Editor: Alastair Nixon, 7 Bramblegate, Edgcumbe Park, Crowthorne, Berks, RG45 6JA. Tel

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 My Meter of the Month this time is an example of why I find this hobby so fascinating! Readers will, no doubt, recall the ‘Watford 4-State Code Trial’ of 1996/7 that has been well documented in Meter News (see Meter News 31 and 59, for example). The report on page 31 plotted the use of these franks up to 1992 when the last report was received. The graph predicted that these would completely die out by 2003 or 2004 at the latest. Tom Norgate reports that at least one of the original 100 machines was still in use at the end of 2010.

This, of course, raises the question of whether there are any others out there, or is this example the ‘last of breed’? It goes without saying that your editor would be pleased to hear from anyone who knows of other examples. Indeed, reports of any use between since 2002 would be welcome.

Membership This month we extend a warm welcome Jon Aitchison as Member No. 0033. Jon’s collecting interests are British local issues such as Lundy and Herm and he publishes the standard catalogues in that field, i.e. ‘The Stamps and Postal History of Lundy Island’ and ‘Channel Island Locals’. Jon also collects various aspects of the British and French Channel Islands and has published ‘Les Iles Chausey’ which is the standard work on those French Islands. Jon’s other collecting interests include revenues, cinderellas, perfins, telegrams and Isle of Man.

Acknowledgements My thanks this month go to Jon Aitchison, Jim Ashby, Richard Goring, Peter Mantell, and Richard Peck for their reports and communications.

Meter News Page 123-1 of 10 January 2011 Latest Numbers Below is the list of ‘Latest Numbers’ as at the end of January 2011 – with updates shown in red. Please could I have the next reports by 27th February, thanks. Frama (UK) Matrix F2, F4, F6 F1000864 30.11.10 See MN 122 EcoMail FSC357604 27.08.10 Reported by AN MailMax FSC909446 04.09.09 See MN 107 Francotyp-Postalia Optimail T402872 12.10.09 See MN 108 Optimail 30 F04112628 25.01.11 Reported by PM Centormail 240/300 FC5110455 02.11.10 See MN 121 MyMail FM2119908 01.07.10 See MN 121 MyMail FM2650510 19.01.11 Reported by PM Ultimail FU3115705 20.10.10 Reported by PM Neopost IS-330 N1051313 08.12.10 See MN 122 IS-350 (Ex IJ-25) N1177459 29.11.10 See MN 122 IJ-65 N1208315 30.10.09 See MN 109 Various upgraded N1240562 10.01.11 Reported by PM IJ-80/90/110 N1254293 03.11.10 Reported by PM Various upgraded N1290069 29.11.10 See MN 122 IJ-35/45 N1318119 03.12.10 See MN 122 IS-460 (Ex IJ-50) N1373506 18.10.10 See MN 121 IS-420 (Ex IJ-30) N1385241 11.06.10 See MN 116 IS-440 (Ex IJ-40) N1390334 18.11.10 See MN 121 IS-480 N3015204 14.01.11 Reported by PM Pitney Bowes DM50, 55 PB066837 04.01.11 Reported by PM Connect+ 1000 etc. PB550788 21.12.10 Reported by PM Connect+ 10FC etc. PB555336 06.01.11 Reported by PM DM 400, 450, 475 PB615551 20.01.11 Reported by PM DM100i, 150i etc. PB854057 25.01.11 Reported by PM Advanced Mail AACJ-CB PB550337 22.09.10 See MN 120 . Peter Mantell and your editor also report recent increases in the Dead Series ‘PB2’. Peter reports PB296261 dated 20.12.10 and I have found PB298318 dated 19.01.11. Images of both of these have been uploaded to my web site (under Series Images) - as with all of the other latest number reports this month. At this stage, I am going to continue to categorise PB2 as a Dead Series.

My thanks also goes to Richard Goring for his ‘Latest Number’ report this month.

