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Wales

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 Hi.   Around Christmas last year, I had a small trip to Wales during which I sent myself a number of covers. This is mainly because many postal markings found in Wales are bilingual with both Welsh and English, something which is almost never found in either Scotland or Northern Ireland.    Unfortunately, I was unable to find any regional definitive stamps with Welsh on them - perhaps, had I had time to visit more post offices, it would have been easier. I was also not able to get any Welsh yellow surcharge labels on-cover, although I did get some cut off ones.   It has taken very long for me to be able to make this post as I had to wait for stuff to come from abroad, but I can finally get on with it. I sent a number of different items but I will show those which are most notable.   I sent a damaged cover and received it in an "Our sincere apologies" bag, but it was not bilingual.    I sent at least 5 covers to BFPO addresses trying to get BFPO-o...
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Poland - Poste Restante Return to Sender Marking

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 A contact in Poland to whom I sent some items recently as Poste Restante to their local post office didn't pick them up in time. Today I got this returned to me.          Unfortunately, Royal Mail decided to pen-cancel the stamps; I didn't ask for them to be postmarked at the counter and while it still counted as a letter, it was a bit thicker and stiffer than most items so it didn't get an inkjet printing.   Here on the front side you can see a bunch of what looks like scribbles from the Polish clerks, two " BEZ OPŁAT " ( NO FEE ) markings and a " ZWROT / nie podjęto w terminie " ( RETURN / not collected within (the) period ) stamp.    On the back are two of those same stamps and an OSTRÓDA  postmark (branch number blurred).   I thought maybe it was rejected due to only the surname initial being present, but from comparing the my date on the customs declaration and the date on the return postmark it would seem that it sat there fo...
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Fife Scout Post 2025

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 For many years, Scout movements in the UK have offered "Scout Post" services in which they deliver mainly greeting cards during the Christmas season. These offer a cheaper and charitable alternative to Royal Mail while sending cards locally.  While the peak of these ended many years ago, and the Edinburgh one has been defunct for over 15 years, these still do occasionally pop up. This year, the nearest one to me that I could find was in Fife. Fife Scout Christmas Post poster for 2025    I don't live in fife, but I left an envelope with a Royal Mail stamp and a post-it note asking for them to forward it here, after paying the 50p donation. Unfortunately no paper stamps were available, you just threw in a donation and chucked the envelope in a transparent box. Cover with "SCOUTPOST" pictorial postmarks forwarded to Edinburgh     I also sent a few to an address in the area which I later picked up.    Cover with "SCOUTPOST" pictorial postmark sent t...
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New additions to modern usage of British postal stationery series

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 Hi.  This one is quite a bit older compared to the stuff I did previously.     I used a "Registered letter" valued at 69p to pay part of the £2.77 2nd class signed for letter rate. The rest is paid by a 2L horizon label.   I don't know exactly how old this envelope is. It has to be after decimalisation as it gives the value in "p" and not "d", but I believe it must be from the 70's or early 80's if it is old enough to be from days when less less than todays 2nd class rate could pay for a registered item that was seemingly considered quite large. The back calls it an "H" size envelope.  It was actually a bit of a chore finding an envelope made post-decimal, without half pennies to avoid confusion from my postal clerk, without extra pre-barcode machins stuck on or hand-stamps for revaluation, that was big enough to have both a Horizon label and modern Signed For label.  Unfortunately the Mail Centre did not apply a machine postmark, an...
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Up-to-date Horizon label service indicator list

 Hi.   I haven't seen any recent lists of service indicators used on Post Office Horizon labels, so I've made one, based on existing older ones.   I used a number of sources, including postagelabelsuk.com, norphil.co.uk, stu1967.co.uk and eBay.   I'm not sure on details regarding some of them, but I hope I'm not missing a lot of the codes.   I am trying to get as much of these as possible, and there is also different variations such as Welsh language labels, tax codes, the actual labels, fonts, etc. without even mentioning the 2d barcod type labels and miscellaneous others.    1st/1af    RM      1st Class - Now only Articles for the Blind 1L     RM     1st Class Letter     Usage restricted to Recorded Signed For 2L     RM     2nd Class Letter     Usage restricted to Recorded Signed For 1LG     RM     1st Class...
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Spain postal activities (including postby.me tourist operator)

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 Hi.  This is following on from a post I made recently about postal experiments and covers I sent during my trip to Gibraltar this year.  Here I will follow on with covers I got from the time I spent in Spain.  Unfortunately I was not able to send anything with Post&Go stamps, as none of the offices (including a very big one in central Malaga) did not have a kiosk.  I'm not showing all covers, just the more interesting ones.   Postby.me Postby.me is a tourist-oriented postal operator similar to UniversalMail in the UK. However, it accepts envelopes, not just postcards, and from what I've read attatching multiple stamps could even get it to deliver larger items; I did not test this, and I'm not sure how one would post this considering the mailboxes I saw had very thin slots for inserting letters.   Regular postbyme stamp sent from regular postbyme green postbox.             Interestingly it has aquired an inkj...
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Gibraltar Postal activities

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 Hi.  During October, I took a trip to Spain and Gibraltar, from where I sent a number of covers to myself as postal experiments and more.  I also planned a few things which I wasn't able to complete: Gibraltar postal order - I forgot :) Post & Go Gibraltar -  kiosk no longer present at central post office, no time to check parcel PO SSK Large Letter 100g+ label - same as P&G  Sending from Gibraltar with a Spanish stamp  Spain ATM stamp (post&go) - kiosk not present at offices I visited Phonecards Gibraltar - forgot, but no sign of being available Gibraltar payphone usage - payphones present, but those which I tried did not work :/  Swiss post tourist operaror Gibraltar - seemingly no longer present In case anyone ever wonders and searches the internet for ages like I did , apart from the seemingly now collectors-only Post & Go stamps, there is also no counter-printed ATM labels in Gibraltar, like UK horizon labels. At least in my exper...
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