The ATMs in GUERNSEY. 2019, the Post & Go issues

Guernsey Post at SPRING STAMPEX 2019
The new '50th Anniversary of the Guernsey Old Car Club' series

Spring Stampex 2019 was held from February 13th to 16th. For the first time Guernsey Post attended this major London spring stamp fair, with two Intelligent AR kiosks selling variable value stamps.

As in 2018, the GG01 kiosk was installed on a stand located in the gallery bay on the second floor, next to the Jersey Post machine. In addition, Guernsey Post installed its DKU or desktop kiosk, with code GG03, on the stand shared with four other philatelic services (More information).

During the four days of Spring Stampex 2019, one of the printers of the GG01 kiosk issued stamps with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design and the commemorative imprint ' Spring Stampex 2019 ', along with a graphic design featuring some daffodils. The new '50th Anniversary of the Guernsey Old Car Club' thematic series, with no special impression, was available from the second printer.

		The first block of code at the bottom of all the stamps issued by the kiosk at this philatelic event is B2GB19 GG01-, followed by the session and stamp number.

			The new '50th Anniversary of the Guernsey Old Car Club' series was available, from February 13th 2019, at the GG01 philatelic kiosk temporarily installed at Spring Stampex 2019 and from the permanent GG02 kiosk installed at Envoy House, Saint Peter Port, Guernsey; in this latter case, with the ' Envoy House ' imprint. The series is composed of six illustrations by Robin Carter depicting vintage cars in front of well-known island locations; Delahaye Type 2 Limousine (1898), Delage Type X Coupe de l'Auto (1911), Riley Kestrel (1936), Bentley MK VI (1952), Triumph TR3 (1955) & Morris Minor 1000 Estate (1966). The rolls of thermal self-adhesive labels are manufactured by Walsall Security Printing, with digital printing and for the first time, on film / transparent backing paper.

Receipts of the six-value set or 'Collectors Strip' programmed and issued by the kiosks installed at Spring Stampex 2019 and Envoy House, respectively.

All the stamps bought from the Stampex postal kiosk were billed with a 20% VAT surcharge on the face value on sales made by Guernsey Post in the UK.

The Guernsey Philatelic Bureau also sells six-value sets or 'Collectors strips' with the 'Guernsey flag' design and the Spring Stampex 2019 commemorative imprint and the new 'Old Car Club' thematic series. These are all issued in Guernsey with the DKU system, with the GG04 special code.

There are two varieties of sets issued with the GG04 code.
The first column depicts the sets sold together with a first day receipt; the bottom code starts with B2GG19, followed by the equipment code GG04, and the sequential session and stamp numbers.
The second column corresponds to the sets included in the presentation packs and first day covers (depicted below), with all the stamps having the same bottom code, B2GG19 GG04-1969-05. 1969 is a fictitious session number taken from the year of issue of Guernsey's first stamps, and 05 indicates the number of the thematic series, although in reality it is the fourth series.

Guernsey Post produced a presentation pack containing a Collectors Strip of the new series, together with a pictorial first day cover.

	For its part, the desktop DKU system installed on the Guernsey Post stand, with code GG03, issued stamps with the 'Guernsey Bailiwick Flowers' thematic series, launched during Spring Stampex 2018 (see article, also published in VARIABLE 48). The stamps included the same commemorative imprint programmed at the GG01 kiosk for the 'Guernsey flag' design, ' Spring Stampex 2019 ' and the graphic image of daffodils.

The GG03 kiosk at the Guernsey Information Centre. The 'cruise ship' stamps (3)

After attending Spring Stampex 2019 in London (see article and VARIABLE 52), the Guernsey Post DKU GG03 unit was reinstalled at the Guernsey Information Center (G.I.C.), the main tourist information office, in St Peter Port, for the duration of the cruise ship season.

