France. ATM issue Phila Ouest

	Following the remarkable success of the *Championnat de France de Philatélie - 2007* (see article >, also published in VARIABLE 5), the *Amicale Philatélique Poitevine* -led by its enthusiastic president Jean-François Duranceau-, organized the *Phila Ouest 2009* - stamps and postcards exhibition and the inter-regional philatelic championship. Like the 2007 exhibition, the *Phila Ouest 2009* was held, from September 18th to 20th 2009, under the magnificent cupola of the Poitiers Parc des Expositions.
	The *Phila Ouest* exhibition brings together philatelic associations from the 24 western French departments, along with some other specialized philatelic organisations. Following the opening format established in the last *Championnat de France de Philatélie 2009, held in Tarbes, (see article >, and also in VARIABLE 13), Phila Ouest 2009* also included a section devoted to postcards.

The Philatelic Salon brought together exhibitions dedicated to polar philately -organized by the Union Française de Philatélie Polaire – SATA; Andorran philately -an interesting exhibit prepared by Philandorre, the Société d'Études Philatéliques et Postales de l'Andorre; the world of the circus -the subject for one of the personalized stamps and one commemorative postmark (see next paragraph). There was also an area to promote stamp collecting amongst young people, some stands for philatelic dealers, and some booths for product tasting and sale of regional products.

Among the various philatelic products produced for this philatelic event, the Amicale Philatélique Poitevine sold different items with 2 new personalized stamps, called 'MonTimbraMoi' en France - one dedicated to the circus, and the other to Jeanne d'Arc, the French heroine who was interrogated in Poitiers in 1429 and beatified in 1909.

Phila Ouest 2009 coincided with the issue of a stamp dedicated to Eugène Vaillé, the first keeper of the French Postal Museum, to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. Temporary post offices, with the first day of issue postmark, which included the text ‘premier jour’, were installed on September 19th in the Paris Postal Museum and Bédarieux, the birth place of Eugène Vaillé. The philatelic service also authorised the advance sale of the stamp in Poitiers, and the use of a commemorative postmark (without the ‘premier jour’ text).

La Poste produced a new vignette d'affranchissement combining both events, with the picture of Eugène Vaillé at the left, and the Nôtre-Dame-la-Grande church -symbol of Poitiers- on the right. The design is by Stéphanie Ghinéa, from photos by the Musée de la Poste and Jean-François Duranceau.

The rolls of 1,000 labels were manufactured by Phil@poste using 4-colour offset printing on self-adhesive thermal paper and which incorporate a phosphorescent vertical strip at each edge of the design. The ATM size is 80 x 30 mm.

The new thermally printed commemorative ATM issue could be obtained during the 3 days of the exhibition, from the 3 IER - LISA 2 postal kiosks installed near to the La Poste temporary post office. While there were notes above the machines warning that the minimum face value allowed was 0.51 EUR (the current national rate for economic mail), it was possible to obtain ATMs with a face value 0.01 EUR.
The 3 machines were programmed with the new extended postage rate programme (more information in the article devoted to the ATM issue Tour Eiffel >), so postal users could obtain ATMs with up to 12 different texts or imprints, as well as face value stamps (with no text). Because of the thermal printing and the high face value of ATMs for registered mail, only the first values are normally taken into consideration for set collecting.


Inland economic mail - ECOPLI	Inland priority mail - LETTRE PRIORITAIRE

International priority mail INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENT PRIORITAIRE	Inland priority mail - Small parcels MINI MAX
Special TEST printing

2 commemorative postmarks, with the text Philaouest – Poitiers, were used in the temporary post office. Both were specially prepared for use with the 2 personalized stamps 'MonTimbraMoi', with one devoted to Jeanne d'Arc and the other to the circus.
Moreover, the advanced-sale postmark featuring Eugène Vaillé was also available from Saturday 19th. In spite of the coincidence of the theme with the design of the ATM issue, it was only allowed to be used for the cancellation of the corresponding stamp. However, there are illustrated covers with the ATM issue and the Eugène Vaillé postmark, prepared by the *Amicale Philatélique Poitevine* prior to the *Phila Ouest 2009* opening.

Maximum card - Philaouest