2020, the 'Coastal Flowers' thematic series

In a shared decision with Guernsey Post (see article, published in VARIABLE 56), Jersey Post's philatelic department scheduled the release of its annual thematic series to coincide with what would have been the opening date of the London Spring Stampex, on February 12th. The theme chosen for this first (and hopefully unique) 2020 thematic series is Coastal Flowers.

And as with Guernsey, this new series was only available, on the first day of issue, from the two 'Post & Go' machines permanently installed on the island, the JE02 kiosk for public use at the Broad street post office, Saint Helier, and the JE03 desktop or DKU unit, installed at Jersey Post's headquarters, in St Saviour. The stamps issued by both machines include the 'Broad Street' and 'Jersey Post HQ' identifiers, respectively.

The main menu of the Jersey Post 'Post & Go' equipment enables the purchase of stamps with six different face value indicators. These can be purchased individually, in strips of six stamps for domestic mail (Local Strip), in strips with all six programmed values ​​(Collectors Strip - images below) and also in sets of six strips each with all six designs and the six programmed values ​​(Collectors Set). All options have the corresponding receipt printed on thermal paper (images below).
Interestingly the first strip below shows a rare imprint error on the third stamp, where the information was printed in a different font and, in addition, the second line of text was not printed at all.

The series is made up of six designs of flowers found around Jersey's coast; Sea Rocket (Cakile maritima), Rough Star-thistle (Centaurea aspera), Yellow Horned-poppy (Glaucium flavum), Seaside Daisy (Erigeron glaucus), Sea-holly (Eryngium maritimum) & Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea). The series designs and associated philatelic material (images below) are by the British illustrator Lizzie Harper who specializes in Natural history and botanical subjects. She has also designed other 'Post & Go' series for Jersey Post; 'Beetles' (2016) (see article, published in VARIABLE 42) & 'Fruits & Berries' (2017) (article and VARIABLE 46). The rolls of thermal self-adhesive labels are digitally printed and manufactured by Walsall Security Printing on film / transparent backing paper.

Receipts of the new series with the six programmed values ('Collectors Strip'), printed by the JE02 kiosk (left) and the DKU unit with the regular JE03 code (right).

The Jersey Philatelic Bureau also sells six-value sets or 'Collectors strips' with no identifier printed on the stamps. These are printed with the DKU system, but with the B002 special code.

			There are two varieties issued with this code. The first column on the left depicts the sets sold together with a first day receipt (shown below); the bottom code starts with B2JE20, followed by the equipment code B002, and the sequential session and stamp numbers. The second column corresponds to sets included in presentation packs and on first day covers (shown below), with all the stamps having the same bottom code, B2JE20 B002-1969-010. 'Coastal Flowers' is the tenth 'Post & Go' thematic series released by Jersey Post.

Jersey Post produced a presentation pack and a pictorial first day cover with the six-value set or 'Collectors strip'. The special postmark on the cover is exclusive to this philatelic product.

In mid-June 1940, after the Fall of France during World War II, the British government decided that the Channel Islands, close to the French coast, were of no strategic value and consequently would not be defended. German troops arrived on Jersey on July 1st 1940, and for the next five years, the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, and Alderney were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by Nazi Germany. 'VE Day' or Victory in Europe Day was May 8th 1945, when the Allies accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. The next day the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Beagle arrived off the coast of Jersey and accepted the surrender of the occupying forces.

As in 2019 with the 75th anniversary of the 'D-Day' commemoration (see article, published in VARIABLE 53), Jersey Post celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Liberation with several special philatelic issues.

Among them, a set of six 'traditional' stamps (right), a sheet made up of twenty Local Letter stamps depicting the Jersey coat of arms, attached to vignettes illustrated with photographs of the celebrations (image at the end of the article) plus two new issues of variable value stamps.

		Jersey Post programmed the two Intelligent AR kiosks in operation on the island with the commemorative imprints. The JE02 kiosk, installed at the Broad Street post office, in Saint Helier, issued stamps with the 'Jersey flag' definitive design and the 'Liberation 75 1945-2020' special imprint over two lines. The DKU JE03 desktop unit, installed at Jersey Post headquarters, in St Saviour, issued stamps with 'The Crest of Jersey' design and the 'Libéthâtion 75 1945-2020' special imprint in Jèrriais, the traditional language of the island.
		Jersey Post had announced that these two special imprints would be available for just one week, starting May 9th (Jersey's Liberation Day) until May 15th 2020. However, both the 8th and 9th are national holidays in Jersey so it was decided to bring forward the issues to Thursday May 7th.