This desktop kiosk issued variable value stamps with the '50th Anniversary of the Guernsey Old Car Club' thematic series, released during Spring Stampex. In collaboration with 'Visit Guernsey', and like in the previous two years (see article, published in VARIABLE 50), the machine included either a permanent imprint ' G.I.C. 2019 Bianvnu in Guernesi ' on the stamps, (Guernesi is Guernsey in 'Guernésiais' known locally as Guernsey French), or a special temporary imprint only for the day the ship or ships call at the port.

The DKU system was installed on Monday April 1st, and the first special imprint, 'Bianvnu Britannia' also in Guernésiais, was scheduled on Thursday April 4th, on the occasion of the MV Britannia's cruise ship's visit.
Over the following months with the last ship's visit, on September 13th, the island received 63 cruise ship visits.

As in previous years, when two cruise ships visit the island on the same day, the printing includes both ships names. For single ship visits, the name is preceded by the greeting 'Bianvnu'. All the texts were available for one day only.
In total, stamps with 33 different special imprints were issued. The table below does not include the reprints on the occasion of subsequent visits of the same ship.

Date	Ship's name	Special imprint	Date	Ship's name	Special imprint
04.04.19	Britannia	Bianvnu Britannia	04.07.19	Oriana	Bianvnu Oriana
11.04.19	Ventura	Bianvnu Ventura	05.07.19	Saga Sapphire	Bianvnu Saga Sapphire
17.04.19	Marco Polo	Bianvnu Marco Polo	08.07.19	Spirit of Discovery & Aurora	Spirit of Discovery Aurora
20.04.19	Marina	Bianvnu Marina	20.07.19	MV Columbus & Ventura	MV Columbus Ventura
01.05.19	MSC Preziosa	Bianvnu MSC Preziosa	21.07.19	Spirit of Discovery & Oriana	Spirit of Discovery Oriana
02.05.19	Crown Princess	Bianvnu Crown Princess	23.07.19	Magellan	Bianvnu Magellan
16.05.19	Queen Mary 2 & MSC Orchestra	Queen Mary 2 MSC Orchestra	24.07.19	Spirit of Discovery	Bianvnu Spirit of Discovery
18.05.19	Arcadia	Bianvnu Arcadia	28.07.19	Brilliance of The Seas & Azamara Journey	Brill. of the Seas Azamara Journey
21.05.19	Ocean Majesty	Bianvnu Ocean Majesty	03.08.19	Crystal Serenity	Bianvnu Crystal Serenity
31.05.19	Sapphire Princess & Britannia	Sapphire Princess Britannia	07.08.19	Rotterdam	Bianvnu Rotterdam
03.06.19	Costa Pacifica	Bianvnu Costa Pacifica	12.08.19	Celebrity Silhouette	Celebrity Silhouette
06.06.19	Silver Cloud	Bianvnu Silver Cloud	14.08.19	Europa 2	Bianvnu Europa 2
10.06.19	Silver Spirit	Bianvnu Silver Spirit	29.08.19	Vasco Da Gama & Ventura	Vasco Da Gama Ventura
15.06.19	Queen Victoria & Prinsendam	Queen Victoria Prinsendam	09.09.19	Astoria	Bianvnu Astoria
19.06.19	Queen Mary 2 & Crown Princess	Queen Mary 2 Crown Princess	13.09.19	MV Columbus	Bianvnu MV Columbus
20.06.19	Aurora	Bianvnu Aurora
24.06.19	Queen Victoria	Bianvnu Queen Victoria
29.06.19	Magellan & MSC Orchestra	Magellan MSC Orchestra

The Guernsey Post DKU at the 29th Essen Stamps Fair

The 29 Internationale Briefmarken-Messe was held from May 9th to 11th, in one of the main halls of Messe Essen. Again in 2019, the fair brought together about a hundred international philatelic dealers, postal administrations, auction houses and philatelic publishers, as well as about thirty associations and study groups. These groups took advantage of this major annual event to schedule conferences, meetings with their members and also to present their study work.
The Internationale Briefmarken-Messe which was first launched in 1976 is the oldest philatelic fair in Germany, and since 2006 has been held annually in early May. After 29 such events, it is still one of the main annual philatelic fairs to be held in this country as well as in Europe.

