Does anyone collect these items?
Is there a way to find out if they have any value?

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sheepshanks

17 May 2020
10:57:36am

re: Pitney Bowes and other postal labels?

Stanley Gibbons in their monthly magazine some years ago ran an article or series on these machines and labels. Not sure if their archive is searchable, maybe with a fee. The sg UK Concise lists them in the Frama section.

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smauggie

17 May 2020
02:04:02pm

re: Pitney Bowes and other postal labels?

Pitney Bowes only produces meters, which can be printed right on the envelope or in some cases onto a "security tape".

For information on meters visit The International Postage Meter Stamp Catalog.

There are also what we in the United States refer to as "computer-vended postage". These are labels with postage which can be printed at home or via a special machine in a post office.

I collect full covers with meters from Minnesota as well as US meters by type. I am now missing the hard to find meters at this point. I also have a small collection of foreign meters on full covers, and am always looking for foreign (non-US) from far-flung, small and interesting countries.

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re: Pitney Bowes and other postal labels?

I was employed as a salesman with Alcatel Business Systems. They bought over Neopost who sold postal franking machines. When someone bought a machine they were provided with an engraved impression carrying the licence number and location of the franking machine issued by Royal Mail. Salesmen were encouraged to add an advertising slogan to the contract which promoted the business of the customer. In all cases the slogan could be switched off if necessary for confidentiality.

When posting mail, customers had to ensure the date was correct, and correct fee for postage was paid. Separate bags were provided for first class, second class, and packages, which were taken to the Post Office. Routinely Crown Post Offices would pick random samples to check rules were followed, and underpayment of post did not occur. Before Joining Alcatel I had been employed by Royal Mail as a Postal Engineer. My duties included monitoring the stamp cancelling machine and franked mail was cancelled separately from stamped mail.

It would normally fall to the most junior person in an office to frank mail. Often he or she would not fully understand differences between postal rates. It was normal for someone to overpay or underpay postage. Equally, when people were leaving a job and had a grudge against their employer, on their last day they would apply all available credit on the franking machine to a single envelope, to cause problems in the office. The Post Office were very happy to allow too much to be paid, but they harshly penalised underpayment.

In the early days of my time with Alcatel meters had to be carried to a Post Office for credit to be applied, and paid in full at that time. Now it is done by credit card, digitally or over the phone. Postal impressions were made directly on envelopes, and labels were used for parcels. Although attempts were made to use multi coloured impressions, they proved to be more bother than they were worth and I think have now been consigned to the round filing cabinet.

Neopost had 2 major competitors at that time, namely Pitney Bowes and Frama. I believe all are still going. I was employed in a separate branch of the business but routinely came into contact with both salesmen and technical staff. Although I kept many samples of envelopes with nice slogan blocks, I am angry I did not ask colleagues to have a label printed for me from each machine they installed. Then again where would I store them now?

 
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re: Pitney Bowes and other postal labels?

I re-read the original post several times. For the life of me I cannot find anywhere in the 2 sentence post where the original author stated he/she is looking for postal franking labels. Is it written in a code? Just trying to make sure Londonbus1 has his/her facts right.

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