Editor: Alastair Nixon, 7 Bramblegate, Edgcumbe Park, Crowthorne, Berks, RG45 6JA. Tel s4

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 There appears to be no limit to the variations you get these days with the format of the townmark. Richard Goring has found this unusual item where the town name ‘Alderley Edge’ has been split between the upper and lower positions! Two other examples of unusual town mark formats are shown on page 94-3.

Neopost – Two New Series Some exciting news this month - Peter Mantell reports two new Neopost series. The first item below is surely from a completely new franking machine - with the prefix N3. Note the small characters of the date and serial number but, most importantly, note that the ‘upper’ printer prints the date. The second item is another new series – N139. At this stage it is not known what models types produce these two new series.

Acknowledgements My thanks this month go to Alan Godfrey, Richard Goring, Peter Mantell, Stafford May, John McCallum, Tom Mullins, and Peter Wood for their reports and communications.

Meter News Page 94-1 of 10 Aug 2008 Latest Numbers Below is the list of ‘Latest Numbers’ as at 31st Aug 2008 – with updates shown in red. Please could I have next month’s reports by 29th September, thanks.

Frama (UK) EcoMail FSC 351833 30.06.08 See MN 93 MailMax FSC 908559 03.07.08 See MN 93

Francotyp-Postalia Optimail? B 0770780 01.02.08 See MN 90 Optimail T 402453 07.05.08 See MN 91 Optimail 30 F04111009 25.07.08 Reported by PM Centormail FC5110225 09.07.08 See MN 93 Mymail FM2118417 09.05.08 See MN 91 Ultimail? FU3114187 11.07.08 See MN 93 Ultimail 65 FU8002490 21.12.07 See MN 93 Ultimail 95 FU9001148 06.02.08 See MN 91

Neopost IS-350 (Ex IJ-25) N1165156 06.08.08 Reported by PM IJ-65 N1208261 11.07.08 See MN 93 IS-480 (Ex IJ-85) N1240293 25.07.08 Reported by PM IJ-80/90/110 N1253584 15.08.08 Reported by AN IJ-85 N1290017 23.01.08 See MN 90 IJ-35/45 N1317497 03.04.08 See MN 92 IS-430 (Ex IJ-40) N1359965 18.02.08 See MN 88 IS-460 (Ex IJ-50) N1373213 21.08.08 Reported by PM IS-420 (Ex IJ-30) N1384055 01.08.08 Reported by RG Unknown N1390025 12.08.08 Reported by PM, new p94-1 Unknown N3001402 21.08.08 Reported by PM, new p94-1

Pitney Bowes Paragon PBP84118 19.03.08 See MN 92 DM50, 55 PB030311 22.08.08 Reported by AG DP200? PB130080 03.03.08 See MN 90 DP400? PB143184 18.07.08 See MN 93 Personal Post PB279196 28.07.08 Reported by PM DM 200? PB311616 01.08.08 Reported by PM DM 225, 300 PB380543 23.07.08 Reported by PM, see below Personal Post PB488586 28.08.08 Reported by PM, see below DM 550 etc PB524631 04.08.08 Reported by PM DM 400C / 450C PB612027 15.07.08 Reported by RG Post Perfect PB763838 25.07.08 See MN 93 DM100i PB837684 27.08.08 Reported by AN

There have been two reported increases in the PB38 series this month and hence I have decided to re-instate this dead series for the time being. The date given above for the PB488586 item is the approximate date that the item was received because the item itself is undated – see illustration on page 94-4.

Meter News Page 94-2 of 10 Aug 2008 Recent Interesting Items

Further to page 94-1, Richard has also found this item where the London postal district (WC1) has been entered in lower case.

Meanwhile, Peter Mantell has found this item where the town name, Scunthorpe, is in lower case letters:

Your editor believes it is possible that the ‘IMPORTANT NOTICE’ slogan, shown below, is a previously unrecorded ‘pre-loaded’ message (as against free-format text entered by the user). Having said that, it is strange that this message has not been recorded before as the Neopost IJ-65 has been around for over 8 years now. It is possible that some additional software has been added recently to these machines. I would therefore be pleased to hear from anyone who is able to confirm whether or not this slogan is available as a standard selection on IJ-65 machines (or any other types for that matter).

It will be a long-term project but, at some stage, I am hoping to update my web site to illustrate examples of all the pre-loaded messages and mini-dies for each of the current machine series. I would be pleased, therefore, to receive scans of any of the more unusual ones.

Meter News Page 94-3 of 10 Aug 2008 Recent Interesting Items Continued . . .