Next month I plan to relegate the ‘FSC9’ and ‘T40’ series as no increases have been reported for these series for over a year now.

Meter News Page 123-2 of 10 January 2011 2010 Sales Statistics – Low Volume Machines The table below is my best guess at the number of new Low Volume machines sold in 2010. Low Volume machines are defined as ones that have a throughput of less than 50 items per minute. Note that in 2010 there were no advances in the T and PB4 series and these have, therefore, not been included in the table.

Low Volume Prefix Dec-10 Dec-09 Difference Estimate Notes Frama - Matrix F2 F1 1000864 1000228 636 541 Note 1 Frama - EcoMail FSC35 357604 356030 1574 42 Note 2 FP - Optimail 30 F041 4112549 4111990 559 559 FP - MyMail FM21 2119908 2119677 231 231 FP - MyMail FM265 2650076 76 200 Note 3 Neopost - IS330 N10 1051313 1050457 856 856 Neopost - IJ25 N11 1177459 1172178 5281 3961 Note 4 Neopost - IS480 N30 3013462 3009103 4359 4359 PB - DM 50, 55 PB0 062077 051497 10580 11580 PB - Personal Post PB2 296261 294355 1906 1906 PB - Post Perfect PB7 764280 764228 52 52 PB - DM100i / 150i PB8 850916 844288 6628 6628 Total Low Volume 29915

Note 1 The F1 series is being used for the Frama Matrix F2 (Low Vol.), the F4 (Mid Vol.) and the F6 (High Vol.) machines. Estimates of 85%, 10% and 5% respectively have been taken as a rough proportion of the F2, F4 and F6 machines sold.

Note 2 Sales of the Frama EcoMail machine virtually ground to a halt during 2010. It is felt that an estimate of 42 machines reflects the actual number sold in the UK.

Note 3 The FM265 prefix was a new sub-series introduced in 2010. The highest number report for this month of the FM265 series indicates that significantly more than 76 machines were probably sold in 2010 and an estimate of 200 machines is felt to be a more accurate figure.

Note 4 From records taken, it appears that there are some significant gaps in the allocation of the N11 series (probably for overseas allocation). A percentage figure of 75% allocation has therefore been taken as a rough estimate for this series.

2010 summary & trends No. sold 2010 2009 2008 Average Frama Low Volume 583 1.9% 1.9% 2.8% 2.2% FP Low Volume 990 3.3% 2.0% 8.4% 4.6% Neopost Low Volume 9176 30.7% 19.5% 23.9% 24.7% PB Low Volume 19166 64.1% 76.6% 64.9% 68.5%

Meter News Page 123-3 of 10 January 2011 2010 Sales Statistics – Mid Volume Machines The table below is my best guess at the number of new Mid Volume machines sold in 2010. Mid Volume machines are defined as ones that have a throughput of between 50 and 150 items per minute. Note that in 2010 there were no advances in the FSC9, PB1 and PB31 series and these have, therefore, not been included in the table.

Mid Volume Prefix Dec-10 Dec-09 Difference Estimate Notes Frama - Matrix F4 F1 1000864 1000228 636 64 Note 1 FP - Centormail FC5 5110455 5110256 199 199 FP - Ultimail FU311 3115705 3115176 529 529 Neopost - IJ35/45 N131 1318119 1317911 208 208 Neopost - IS460 N137 1373506 1373322 184 184 Neopost - IS420 N138 1385241 1384887 354 354 Neopost - IS490 N139 1390334 1390202 132 132 PB - DP200 PB13 130297 130194 103 103 PB – DM400/450C PB6 615346 613869 1477 1477 Total Mid Volume 3250

2010 summary & trends No. sold 2010 2009 2008 Average Frama Mid Volume 64 2.0% 3.8% 3.6% 3.1% FP Mid Volume 728 22.4% 28.9% 12.5% 21.3% Neopost Mid Volume 878 27.0% 21.9% 63.6% 37.5% PB Mid Volume 1580 48.6% 45.4% 20.3% 38.1%

2010 Sales Statistics – High Volume Machines The table below is my best guess at the number of new High Volume machines sold in 2010. High Volume machines are defined as ones that have a throughput of more than 150 items per minute. Note that there were no advances in the N120 series in 2010.

