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

The GI05 DKU at the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau. The new 'Moon Landing' series

With the removal of the GI01 kiosk from its location in London at the end of November 2017, and the two local kiosks GI02 and GI03 being out of service due to problems with the payment gateway, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office decided, at the end of November 2018, to cease using the 'Post & Go' installations.

In May 2019, the Gibraltar Government appointed a new director of postal administration. Glendon Martínez, the new CEO of the Royal Gibraltar Post Office, had been the director of the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau since 1995.
This change reactivated the 'Post & Go' project. In an initial phase, the philatelic bureau decided to bring into service the GI05 DKU (Desktop Kiosk Unit) first installed in September 2018 at the philatelic exhibition held in Macau (see article, also published in VARIABLE 50).
This equipment was installed in the public access area to the new philatelic service premises, at the end of August 2019 (images).

This renewed 'Post & Go' activity has seen the release of a series of six designs from this new GI05 kiosk. Like most previous issues, the new series reproduces images of stamps previously released by the Philatelic Bureau. In this case, the 'Moon Landing' stamp series dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Apollo XI mission was issued a month earlier, in July 2019 (image below).

The designs are by Stephen Perera, taken from official NASA photographs. The rolls of thermal labels were offset printed by Walsall / Cartor Security Printing.

On the date of issue, August 29th 2019, the GI05 desktop kiosk was programmed with six different postal rates. These include the five basic postal rates, within the first weight step, for the five postal zones established in Gibraltar (local mail, Spain, United Kingdom, European countries and the Rest of the World), plus the international registration fee ('Registered'). By way of interest and unlike the previous series, the mail to Spain indicator appears as 'Surface'.

Like other 'Post & Go' equipments, the current software program enables the purchase of single stamps with the different values, in addition to sets with the six stamps for local mail or 'Local Strip' (left strip) and sets with the six programmed values or 'Collectors Strip' (right strip). In this latter case, full sets of 36 stamps with the six values for each design or 'Collectors Set' were also available.

All variable value stamps issued by the GI05 kiosk configured for public use include the permanent imprint
GIbraltar
Philatelic HQ

This indicator also appears on the receipts issued by the machine.


		Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau sold sets or 'Collectors Strip' (left), as well as a pictorial first day cover (depicted below) of the new series. These stamps were issued from the same kiosk, although with a special back-office configuration that does not issue receipts and with the code GI04 printed on the stamps.

		For the second time only, the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau prepared a special postmark for a 'Post & Go' issue. The first postmark was produced in 2015, on the occasion of the very first definitive design depicting the flag of Gibraltar (see article and VARIABLE 38).

Registered first day cover mailed to the United Kingdom. The cover includes the variable value stamp with the mail indicator to the United Kingdom, plus the stamp with the registration fee indicator or 'Registered'; both of the same design.

The new 'Year of the Pig' design

Although with some delay due to the circumstances in restarting the 'Post & Go' issues, the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau took the wise decision of adding a second issue to its program before the end of the year.

The new design is dedicated to the Year of the Pig, and is the fourth in the series started in 2016 and devoted annually to the animals of the Chinese zodiac.
	See previous issues - 'Year of the Monkey' in 2016 (article & VARIABLE 40), 'Year of the Rooster' in 2017 (article & VARIABLE 44), & 'Year of the Dog' in 2018 (article & VARIABLE 48).

And as in previous years, the image featured in the new 'Post & Go' design corresponds to one of the two stamps in the 'Year of the Pig' set, issued by the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau on January 30th 2019.
The design is by Stephen Perera, from illustrations by Bajena and SiewHoong, of iStockphoto.


The rolls of thermal labels were manufactured by Cartor / Walsall Security Printing, with high quality digital offset printing that includes a security background in the left half of the label and a glossy finish in the design area.

Unlike the previous series, the labels are not attached to the usual yellow silicone coated backing paper, but on a transparent release liner or film, which is already becoming the standard option in most countries using IAR - 'Post & Go' equipment. Amongst its other features, this backing paper produces a clean cut to the printer, without any dust particles which dirty the printing heads thus reducing the thermal print quality.
In Gibraltar, this type of release liner had previously been tested in 2018, on the CCPA (Conference of Commonwealth Postal Administrations) issue. In this case, the manufacturer produced rolls with both types of backing paper and imprint (see article, also published in VARIABLE 49).

The 'Year of the Pig' design was available from November 13th 2019, from the GI05 DKU machine installed at the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau premises.
All stamps issued from the machine configured for public use include the ' GIbraltar Philatelic Bureau ' permanent imprint. The code at the bottom starts with 'D' (DKU), followed by the month, country and year of issue, machine code, then the session and stamp numbers.

			The philatelic service sold sets or 'Collectors strips' with the six programmed values, issued from the same kiosk but with the back-office special configuration (left strip). In this case, the machine does not issue receipts, and does not print any text on the stamps, only the face value indicator and the code at the bottom, which begins with the letter 'B', and the machine code GI04. Coinciding with the introduction of the new design, the philatelic department also modified the first two face value indicators, for local mail and to Spain, corresponding to the maximum weight rate (from 'up to 20g' to 'up to 50g').

In addition to the sets, the philatelic service also sold pictorial first day covers with the special postmark.