Spain - ATM issue EXPO 92

1992 was a magical year for Spain. Never before had there been so many large international events concentrated inside a few months. The Universal Exhibition in Seville, the Olympic Games in Barcelona, the European cultural capital in Madrid and, for philately, the World philatelic exhibition in Granada.

All these events had their own Klüssendorf type issue. It could be considered as the beginning of a new phase in the postal history of Spain.
(See also the Resolution 489 of the Dirección general del Organismo Autónomo Correos y Telégrafos).

The first Klüssendorf issue was dedicated to the World Expo 1992 in Seville - the Expo' 92.
The design of the issue shows the logo of the Exhibition, in the upper left corner, and the distinctive symbols of the Organismo Autónomo Correos y Telégrafos (Spanish posts) in the lower part, using a design format that was repeated in the next 3 issues.

Under the motto The era of the discoveries, the exhibition was held on the Cartuja island from April 20th until October 12th 1992, coinciding with the 5th Centennial of the Discovery of America.
Over these 6 months Seville became the capital of the world. The Expo hosted the pavilions of 112 countries, 17 Spanish autonomous communities, 23 international organizations and 6 large companies, as well as 5 thematic pavilions. About 20 million visitors could learn about the customs and cultures of other countries, as well as participate in a large number of playful and cultural activities.

3-days pass for the Expo

Printing varieties

This ATM design was initially issued in 1992 by all the Klüssendorf Stampcenter 631 automatic vending machines installed in the Seville Expo, as well as by the Klüssendorf Stampcenter 847 stamp printers of the Philatelic Service in Madrid. The total printing was not sold out and in 1993 and the following years it was possible to obtain this issue in some of the other Klüssendorf distributors installed in many provincial capitals, and later from the IBM postal kiosks.

Depending on the machine used and the configuration of the StampCenter 847, the face value of the ATMs was printed with 3 or 4 digits. In all cases the impression was mechanical, with black ink, although there exists some rare ATMs of this design with 4 digits and a lilac-violet face value printing, issued by the IBM postal kiosk installed in the Bilbao main post office in 1997.


Variety 3 digits black	Variety 4 digits black	Sub variety 4 digits violet
Klüssendorf StampCenter 631 Klüssendorf StampCenter 847	Klüssendorf StampCenter 847 IBM postal kiosk	IBM postal kiosk

Some ATMs have on the back a 4-digits number, preprinted control number every 5th stamp, which indicated the number of blank labels remaining in the machine.
(For more information about the Klüssendorf type ATMs, errors and special printings, see study).