SPAIN. ATM issues 2020

CORREOS at the Feria Internacional de Coleccionismo in Villanueva de la Serena.
Codes IC20 & CH20

		At the end of January 2020, Correos announced its participation at the Villanueva de la Serena International Collecting Fair, in Extremadura, west of Spain. This Fair, the main national collecting event has been held since 2012 in the Juan Hidalgo multipurpose hall, organized by the 'Estremadura Baxa' collecting cultural association. In its ninth year, the Fair was held over the weekend of Saturday March 7th and Sunday March 8th 2020, just one week before the Spanish government decreed the state of emergency and lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis. However, the 2020 Fair brought together some 150 national and international exhibitors, and received more than 15,500 visitors.

With an incredible annual growth thanks to the great work of its director, Juan Carlos Ojeda, the fair has expanded since 2018 with the addition of a marquee, to an area of more than 3,600 square meters. In addition, from next year the Fair will be held over three days.

Correos attended the Villanueva de la Serena Fair with a small stand set up at the back of the main hall, selling several commemorative philatelic products; including in particular, and related to our field of study, a new ATM issue as well as a postcard, covers and up to three postmarks.

For the printing of the Fair's star product, the ATM stamp, Correos had installed one of its desktop computer equipments, fitted with two direct thermal printers, on the stand. Unfortunately, one of the printers broke down and, despite enormous efforts the problem remained unsolved and no stamps were printed during the two days of the Fair.
Therefore, unable to print stamps in Villanueva, the staff decided to take orders from the visitors, to be printed the following week in Madrid and sent onwards by mail to customers.

The design is again by Juan Antonio González.
As with previous issues, the rolls of thermal self-adhesive labels were manufactured by Walsall/Cartor Security Printers, although with a new change in format. We thought that after the Santander EXFILNA designs (see article, also published in VARIABLE 55), Correos had reached an optimal standard format, with labels on an attractive transparent film liner and a pre-printed neutral security background with the Correos logo, on the left of the label. However, the issue for Villanueva reverts to the features of the first designs, with the yellow silicone coated release liner and the left hand area for printing on a white background.


The stamps issued by the computer system with this design include the ' 7-8 marzo Villanueva de la Serena ' imprint in two lines under the face value indicator. The first block of the bottom code is P3ES20 (P for Production, 3 for the month of March, the code of the country of issue, and 20 for the year), followed by the temporary machine code at this exhibition (IC20, Internacional Coleccionismo 20), and finally the session and stamp numbers. As usual, this design is only available with the four basic programmed tariffs A, A2, B and C (see table below). The system allows for the printing of single stamps, strips of four stamps for domestic mail ('Tarifa A Tira 4' on receipts), and strips of four stamps with the four rates ('Tira 4 Tarifas' on receipts - image below), all of them delivered with the appropriate thermal paper receipt.


In addition to the ATM issue, Correos produced a special pictorial cover (right) and a new postcard or 'Tarjeta emisión máxima' (image below).
Three commemorative postmarks were also available; two general postmarks of the Fair, including a large rectangular one (above), and a special one for the Maximum Card, depicting the Cross of the Order of Alcántara, which is part of the city's coat of arms.

Left, promotional envelope produced by Correos.

Since 2012, the organizers of the Fair have been issuing personalized stamps illustrated with the fair's annual logo. In addition, since 2015 they have also requested Correos produce a special postmark with the same design. The cover depicted below, produced by the organization, includes the ATM issue, the personalized stamp, and the special postmark for the 2020 Fair.

		The logo of the 9th. Fair is dedicated to two city highlights, a modern ornamental fountain recreating a section of railway with two old water pumps used to supply the steam locomotives,
		and the Casa de los Bolos, a residential building built in the early 20th century.

This design was also available from the philatelic service, with equipment code CH20. In this case, the first block of the bottom code of these stamps is variable, depending on the print date. In the image, P3ES20 indicates that the four-value set was issued in the same month of March (3).

		As previously, in addition to the ES01 philatelic kiosk, this design was also available from the back office computer system used by the philatelic service, with the annual code CH20. The first block of the bottom code of these stamps also varies, depending on the print date. In the image, POES20 indicates that the four-value set was issued in the same month of October 2020.

