Editor: Alastair Nixon, 7 Bramblegate, Edgcumbe Park, Crowthorne, Berks, RG45 6JA. Tel: +44 (0) 1344 775378

Email: Web site: http://www.meterfranking.co.uk

Meter of the Month

Your Editor has been sent a scanned image of an Annual Report from a Neopost IJ80/90/110 machine. The Report, which was taken on the 28th July 2006, has been generated on two separate labels and basically gives a monthly summary of usage over the previous 12 months. The images of the two labels are shown ‘full size’ below:

As the machine was new in June 2006, the Tote figures for the first 11 months are, as expected, all zero. The Tote figure for the month of June shows 213680 that I assume is £2136.80 in real money. The month number of items is ‘6’ for each of the first 11 months – which I am unable to explain. However, the total number of items for June 2006 is given as 4668, which gives an average of £0.46 per item. Can anyone explain the meaning of the ‘85’ in the Cumulative Tote column and the ‘DIE NC’ at the top?

Acknowledgements

My thanks to David Aspinwall, Alan Godfrey, David Hardwick, John Scotford, Peter Mantell, and Robert Rowe for their reports and communications this month.

Latest Numbers

Below is a list of ‘Latest Numbers’ as at 23rd Aug 2006 – with updates shown in red. Please could I have next month’s updates by 27th September, thanks.

Frama (UK)

EPSTSF251 FSC 225307 06.07.05 See MN 63

Sensonic 2000 FSC 299801 05.07.06 Reported by AG

Sensonic 2000 FSC 340471 07.06.06 See MN 68

Mailspirit FSC 701320 10.10.05 See MN 61

Sensonic 2000? FSC 906010 15.08.06 Reported by AN

Francotyp-Postalia

Optimail T 401210 06.07.06 See MN 69

JetMail FJ0710763 06.02.06 See MN 64

JetMail FJ1500003 12.08.05 See MN 60

Mymail FM2503118 06.05.06 See MN 67

Ultimail 60 FU8001612 18.08.06 Reported by PM

Ultimail 90 FU9000581 07.07.06 See MN 69

Neopost

IJ25 N1150498 14.08.06 Reported by AN

IJ65, 75, 85? N1207896 02.08.06 Reported by PM

IJ80/90/110? N1251602 22.08.06 Reported by PM

IJ40, 50 N1315969 26.07.06 Reported by PM

IJ80/90/110? N1357277 17.08.06 Reported by AN

Pitney Bowes

Paragon PBP83958 19.05.06 See MN 68

DP200? PB129102 12.06.06 See MN 68

DP400? PB141229 23.06.06 See MN 69

Personal Post PB271964 21.07.06 See MN 69

DM 200? PB311157 15.05.06 Reported by PM

DM 250? PB325441 12.04.06 See MN 67

DM 225, 300 PB380184 02.03.06 See MN 65

Personal Post PB466555 26.07.06 Reported by PM

DM 400 etc PB510376 31.07.06 Reported by PM

DM 400 etc PB520462 14.08.06 PM – see Page 70-3

Post Perfect PB761248 15.06.06 See MN 68

DM100 PB821531 23.08.06 Reported by AN

My thanks also go to David Aspinwall and David Hardwick for their reports this month.

New Series – Pitney Bowes DM 400 series

Peter Mantell reports PB520162 dated 31.07.06 and PB520462 dated 14.08.06. I shall list these as a new sub-series rather than errors or a large jump in the old series:

Pricing in Proportion (PiP)

Many of you will have noticed the ‘Meter Man’ on the Size Guide leaflet (see below) that was recently delivered to all households in the UK, but how many of you spotted the three different licence numbers on his arms and body?

Also shown (reduced) is a Royal Mail flyer issued to franking machine customers – thanks to Peter Mantell for supplying this.

Advanced Mail

Peter Mantell sends a second example of an ‘Advanced Mail’ meter from the same machine (PB506222) - see page 69-1. Here, the item is 2nd class and the code reads ‘AAAA-ACYB-JTKT’ compared with ‘AAAA-ABKR-EUSU on the 1st class item depicted last month:

Is it possible that there is some connection with similar codes that have been seen on PPI and Reply Paid items recently? The examples shown below are ‘Business Reply Plus’ items and have similar 12-character codes – identified here as ‘Licence Numbers’:

Note that these PPI items include a barcode that appears to be the same whether the item is ‘1st’ or ‘2nd’ class. Note also that the Licence Number for these items start with the letters ‘RL’ or ‘RR’. Thanks to John Scotford and Peter Mantell for their contributions on this topic.

Recent Interesting Items

Further to page 68-4, it appears that the picture is more complicated than I thought when it comes to the change over of the ‘day start number’ on DP400 machines. Indeed, the two items shown below completely baffle me! Both examples are from the same machine and applied on the same day. The item number on the first item is ‘28688’ but the day start number on the second is one less, i.e. ‘28687’! Any theories about what is going on here?

Here is one that slipped through the net earlier this year. It shows the ‘Too good to ignore’ slogan from Neopost with ‘Happy Easter From’ added in small letters above the Neopost logo:

Illustrated below is a ‘Special Delivery’ Smart Stamp – the first that I have seen in this format:

Meter Correction Marks

Illustrated here are two unusual meter correction handstamps. The first is an attractive one inscribed ‘METER CONTROL CAITHNESS’ applied in blue ink with the date in red.

The second, in black ink, is inscribed ‘CROYDON MC CR94AA / METER DATE REGULARITY’. I’m thinking, shouldn’t it say ‘IRREGULARITY’?

This one is slightly unusual – it shows a London South Mail Centre meter Revenue Protection handstamp being applied to stamped mail. The wording above the postcode SW8 5BB reads ‘METERS / 0171-239 6157’.

Thematic Slogans

The thematics section of my web site currently depicts a toucan from PB911334. Here is the same slogan being used on the company’s new machine, N1313407:

And here is its mate, N1109806:

This reminds me of the slogan “How grand to be a Toucan, just think what Toucan do!” – written by Dorothy L Sayers for the Guinness adverts some years back.

Here are a couple of cycling thematics, the first supplied by Peter Mantell:

Thematic Slogans Continued

Here are two ‘media’ thematics:

And two nice college Coats of Arms from Oxford - the first one coming from Balliol College:

Finally, this one has to be classified as a ‘weather’ thematic as it sums up how I felt in July!

Meter News Page 70-2 of 8 Aug 2006