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 . Meter of the Month Back in time again for my meter of the month. Jim Ashby reports this very rare 1924 UPF specimen slogan “NEW ZEALAND Franks – Why Use STAMPS” that has been used in conjunction with the Wembley Empire Exhibition slogan, itself a rare item. The full (cleaned- up) image is shown below. Jim is currently doing a detailed study of the Wembley slogans and asks Meter News readers for scans of all known examples (see page 109-6 for details).

Frama Back in the January 2009 issue of Meter News, I reported the launch of the Frama Matrix F2, F4 and F6 series machines. Your editor, at last, has come across a frank from of one of these machines – with the appearance of the ‘F1’ series (see below). It is not known at this stage whether the ‘F1’ series is being used for all variants of the Matrix machine, but Richard Goring is, at least, able to confirm that serial F1000035 belongs to a Matrix F2 machine.

Acknowledgements

Meter News Page 109-1 of 11 Nov 2009 My thanks this month go to Jim Ashby, David Aspinwall, David Crotty, Harold Effner, Richard Goring, Peter Huss, David Jones, Peter Mantell, Stafford May, Tom Mullins, Richard Peck, Peter Wood and Ray Woodward-Clarke for their reports and communications.

Meter News Page 109-2 of 11 Nov 2009 Latest Numbers Below is the list of ‘Latest Numbers’ as at 30th November 2009 – with updates shown in red. Please could I have the next reports by 28th December, thanks.

Frama (UK) EcoMail FSC356030 06.11.09 Reported by AN MailMax FSC909446 04.09.09 See MN 107

Francotyp-Postalia Optimail? B 0788095 23.03.09 See MN 101 Optimail T402872 12.10.09 See MN 108 Optimail 30 F04111990 03.11.09 Reported by PM Matrix F2 F1000122 24.11.09 Reported by PM, new p109-1 Centormail FC5110366 16.10.09 See MN 108 Mymail FM2119677 13.08.09 Reported by PM Ultimail? FU3115176 23.11.09 Reported by PM

Neopost IJ-25 N1050333 05.11.09 Reported by PM IS-350 (Ex IJ-25) N1171081 27.10.09 See MN 108 IJ-65 N1208315 30.10.09 Reported by PM Various upgraded N1240468 05.11.09 Reported by PM IJ-80/90/110 N1254046 20.11.09 Reported by PM Various upgraded N1290032 01.06.09 See MN 104 IJ-35/45 N1317911 12.10.09 Reported by PM IS-460 (Ex IJ-50) N1373322 03.03.09 See MN 101 IS-420 (Ex IJ-30) N1384887 04.06.09 See MN 104 IJ-40 N1390162 01.07.09 See MN 106 IS-480 N3009103 06.11.09 Reported by PM

Pitney Bowes DM50, 55 PB051179 05.11.09 Reported by AN DP200? PB130190 16.10.09 See MN 108 DP400? PB143208 08.06.09 See MN 106 DP400? PB148004 03.04.09 See MN 105 Personal Post PB292235 08.10.09 See MN 108 DM 200? PB311641 15.01.09 See MN 107 Personal Post PB499249 18.08.09 Reported by PM DM 550 etc. PB525944 21.10.09 Reported by RG DM 400C / 450C PB613782 13.11.09 Reported by AN Post Perfect PB764228 08.10.09 See MN 108 DM100i PB844288 05.11.09 Reported by AN

Advanced Mail AABJ-LC N1253924 07.07.09 See MN 106

. My thanks also go to Alan Godfrey for his Latest Number reports this month.

Meter News Page 109-3 of 11 Nov 2009 Recent Interesting Items Peter Mantell sends an example of an IS-480 (N3 series) frank with an incorrect use of the built-in slogan “AIR MAIL / PAR AVION”. It is worth noting that the built-in slogan has pushed the return address block across to the left. Your editor cannot recall ever seeing the equivalent situation on a Pitney Bowes machine, so reports of the return address block applied with a built-in slogan on a Pitney Bowes machine would be welcome.

Peter Mantell reports what appears to be a second example where a user has included a ‘Department Number’ (39) in the slogan part of the frank. William Reed was the first company reported to be using this idea on their Neopost machines. This was fully described on p 90-3.

Richard Goring reports this one with just the county name in the town mark upper position.

Alan Godfrey sends this one with a message block that reads “PERSONAL AND PRIVATE – PLEASE OPEN IMMEDIATELY”. I assume that the franking machine has applied the slogan, my only doubt is that the message block is at a slight angle from the rest of the frank.

Meter News Page 109-4 of 11 Nov 2009 Recent Interesting Items Your editor has recently noticed that both the PB2 and PB4 series (Personal Post) machines come with either 3 or 4 bank value dies. The 3-bank machines have the traditional three wavy lines for the “£10” (bank 4) digit on the left, whereas the 4-bank machines have a zero. It is not known whether the 3-bank machines are limited to £9.99 or whether the user is able to operate a switch to allow values over that amount to be applied. It appears that both series have existed with both formats since the start and it is surprising that this has gone un-noticed all this time. The illustrations below show the different formats for each series.