In 2019, Guernsey Post again set up its GG03 desktop kiosk unit within its booth. Via the touch screen, visitors were able to select the commemorative issue of variable value stamps for themselves and select the appropriate values, as well as arrange the payment via the attached card payment terminal.


	Unlike the 2018 fair, at which the GG03 machine issued stamps with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design only (see article, also published in VARIABLE 49), in 2019 it was decided to use the new '50th Anniversary of the Guernsey Old Car Club' thematic series, released during Spring Stampex 2019, in London (article and VARIABLE 52). All the stamps issued during the three days of the fair included the 'Messe Essen 9-11 May 2019' special imprint below the face value indicator. At the bottom of each stamp, the first block of code is D5DE19 (D identifies the DKU equipment, and 5, DE and 19 the month (May), country (Germany) and year of issue), followed by the machine code, the session and stamp numbers.
			The GG03 DKU is programmed with six face value indicators, corresponding to the first two postage rates for local and United Kingdom mail, the next two for both normal size and 'Large' letters, plus the two tariffs in the first weight step up to 20g to Europe and rest of the world. These values make up the basic set or 'Collectors Strip'.

For those who did not have the opportunity to travel to Essen, Guernsey Philatelic Bureau sells six-value sets with the same design series and special imprint, but issued in Guernsey from the back office unit with the special code GG04. Therefore, the bottom code of these stamps reads B5GG19 GG04.

The GG01 kiosk at AUTUMN STAMPEX 2019. 50 years of postal independence

Once again in 2019, Guernsey Post installed its GG01 kiosk at London's Autumn Stampex.
As in previous years, the machine was located on the Intelligent AR stand at the end of the gallery bay on the second floor of the Business Design Centre, next to the Jersey Post kiosk (more information).

			From September 11th to 14th 2019, the GG01 kiosk issued stamps with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design and the 'Guernsey Post Celebrates 50 Yrs' special imprint, from one of the printers, and the '50th Anniversary of the Guernsey Old Car Club' thematic series with the 'Autumn Stampex 2019' imprint, from the other. The first block of the code at the bottom of all the stamps issued by the kiosk at this philatelic event is B9GB19 GG01-, followed by the session and stamp number. In Guernsey the philatelic service also sells six-value sets or 'Collectors strips' with the same designs and special imprints, printed locally with its DKU system, and the special code GG04.
			In 2019, Guernsey celebrated the 50th anniversary of its postal independence. Until 1969, the postal service in Guernsey was overseen by the United Kingdom's General Post Office. The GPO was abolished on October 1st 1969 and Guernsey and Jersey Post became independent postal administrations.

All stamps bought during Autumn Stampex were billed with a 20% VAT surcharge (shown on receipts) on the face value of sales made by Guernsey Post in the UK.

50 years of Guernsey stamps

On October 1st 1969, Guernsey Post became postally independent and began issuing its own stamps. On the occasion of this important anniversary, on October 1st 2019, the Guernsey Philatelic Bureau released two sets of six 'traditional' stamps and related products, marking postal (image below) and philatelic independence, respectively. The first set highlights the key developments in postal operations, and the second depicts some of the stamps issued throughout the 50 years since postal independence.


		Complementing these two issues, Guernsey Post also programmed a new special imprint on the GG02 kiosk installed in Envoy House. From October 1st until the end of the month, the stamps issued with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design included the imprint 'Guernsey Stamps Celebrates 50 yrs'.

Merry Christmas from Guernsey

		As in previous years, the Guernsey Philatelic Bureau wished everyone the best of Christmas holidays through a special temporary imprint. From Monday, December 2nd until December 24th 2019, the stamps issued by the GG02 kiosk with the 'Guernsey flag' design included the greeting 'We wish you a Merry Christmas'.