The ATM issues for the EXFILNA VIRTUAL 2020. Codes ES01 & CH20

		Following on from the Santander EXFILNA in 2019 (see article, published in VARIABLE 55), the 58th annual National Philatelic Exhibition was to be held from October 28th to November 1st 2020 in Cáceres, Extremadura, in the western part of Spain. However, the health crisis and the restrictions put in place throughout the year as a result of the pandemic meant that a such an exhibition would not be possible during the last quarter of 2020. Eventually, at the beginning of June, the organizers the Asociación Cultural Filatélica y Numismática Cacereña, announced the cancellation of this philatelic event.
		The exhibition logo, designed by María Adela Cornejo Martínez, combines two outstanding images of the city, the silhouette of one of the towers of the Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo, one of the venues planned for the exhibition, and the image of a woman dressed in the typical Montehermoso costume, with her prominent and spectacular hat.

However, in order to continue with the 'concept' of an EXFILNA philatelic exhibition, the Spanish Federation of Philatelic Societies (FESOFI), with the sponsorship of Correos, decided to organize a virtual exhibition via a web page set up by FESOFI. The first VIRTUAL EXFILNA was held on the same planned dates, from October 28th to 31st. The 125 collections were accessible online until the end of November. In addition, during the four days, visitors were able to "virtually attend" the 11 scheduled presentations of books and lectures. Although not the first time that a virtual philatelic exhibition had been held in Spain, the organizers confirmed a very large number of visits and significant interest in this new format.

However, on the same dates, Correos and the local and regional stamp associations organized a symbolic tribute to the cancelled National Philatelic Exhibition Exfilna 2020, by way of a publicly restricted exhibition held at the Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo, in Cáceres.

		Even with a virtual EXFILNA, Correos continued with the release of the usual philatelic issues planned for this major annual event, although a wise and sensible decision was made to include special overprints on some of the items released to record the exceptional circumstances of the 2020 event. In particular, the overprint 'EXFILNA VIRTUAL X COVID 19' was included in the folded souvenir sheet dedicated to the Palacio de los Golfines - both on the stamp within the sheet, which reproduces one of the Palace frescoes (right), and on the official first day cover (depicted below).
		This text also appears in the special large-size postmark featuring the exhibition logo (left), in a green colour alluding to the autonomous community of Extremadura.

As in previous years, Correos also launched two new issues of variable value stamps -or 'etiquetas ATM' as Correos refers to these stamps- for the EXFILNA of Cáceres. These were illustrated with the EXFILNA 2020 logo and motifs relating to the city. The 'Aljibe' (water tank) design, dedicated to the Almohad cistern of the Palacio de las Veletas, and the 'Toledo-Moctezuma' design, with an image of the tower of this Palace. The series designs, as well as the postmarks and special covers, are by Juan Antonio González, from the Correos design and image department. The rolls of 1,500 self-adhesive thermal labels were manufactured by Walsall/Cartor Security Printers.
Note that the designs include '58 EXFILNA/ECC', which refers to the 7th European Convention for Collectors (ECC), organized by ANFIL and to be held during EXFILNA.

Maximum card below. The Palacio de las Veletas occupies the area of the former Almohad fortress, in which is preserved the cistern to store rainwater. The vaulted naves are supported by 16 horseshoe arches on 12 columns, some of Roman origin. Right. The Toledo-Moctezuma Palace is a Renaissance-style building built and renovated between the 15th and 17th centuries. The name comes from the marriage between Mariana de Carvajal and Toledo with Juan de Toledo Moctezuma, grandson of the Aztec emperor.

Both designs were again available from the ES01 philatelic kiosk installed in the lobby of the Chamartín mail processing centre, in Madrid. Although the EXFILNA was virtual, these designs were only available for the three working days in which the EXFILNA would have been held, from Wednesday October 28th to Friday 30th; the only days the kiosk was accessible and supervised by the staff.

During these three days, the machine issued stamps of both designs with the '28-30 octubre Madrid Chamartín' imprint in two lines under the face value indicator. The kiosk was programmed with the usual four postage rate indicators, which make up the sets or 'Tira de 4 tarifas' (images below), Tarifa A, A2, B and C. Receipts printed on thermal paper were issued along with the stamps.



Available for just three days, the first block of code printed on the bottom of each stamp begins with BOES20, followed by the machine code (ES01), the session (3217 in the images) and stamp numbers.


Along with these two variable value stamp issues, the philatelic service produced two commemorative covers, which also included the 'EXFILNA VIRTUAL X COVID 19' imprint.
It should be noted and thanks once again go to the philatelic service in preparing special postmarks for each of the two ATM designs.

Both designs were also available from the back office computer system used by the philatelic service, with the annual code CH20. The first block of the bottom code of the stamps printed in October is POES20 (images), unlike the strips included in the annual philatelic folder, also issued with the CH20 equipment, but which are dated December (PDES20).