PB2 series, 3-bank

PB2 series, 4-bank

PB4 series, 3-bank

PB4 series, 4-bank

Meter News Page 109-5 of 11 Nov 2009 Historic Items Jim Ashby has recently been very fortunate to obtain this item. It is an essay for the Universal Midget:

The PO Archives show that an essay of this type was sent to the Postal Services Department on 16th April 1937, the idea being to standardise the appearance of the FV and MV impressions. Jim does not have a record of a reply, but the design was ultimately not adopted.

Peter Mantell sends this GviR ‘FRANKOPOST SPECIMEN’ frank from 1952. Universal Postal Frankers adopted the marketing name ‘Frankopost’ in 1949 and they introduced the Simplex model in 1950. In 1959, Frankopost became a wholly owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Ltd. Your editor would like to hear from anyone who can explain precisely how the double town-mark and value dies would have been applied on this item.

Peter also sends these two attractive Neopost Specimens from 1957 and 1960.

Meter News Page 109-6 of 11 Nov 2009 Historic Items Continued

Further to the report on the front page of this newsletter, Jim Ashby has been looking at the 1924 Wembley meters, which appeared with either a black or red townmark, and he sends this report: “I had always supposed that the franks were produced by the same machine - with the townmark inker’s black ribbon replaced by a red one. However, closer inspection of similar values (I only have examples of the 1d in both townmark colours) shows that there are some minor differences. Whilst some of the differences can be explained by over/under-inking, the different alignment issues make it seem that at least the 1d value is different. It may be that the whole machine was replaced, rather than just changing the townmark inker ribbon and cleaning the value dies.”

Currently in Jim’s possession are the following:

Black TM, M.No. 1: 1½d 23 VII 24 1d -3 IX 24

Red TM, M.No. 1: 1d, 1d, 2½d 17 IX 24 ½d 30 X 24

Red TM, M.No. 12 (Specimen): 1/- 14 VII 24

Jim would be interested to see examples of other Wembley meters that may confirm or refute this.

Manufacturer Web Sites Richard Goring reports that Frama UK have changed their website home page to www.frama.co.uk/GB-EN-Franking-Machine-Home.frm. There is no change to the products, but they are offering £250 off the whole Matrix range for orders before 6 December 2009. Pitney Bowes have made some cosmetic changes to their site, but the product range is unchanged. The Neopost site is unchanged, except that the Low Volume range now offers the IS-330 as well as the already-known models, while the Mid Volume range also has a new offering, the IS-440. The High Volume Range is unchanged.

Meter News Page 109-7 of 11 Nov 2009 Post-Expo

Further to page 108-8, Peter Huss has kindly sent some example Neopost specimen franks obtained from the recent Post-Expo exhibition in Copenhagen. The first example is from machine ‘DEMN3314’ and is identified as being from an IJ350 / IJ35 machine. .

The second is from an IJ110 machine which includes an attractive ‘Stars & Stripes’ flag design:

The next is stated to be from an IJ440 / IJ45 machine:

Finally, this one is stated to be from an IJ480 machine:

Meter News Page 109-8 of 11 Nov 2009 Post Expo Continued Peter Huss also sent this Francotyp-Postalia frank from an Ultimail 60 or 120 machine. Also shown below is an illustration of an ‘Expanded’ Ultimail 120 machine, from the FP sales leaflet.

And now for something completely different (No. 4) Further to page 90-6 and earlier, here is the fourth in this series – this time a card from Neopost advertising a 15% discount for meter users franking their parcels on-line using the Parcelforce Worldwide web site. Also shown is an extract from the reverse of the card giving more details on this discount. Thanks to Peter Mantell for sending this.

Meter News Page 109-9 of 11 Nov 2009 Meter Thematics Alan Godfrey sends this early Christmas slogan from Wolverhampton Borough Council. Note that it is a different Christmas slogan from the one on page 86-5 from the same machine.

Peter Mantell has kindly supplied the remainder of the meter thematics this month. First of all, is this attractive ploughed field design from Plumpton College.

Here is an unusual design it the form of a round pizza shape from Pizza GoGo.

Staying on the food theme, here is another unusual design – this time from a company calling themselves ‘The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys:

Meter News Page 109-10 of 11 Nov 2009 Meter Thematics Continued This one is from Mill Rythe Holiday Resort and is inscribed “Gateway to the Stars”. The theme relates to both ‘Leisure’ and ‘The Islands of Britain’.

Here is a nice one from the Scottish Seabird Centre near Edinburgh, which includes the message “PUFFINS ARE BACK”.

On the football theme, here is an attractive design from the John Madejski Academy, Reading.

Finally, my Meter Thematic of the Month is awarded to Peter Mantell for this attractive design from Flamingo Land Resort, depicting a lion and a giraffe.

Meter News Page 109-11 of 11 Nov 2009