High Volume Prefix Dec-10 Dec-09 Difference Estimate Notes Frama - Matrix F6 F1 1000864 1000228 636 32 Note 1 Neopost - Upgraded N124 1240555 1240468 87 87 Neopost - IJ80e etc. N125 1254293 1254094 199 199 Neopost - Upgraded N129 1290069 1290032 37 37 PB - DM400 etc. PB52 526507 525944 563 563 PB - Connect+ 1000 PB550 550788 788 788 PB - Connect+ 10FC PB555 555266 266 266 Total Mid Volume 1972

Meter News Page 123-4 of 10 January 2011 2010 Sales Statistics – High Volume Machines continued

2010 summary & trends No. sold 2010 2009 2008 Average Frama High Volume 32 1.6% 0% 0% 1.1% FP High Volume 0 0% 0% 0% 0% Neopost High Volume 323 16.4% 37.9% 35.8% 29.9% PB High Volume 1617 82.0% 62.1% 64.2% 69.0%

2010 Sales Statistics – Overall Volume

Manufacturer Low Mid High 2010 Share 2009 Share Frama 583 64 32 679 1.9% 1169 2.0% Francotyp-Postalia 990 728 0 1718 4.9% 1933 3.2% Neopost 9176 878 323 10377 29.5% 29.9% 20.1% Pitney Bowes 19166 1580 1617 22363 63.6% 69.0% 74.7% Total 29915 3250 1972 35137 59966

Conclusion

There appears to be significant drop (approximately 40%) in the total number of machines sold in 2010 compared with 2009, perhaps not surprising considering the economic downturn. There also appears to be a small increase in the market share of new Neopost machines and a corresponding decrease in the Pitney Bowes market share.

Recent Interesting Items

Further to his report last month, Richard Goring reports a further example of a Connect+ FC frank from Giles Insurance, but this time with a Christmas slogan. This confirms that this a standard built-in or readily downloadable slogan – a question that I posed in last month’s newsletter.

I suppose the black and white slogan does give it a wintry feel but I still think I prefer the full colour version on page 122-1.

Meter News Page 123-5 of 10 January 2011 Recent Interesting Items continued Richard Goring reports this Irish Neopost (IJ40/50) with an ‘Invalid Value’ die. Reports of ‘Invalid Value’ dies on Neopost franks from the UK are still awaited. A summary of the current machines in use in Ireland is given on page 9 of this newsletter.

Further to pages 22-1, 67-3 and 93-5, Peter Mantell reports another example of where the user has opted to just have the postcode instead of the full Return Address. In this particular case, even though the property number (100) has been included, it still doesn’t uniquely identify the sender. An internet search reveals that at least three organisations reside at this address, namely Prospect Educational And Public Services Limited, A D T College and Ashcroft Technology College. This makes sense if all three share the same franking machine and that they have done it this way in order to avoid constant changing of the slogan.

Further to pages 86-3, 89-6, 90-3, 109-3 and 116-3, Peter Mantell reports a fourth example of where the user has included a Department Number in the slogan position. In this case the user is Swindon Borough Council and the Department Number is 70. Note the hand- written ‘70’, presumably done as an instruction to the mailroom of the account number to use.

Meter News Page 123-6 of 10 January 2011 Presumably the council do this in order to keep a tally (within franking machine itself) of the costs / number of items from each department (as well as being able to identify the department should the item be undelivered). Recent Interesting Items continued Peter Mantell reports two examples of rarely seen ‘built-in’ Neopost slogans. On the first example it is also unusual to see a five-element frank on an IS-480 (N3 series) machine. The second (AIR MAIL) example is obviously a user error, given the ‘36p’ postage applied.

