more accessible. All countries in one forum, or each country in the proper country forum.

In other words, are people likely to want to search for just ATM stamps, regardless of where they're from, or search for modern stamps from a specific country, ATM or not.

I just typed in "Ireland atm stamps" on a Google search and came up with good results. So, the information is not difficult to find.

I'm talking about searching here.

There may be a problem in searching for computer-vended (ATM) stamps on Stamp Community Forum. The reason I say this is because SCF tends to be "U.S.-centric", and ATM stamps for U,S. collectors has a different meaning. To a U.S. collector, ATM stamps generally refers to booklets which are purchased at ATM machines. To a worldwide collector, computer-vended stamps (sometimes referred to as ATM stamps, or frama stamps) are stamps where the values are printed at the point of purchase.

So, on SCF, you may want to search for "frama stamps" or "computer stamps" in addition to ATM stamps.

I think the original post has a lot of merit, but the term "ATM stamps" would cause a little confusion, because it can mean two completely different things.

I bet a category titled something like "ATM/Frama/variable value stamps" would be instantly identifiable to everyone who is interested in them.

I suspect that discussions of these are more interesting to those who collect them as a category, as opposed to dedicated country collectors.

As an example, and by coincidence, I picked up a handful of Spanish frama stamps last night (I know, 70 years outside of my era), and I bet they would be more interesting to collectors of frama stamps than collectors of Spain. I bet a lot of collectors of Spain couldn't care less about them.

Guessing.

Rather like precancels, perfins ...

I really appreciate all of your comments and suggestions and will attempt to capture them in the summary below.

1. We should include over-the-counter postage labels (both the multicolored and monocolored types) into this category, because many countries has been and/or currently issuing them.
2. A title may look like Variable Value Stamps (ATM/CVP/Frama labels/Post & Go) to emphasize the common feature of these stamps.
3. This subject is best under the non-country specific category, so we can discuss and study these stamps as a genre. We can anticipate that country-specific threads will appear. It will also make it easier to find and cross-reference posts, as many countries do not issue variable value stamps.

I guess it is up to the SCF Management Team to decide now. I will be happy to engage in further discussion if required.

Joe K

In Canada the pilot project for introducing Computer Vended Stamps
was a total flop and was terminated after 9 months.

See thread here on SCF

http://goscf.com/t/29738&whichpage=...ded%2Cstamps

I also found a thread
ATM – FRAMA – Variable Rate Stamps in
Topical Stamp Collecting
under General Philatelic Discussions (Non Country Specific)

http://goscf.com/t/14497

I hope this thread can be elevated one level (that is, parallel to Topic Stamp Collecting, one level below the General Philatelic Discussions). The Canadian Computer Vended stamps and those scattered in other country-specific forums can all be transfered here.

Joe K

I'm all for a new topic on ATM stamps. It could include any type of vended or computer generated stamp. Here in Israel these are quite popular and we just upgraded to a new type of machine called INBAR that produces a slightly larger stamp.