In contrast to the above, Peter Mantell sends this Francotyp-Postalia Ultimail item where the text ‘THIS IS NOT A CIRCULAR’ has been entered manually, I believe. Indeed, it is thought that the Ultimail does not have any pre-loaded slogans, only mini-dies (e.g. see page 75-1).

Further to page 94-2, Peter Mantell sends this strange effect produced by PB488586 – which also happens to be a high number for this month.

Below are two items in unusual colours, the first in black ink comes from Peter Mantell. The second in a brown colour comes from Richard Goring and was last seen on 01.05.08 in blue. It is likely that this strange colour has come about because some traces of blue ink were still in the machine when the normal red ink was added.

Meter News Page 94-4 of 10 Aug 2008 Advanced Mail Further to page 93-4, Richard Goring has found our fourth example of an Advanced Mail item in red ink. Also shown below is one from the same machine from earlier this year, but in the correct blue ink.

Other Web Sites Of interest to some members will be the website of the British Thematic Association at http://www.brit-thematic-assoc.com. It is a philatelic site that covers all aspects of thematic collecting and well worth a visit. The Association produces a regular Newsletter called ‘Themescene’. Stafford May has kindly brought to my attention a write-up of my Meter Franking web site in the June 2008 edition of Themescene, which reads as follows:

“For those members who collect meter marks related to their theme, and even for those who do not, may I recommend a website I came across on reading a back issue of the British Philatelic Bulletin. It is all about British meter franking marks on www.meterfranking.co.uk. There is a monthly online newsletter and 90 back issues. There are also 20 listed themes with illustrations (all UK), so you may come across meter marks to add to your wants list. There is a huge mount of information on meter frankings themselves from 1920 including how to identify the machines. I was amazed at what was available on this website and to date have nowhere near looked at everything.”

Meanwhile, Jos Wessels from the Netherlands writes to say that he has put together a web page entitled ‘Ships on Meter Stamps’. Jos collects everything philatelic with a maritime theme – including all shipping-related meters and ports. The meter franking aspects of his web site can be found at:

Meter News Page 94-5 of 10 Aug 2008 http://home.wanadoo.nl/jos.wessels/FMS/ship_fms.htm

Meter News Page 94-6 of 10 Aug 2008 Unusual Townmarks

Your editor has found this unusual item with the townmark of ‘MUIR OF ORD’. According to Wikipedia, it is a village in the highlands of Scotland near to Inverness and has a population of 1812.

Peter Mantell has found another unusual town mark – this time from Bushmills in Northern Ireland. According to Wikipedia, it is a village on the North coast of Co. Antrim and had a population of 1319 in the 2001 census.

Here is a townmark that I have not seen before - ‘PORTLAND’. Unfortunately, the envelope bearing this frank does identify the user.

Having visited the Dorset peninsula on many occasions in the past, I thought I could count the number of businesses there on one hand – i.e. the Portland Stone Company, the Portland Heights Hotel and Dowsett Motors opposite the hotel. However, according to an Internet search, it appears that the old naval base on Portland has now given way to an industrial estate, housing 16 small businesses – each one sharing the same postcode ‘DT5 2LN’. Although there are only a small number of businesses on Portland, the current population is around 13,000 according to Wikipedia.

Meter News Page 94-7 of 10 Aug 2008 Meter Thematics

Here is an attractive ‘schools’ thematic from Thamesview School, Gravesend. It shows a sailing boat and a lighthouse. The address also caught my eye – Thong Lane!

Staying on the River Thames, here is a nice ‘tourism’ thematic from the Tower of London:

Richard Goring sends this attractive ‘avionics’ thematic slogan from the Mission Aviation Fellowship UK:

Richard also sends this image of a clipper sailing ship. The town name ‘Hessle’ is also unusual. Hessle is located in the East Riding of Yorkshire and has a population of 15,000.

Meter News Page 94-8 of 10 Aug 2008 Meter Thematics Continued Your editor has found this attractive design depicting a hovercraft. I must admit I was not aware that hovercrafts are still being made – presumably there is still a market for them somewhere.

Here is an unusual one found by Peter Mantell. Famous people are rarely seen on meter franks but they do make an interesting thematic collection.

Peter Mantell sends this ‘Sports’ thematic advertising the famous Test Match cricket ground at Edgbaston:

Alan Godfrey is awarded meter thematic of the month for finding this rather fine dinosaur or dragon from Ceandess Limited of Wolverhampton:

Meter News Page 94-9 of 10 Aug 2008 Meter News Page 94-10 of 10 Aug 2008