Peter Mantell reports another ‘Item Number 1’, this time on machine PB061344. It is worth noting that it still would not have been a highest number report for Issue 119 (September 2010) as we had PB062077 dated 20.09.10 at that time – i.e. this is another example of where new machines are not necessarily rolled-out in numerical sequence.

Richard Goring reports this ‘PITNEY BOWES – SPECIMEN’. This is, I believe, the first such report on a DM50/55 (PB0) machine.

Meter News Page 123-7 of 10 January 2011 Franking Errors Peter Mantell has kindly supplied all of the reports in this section. First of all, here is another spectacular printing error, this time on machine N3004783.

Peter also reports this item where the user has noticed the zero-value and immediately corrected the situation - note the two consecutive item counts of 1238 and 1239.

Further to pages 80-1, 91-4, 92-7, 106-3 and 111-7, here are two more examples of Invalid Dies with the correct postage applied. It is surprising that Pitney Bowes have not corrected this software glitch by now. This error has only been reported on PB0 and PB8 machines.

Editor: My suggestion last month that perhaps we should regard these Invalid Value dies as ‘Design J’ has sparked some reaction and discussion - further views on this are needed.

Meter News Page 123-8 of 10 January 2011 Overseas News – Ireland Richard Goring sends this useful summary of Irish meters from a helpful source at An Post. He says that there are approximately 15,000 licensed meters in Eire compared to our 250,000 or more in the UK. A breakdown of the Neopost prefixes has been given as:

IJ2 –Model IJ25 –basic IJC8/IJ8 – Model IJ85 IJ3 – Model IJ35 IS3 – Model IS350 IJ5 – Model IJ40 , 50 IS36 – Model IS420 IJ9 – Model IJ70,80,90,110 IS46 – Model IS440 IJC6 – Model IJ65 ,75 IS56 – Model IS480 Richard reports that all the of the examples that he has seen of IJ2 and IJ3 have six digits instead of the usual five of the other IJ prefixes, the second digit being '0'. However, Peter Mantell reports IJ210012 dated 14.12.09. Maybe IJ20 is the basic IJ25 and IJ 21 the enhanced IJ25e Pro? To date, all of the IJ8 numbers seen have second and third digits '51', while IJC8 are ' 50'. The IJ70 and 90 are not currently being marketed in Ireland, but they may have been. Richard also reports his first sighting of the IS36 IS-420, in blue ink - see below.

Finally, 'Fr' has emerged as the prefix for the Frama Mailmax – see Fr908025 below. It remains to be seen whether other examples have the lower-case 'r'.

FR2 identifies Sensonic models, but the OfficeMail is marketed in Eire as the Sensonic 2015 OfficeMail. It is possible, therefore, that the FR261326 illustrated in MN104-3 is an OfficeMail and not the earlier Sensonic 2000 model we first thought. Editor: Illustrations of other recent Irish meters reported by Richard (IJ200052, IJ301677, IJ302320, IJ51138, IJC60667 and IJ85025) have been uploaded my web site (Series Images), together with my report of IJ90021.

Meter News Page 123-9 of 10 January 2011 Meter Thematics Peter Mantell has found this attractive Viking Longboat design from the Kisimul School in Lincoln. The Kisimul School provides residential care and award-winning education for children and young people with autism, learning disabilities and challenging behaviour.

Staying with the schools theme, Peter Mantell reports this lizard design from West Moors Middle School in Ferndown, Dorset.

Richard Goring has found this neat company logo incorporating 5 of man’s best friend – you will, however, need to zoom in to 200% or use a magnifying glass to see them all.

Finally, Peter Mantell has found this unusual design showing a car coming off a roll-on roll-off ferry. I have awarded this my ‘Meter Thematic of the Month’ – in spite of the poor printing!

Meter News Page 123-10 of 10 January 2011