The ATMs in GUERNSEY. 2017, the Post & Go issues

The GG01 kiosk at SPRING STAMPEX 2017. The new 'Guernsey Bailiwick Lighthouses' series

	With no activity since Autumn Stampex 2016 (like the Jersey Post machine), the Guernsey Post GG01 kiosk was in attendance at London's Spring Stampex 2017, from February 15th to 18th 2017. The kiosk was installed on the 'Post & Go Services' stand, next to the Royal Mail, Jersey Post and Royal Gibraltar Post Office machines (More information).

During the four days of the Spring Stampex 2017, the GG01 kiosk issued stamps with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design with the special imprint for the 65 years of Queen Elizabeth's II reign.

HM The Queen
Accession 1952

from one of the printers, and the new 'Guernsey Bailiwick Lighthouses' thematic series, with no special impression, from the other.

The first block of the code at the bottom of all the stamps issued by the kiosks at this philatelic event is B2GB17 GG01-, followed by the session and stamp number. The philatelic service also sells six-value sets or 'Collectors strips' with the 'Guernsey flag' design and the Spring Stampex special text, plus the new thematic series, all produced by the back office printer B002 (see strip below).

Following the 'Bailiwick Life' series (article and VARIABLE 40), the new 'Guernsey Bailiwick Lighthouses' is the second pictorial series released by Guernsey Post.
The six designs depict the main Guernsey, Alderney & Sark lighthouses; Castle Breakwater in St Peter Port, Les Hanois, Brehon Tower, Mannez (Alderney), Casquets and Sark.
The excellent illustrations, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful 'Post & Go' series to date, are by the British illustrator Robin Carter.

Guernsey Post produced a presentation pack containing a Collectors Strip of the new series (upper image), together with a first day cover, also featuring the Castle Breakwater lighthouse.

The new series was obtainable, from February 15th 2017, in the GG01 philatelic kiosk, temporarily installed at London Spring Stampex 2017, and the permanent GG02 kiosk installed at Envoy House, in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. In this last case, with the permanent imprint 'Envoy House' (see images below).

Printer B002 Guernsey Philatelic Bureau	Kiosk GG01 Spring Stampex 2017 - London	Kiosk GG02 Envoy House - Guernsey

Receipts of the six-value set or 'Collectors Strip' programmed in the kiosks, issued by the kiosks installed at Spring Stampex 2017 and Envoy House, respectively.

As can be seen, all the stamps bought in the London postal kiosk were billed with a 20% VAT surcharge on the face value on sales made by Guernsey Post in the UK.

Guernsey Post - The CSP1 kiosk at MELBOURNE 2017

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The GG01 kiosk in Smith Street Post Office - The cruise stamps

Each year, Saint Peter Port, the capital of Guernsey and the main port on the island is visited by more than one hundred ocean liners and cruise ships, most of them during the cruise season, between May and October. In 2016, 133,000 cruise passengers disembarked at the port, mostly for a few hours, and spent 4.2 million pounds on purchases and various services. Undoubtedly, this activity is a very important sector of the economy of this small Channel Island, situated west of the French Normandy coast.

In 2017, without any scheduled international travels and commitments and taking advantage of the long period of inactivity between the two London Stampex events, the Guernsey Post philatelic service decided to move its GG01 kiosk to the island and temporarily install it at the Smith Street post office, in the historic centre of Saint Peter Port.

The GG01 philatelic kiosk was placed next to the post office entrance on April 21st 2017, and remained there until August 31st.

During this period, the machine issued stamps with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design and the post office's name ' Smith Street ' from one of the printers and the beautiful 'Guernsey Bailiwick Lighthouses' thematic series from the other. The 'Guernsey flag' design could also be obtained with the B002 code.

In collaboration with the Guernsey Tourist Board the philatelic service decided to take advantage of the marketing potential of the kiosk in order to promote tourism and attract the interest of cruise passengers, by including the name of the visiting ships on the lighthouse series of stamps. These 'cruise' specific stamps are only printed on the day the ship (or ships) call at Saint Peter Port. In a little over four months, the island received 50 cruise ship visits. Some of these visited the island several times during this period e.g. like The Caribbean Princess, that visited Saint Peter Port on nine occasions.

The unprecedented features of these issues caused all sorts of reactions from collectors. Though initially aimed at cruise ship visitors, Guernsey Post had not planned to offer all these special issues to collectors as a standing order. However, as expected, very few cruise ship passengers visited the post office to acquire the stamps and not unsurprisingly many collectors and dealers contacted the philatelic service requesting all the different special imprints (110 standing order strips). At the other extreme, some collectors, disappointed with the quantity and nature of these issues, decided to completely abandon the 'Post & Go' collection of this administration.

With regard to the ship names printed on the stamps, we have identified three main different varieties (images below); (1) stamps with just the ship's name, (2) with the ship's name preceded by the text ' Welcome to: ', added when the name was very short and (3) with two ship's names, when two cruises visited the island on the same day.
All the texts were available for one day only ... or sometimes for just a few hours, on Saturday visits, when the Smith Street post office is only open in the morning for three and a half hours.

Ship's name	' Welcome to: ' + ship's name	Two ship's names

In total, stamps with 27 different special imprints were issued (table below, lines marked in yellow), plus 16 reprintings with the same imprint, on the occasion of the successive visits of the same ship (lines with white background).

