Every one or two years the Spanish
Post (Correos) announces a public tender for the
supply of rolls of thermal sticky labels that will be used in the
franking balances.
The first one, published after a large delay, included the purchase of 516.000 rolls (each of 1.900 labels); 172.000 for the year 2001 and 344.000 for 2002. The second tender included 500.000 rolls expected for 2003. Along with the economic proposal,
the companies tendering had to supply some test labels, with a ‘free’
design, to verify their characteristics and to evaluate the results.
The first design corresponds
to a sample presented by a unknown company in the tender published in September
2001 and tested in balances in October of the same year.
On the left corner there is the Correos
logo and the word CORREOS printed with a special shiny golden
ink that displays different colour tones when viewed from different angles
and light conditions (1st. image).
The second model is a sample presented in the tender published in December 2002 and tested in balances on January 27th, 2003 (see adjust label). In this case, the non phosphorescent
thermal paper of the label is of a lower quality. Also the durability and
quality of the franking balances printing is poor. The subject was the
"Jornadas Europeas de Roma", (European Days in Rome).
As a safety measures in this case there is only the central cut and a micro printing in black with the text UNION EUROPEA under the flag. Although at first we thought that
this label was the sample presented by the company SIGNE, S.A.,
winner of the last public tender, the study and comparison in detail of
the characteristics of this test label with this ones manufactured for
the 2003 issues makes us think that it is not the same company.
(See also: The "ghost" ATM issue - "European Days in Rome")
© J. Jove - M. Sans. ATEEME. Variable value stamps study group. All rights reserved This page was created : 16.02.04. Last updated : 17.04.04. English edition rewritted by S. Goodman (17.04.04) |