The past December 2002, Correos - Spanish Posts announced the annual tender for the acquisition of the rolls of sticky stamps that will be used in the franking scales during the year. For 2003 is expected the use of 500.000 rolls. 

In this occasion, besides the already known FNMT and OVELAR, one third company appeared. As established in the bases of the tender, the company facilitated to Correos some test rolls to value its characteristics and to test in the balances.
 

	This it is the origin of the sticky support dedicated to "European Days in Rome"; It does not include the words CORREOS nor ESPAÑA, and possibly we'll never see as a new ATM issue. (Click on the image to enlarge. Source : T. von Loeper)

Studying carefully the sticky support we will be able to appreciate that the printing system does not correspond to the habitual ones used by FNMT and OVELAR. In addition, the characteristics of the paper used, the size and the lateral undulations are also different from those from the papers manufactured by these two companies:
 

	Label size :  47 x 27 mm. Wavy side with points. Manufacturer : OVELAR (by order from RCM-FNMT).		Label size : 47 x 26 mm. Smooth wavy side. Manufacturer : RCM-FNMT. Real Casa de la Moneda - Fabrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre		Test issue. Label size : 47 x 27 mm. Wavy side. Manufacturer : ??
Format type 2		Format type 3

(More information about adhesive papers, formats and characteristics, please visit this page)

At the moment the result of the tender is unknown and we don't know if during this year we'll see any paper manufactured by this new (and unknown at the moment) company. 
We'll be very attentives to the new ATM issues ... 
 
 

(Update April 24th, 2003)

	The Spanish company SIGNE S.A. is the winner of the Correos public tender (Dec. 2002) for the manufacture of the ATM labels in 2003.

The company will design and manufacture the ATM adhesive labels, but always after the subjects proposed and approved by the Correos Philatelic Department.
The last issue manufactured by F.N.M.T. is the last model of Historical Motorbikes series; Soriano model Puma.