Date	Ship's name	Special imprint	Date	Ship's name	Special imprint
21.04.17	Caribbean Princess	Caribbean Princess	01.07.17	Caribbean Princess & Azura	Caribbean Princess Azura
22.04.17	Azura	Welcome to: The Azura (1)	06.07.17	Saga Sapphire	Welcome to: Saga Sapphire
28.04.17	Marco Polo	Welcome to: Marco Polo	07.07.17	Vision of the Seas	Welcome to: Vision of the Seas
29.04.17	Saga Sapphire	Welcome to: Saga Sapphire	08.07.17	Adonia	Welcome to: Adonia
02.05.17	Caribbean Princess	Caribbean Princess	12.07.17	Magellan	Welcome to: CMV Magellan
08.05.17	Celebrity Eclipse	Welcome to: Celebrity Eclipse	13.07.17	Caribbean Princess & Queen Elizabeth	Queen Elizabeth Carib. Princess
12.05.17	Oriana	Welcome to: Oriana	14.07.17	Columbus	Welcome to: Columbus
18.05.17	Queen Elizabeth	Welcome to: Queen Elizabeth	15.07.17	Arcadia	Welcome to: Arcadia
20.05.17	Oriana	Welcome to: Oriana	20.07.17	Azamara Journey & Celebrity Silhouette	Celeb. Silhouette Azamara Journey
23.05.17	Norwegian Jade	Welcome to: Norwegian Jade	25.07.17	Caribbean Princess	Caribbean Princess
26.05.17	Caribbean Princess	Caribbean Princess	27.07.17	Adonia	Welcome to: Adonia
30.05.17	Albatros	Welcome to: MS Albatros	29.07.17	Oriana	Welcome to: Oriana
01.06.17	Vision of the Seas	Welcome to: Vision of the Seas	10.08.17	Ventura & Oriana	Oriana MV Ventura
03.06.17	Britannia	Welcome to: Britannia	11.08.17	Crystal Symphony	Welcome to: Crystal Symphony
08.06.17	Arcadia	Welcome to: Arcadia	12.08.17	Ventura	Welcome to: MV Ventura
17.06.17	Celebrity Eclipse & Saga Sapphire	Celebrity Eclipse Saga Sapphire	15.08.17	Crystal Symphony	Welcome to: Crystal Symphony
19.06.17	Caribbean Princess	Caribbean Princess	16.08.17	Prinsedam	Welcome to: MS Prinsedam
21.06.17	Adonia	Welcome to: Adonia	18.08.17	Caribbean Princess	Caribbean Princess
22.06.17	Ventura	Welcome to: MV Ventura	19.08.17	Adonia	Welcome to: Adonia
23.06.17	Silver Spirit	Welcome to: Silver Spirit (2)	21.08.17	Mein Schiff 1	Welcome to: Mein Schiff 1
27.06.17	Columbus & Silver Spirit	Columbus Silver Spirit	24.08.17	Marco Polo & Queen Elizabeth	Queen Elizabeth Marco Polo
(1) The philatelic service produced a later printing with the text 'Welcome to: Azura' (2) There are stamps with the erroneus imprint 'Welcome to: Sliver Spirit'			30.08.17	Caribbean Princess	Caribbean Princess

The receipts of the 'Guernsey Bailiwick Lighthouses' series do not include the ship's name or names.
The images correspond to receipts of two six-values sets or 'Collectors Strips', shown in the upper images, issued on the first day of the first visit 21st April and after the change of postal rates in May 2nd 2017 showing the different prices.

The GG01 kiosk at AUTUMN STAMPEX 2017

After more than four months operating at the Smith Street post office, in the historic centre of St Peter Port, the Guernsey Post GG01 kiosk returned to the United Kingdom, in time to be installed at London's Autumn Stampex 2017.
The kiosk was installed on the 'Post & Go Services' stand, next to the Royal Mail, Jersey Post and Royal Gibraltar Post Office machines (More information).

	From September 13th to 16th, the GG01 kiosk issued stamps with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design with the special imprint commemorating the retirement of the Duke of Edinburgh ' HRH Prince Philip 65 Years of Service ' from one of the printers, and the 'Guernsey Bailiwick Lighthouses' thematic series, launched during Spring Stampex 2017 (see article, also published in VARIABLE 44), with no special impression, from the other. The first block of the code at the bottom of all the stamps issued by the kiosk at this philatelic event is B9GB17 GG01-, followed by the session and stamp number. The philatelic service also sells six-value sets or 'Collectors strips' with the 'Guernsey flag' design and the same special text, produced by the back office printer B002.
	As can be seen on the receipt, all the stamps bought during Autumn Stampex 2017 were billed with a 20% VAT surcharge on the face value, on sales made by Guernsey Post in the UK.

Season's Greetings from Guernsey Post

	For the third consecutive year, Guernsey Post decided to include a greetings message on the stamps issued by the GG02 kiosk at Envoy House, in St Peter Port throughout the Christmas season. Following ' Merry Christmas ' (2015 - article and VARIABLE 39) & ' Bouan Noué ' (2016 - article and VARIABLE 43), in 2017 the special text was 'Season's Greetings 2017 '. This special seasonal imprint was available from December 4th to 22nd, on all the stamps issued with the 'Guernsey flag' definitive design only.