| FRANCE - PHILAOUEST 2011 - Montlouis-sur-Loire |
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Over the weekend of May 14th and 15th 2011, L'Union Philatélique de Tours organized the 49th annual congress of the Groupement Philatélique Maine-Anjou-Touraine. This brought together the 14 philatelic associations, affiliated to the Fédération Française des Associations Philatéliques, of the departments of Mayenne, Sarthe, Indre-et-Loire and Maine-et-Loire. The congress was held in conjunction with the interregional philatelic exhibition - PHILAOUEST 2011, in the Saule Michaud pavilion, in Montlouis-sur-Loire, central France.
Montlouis is a quiet town stretched along the Loire river, a few miles east of Tours, and is known for the jazz festival held there, annually, since 1987. It also produces an excellent white wine. |
| In addition to the interregional stamp exhibition, with an entry of 60 collections and over 300 exhibition panels, the organization prepared some tables for philatelic dealers, and for the sale of the different commemorative material produced for the occasion, such as special stamps booklets, illustrated envelopes, and personalized stamps (see images below). In the entrance hall (right) it also set up some exhibition panels with an interesting retrospective on Montlouis-sur-Loire. |
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Perfectly organised, and with a pleasant and warm welcome to visitors from everybody who participated in the philatelic event.
It is not always like that !! |
Small surprises we found when viewing the pictures ... What is the visitor, seated to the left of the picture, reading so attentively ?
A copy of VARIABLE ! |
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La Poste set up a small temporary post office next to the exhibition, where visitors could purchase some recent philatelic issues and philatelic material related to the region, mainly illustrated postage-paid envelopes, plus the new commemorative vignette d'affranchissement that Phil@poste granted to the organization.
The special PHILAOUEST postmark was also available there, showing the profile of the bell tower of the Saint-Laurent church reflected on the Loire river, and a grapevine. |
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The composition of the new ATM issue is formed by an image of the Loire river with the Montlouis-sur-Loire bridge, overlaid with the silhouette of a saxophonist - reminiscent of the annual jazz festival, and l'église Saint-Laurent on the right. The design is by Bruno Ghiringhelli, from photos provided by the Montlouis-sur-Loire town hall. |
| The church of Saint-Laurent is one of the main monuments of Montlouis-sur-Loire. Its construction dates back to the late 11th and early 12th centuries, and later extended in the 15th and 16th centuries. The church was restored in the nineteenth century, and the republican inscriptions on the facade 'LIBERTÉ ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ' and 'REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE' were carved between 1902 and 1905. |
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The 3 elements making up a maximum card agree perfectly in these examples. The Saint-Laurent church appears on the postcards, the ATM issue, and the silhouette of the bell tower in the special postmark. |
As with previous ATM issues, the labels are manufactured by Phil@poste using 4-colour offset printing on self-adhesive thermal paper, incorporating a phosphorescent vertical strip at each edge of the design. The ATM size is 80 x 30 mm.
| As a matter of interest, the labels were initially manufactured on normal paper, for use in Monétel - LISA 1 distributors, using ink printing - by mistake. This error was detected when testing the rolls in the IER LISA 2 distributors installed in the Montlouis post office, so an urgent reprint order of 20,000 thermal labels was sent out, and which arrived just in time for the exhibition. |
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The commemorative ATM edition could be obtained during the 2 days of the exhibition, from the unique IER LISA 2 distributor installed close to the La Poste temporary post office.
However, and despite being the only machine in service, there were no long queues. Most visitors did not come to the vending machine, but bought the ATMs at the La Poste stand, where ATMs were available with the basic postage values. Buyers could also purchase the commemorative covers and postcards produced by the organization.
During the exhibition, the minimum value programmed was 0.53 EUR (the current national rate of economic mail), but on the days after the exhibition it was possible to place orders for ATMs with lower values, until exhaustion of the issue. |
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According to current tariff at the date of issue, it was possible to obtain ATMs with up to 19 different impressions or shipment types, as well as face value stamps (with no text).
- For domestic mail the texts available are: LETTRE ECO - LETTRE PRIORITAIRE - MINIMAX - R L1 - R L2 - R L3 - R L1 AR - R L2 AR - R L3 AR.
- For international mail, the texts are: LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE - PETIT PAQUET PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONAL - LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE R1 - LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE R2 - PETIT PAQUET PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONAL R1 - PETIT PAQUET PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONAL R2 - LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE R1 AR - LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE R2 AR - PETIT PAQUET PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONAL R1 AR - PETIT PAQUET PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONAL R2 AR.
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The letter R is for registered mail. L1, L2 and L3 are for different levels of security, with different compensation levels paid to the sender in case of loss of shipment. AR is printed on those stamps for registered mail, with acknowledgment of receipt).
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| Inland economic mail - LETTRE ECO |
Inland priority mail - LETTRE PRIORITAIRE |
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International priority mail
LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE |
Inland priority mail - Small parcels
MINI MAX |
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International priority mail - Small parcel
PETIT PAQUET PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONAL |
Registered domestic mail, first security level
R L1 |
ATM Web - Spain and Latin American Postal Services: http://www.ateeme.net
© J. Jove - M. Sans. ATEEME. Variable value stamps study group. All rights reserved
This page was created in June 2011 and last updated:
24.06.11
. English edition rewritten by S. Goodman (24.06.2011)
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