The final imprint at The Postal Museum
Following the decision to end issues and remove the ‘Post & Go’ kiosks (see article), Royal Mail decided to program one last special commemorative imprint at the eight kiosks in service at different museums.
And without a doubt, over the years, the flagship ‘Post & Go’ kiosk has been the one installed at The Postal Museum in London. This machine, with the A001 code, was installed at the then British Postal Museum & Archive (becoming The Postal Museum in 2017) in March 2014 (see article, published in VARIABLE 32). It was replaced by a new ‘Post & Go +’ kiosk, equipped with six printers in October of the same year (article and VARIABLE 35). In July 2017 it was transferred to the hall of the new London Postal Museum (article and VARIABLE 46), where it has remained in operation until December 31st 2023.
As a farewell to ‘Post & Go’, Royal Mail decided to include a special imprint on stamps issued from two of the five stamp printers (the sixth is for receipts) at the Museum. For the last five days, of December from the 27th to 31st 2023, stamps issued with the ‘Union flag’ definitive design and the special ‘Machin Anniversary 1967-2017’ series included the imprint ‘End of Post & Go at The Postal Museum‘.
A nice touch that brings the ‘Post & Go’ issues in the UK to an end. Over the course of the five days, dozens of collectors came to the museum and made their last purchases at the kiosk.
The images below show ‘Collectors Strips’; strips of stamps with the six face value indicators programmed at the kiosks, and the receipt for the ‘Machin Anniversary’ series with the wording ‘Final TPM‘ – The Postal Museum.
Farewell at Mail Rail
The second ‘Post & Go’ kiosk in London was installed at Mail Rail, a museum and exhibition attached to the nearby postal museum. A first kiosk, coded A005, was installed in October 2019 (see article, published in VARIABLE 55), later replaced by kiosk A012, and again in July 2021 by another kiosk with the A013 code.
As with kiosk A001, Royal Mail programmed a special farewell imprint for this machine. Kiosk A013 issued stamps with the ‘Post Office (London) Railway’ and ‘Machin’ designs. From December 27th to 31st, all stamps issued with the ‘Machin’ definitive design included the commemorative wording ‘End of Post & Go at Mail Rail‘.
(English edition rewritten by J. Gareze, December 2023)