Stamp Vending Machines

[Arran]

Re: Stamp Vending Machines

A detailed history of stamp vending machines

http://www.stampprinters.info/v13%20...%20History.pdf

How many of them do you remember?

[George 1978]

Re: Stamp Vending Machines

I very rarely used them, but I assume that it was a lot more useful to buy them when the Post Office was closed and not having to wait for them to open. Some might have offered single stamps as well.

As I said in the other thread, they were in books of four with a more glossy cover than now (probably because they are made on recyclable paper these days). Some books had a plastic "window" so you could see the "top right" stamp inside the book, while later ones had a diagonal line at the bottom right of the Queen's picture so it cannot be used as a stamp itself, even though the glossiness of it would make it more than apparent that it wasn't one of the actual stamps.

At least modern stamps can be peeled off backing paper and not have to lick them - I wouldn't want to lick some stamps that were years old.

[Richard1978]

Re: Stamp Vending Machines

I heard the stamp machines in phone boxes weren't popular because they were hard to waterproof & often the stamps ended up gummed together.

Also the noise from the dispensing mechanism could be heard inside the box, distracting anyone making a call.

[Arran]

Stamp vending machines, attached to the side of pillar boxes or inset into the wall outside of post offices, were once commonplace during the 20th century but seemed to disappear shortly after 2000.

I can remember a mechanical SVM attached to a pillar box on a local housing estate in 1999/2000. I think it was still working then but it has since been removed. Around the same time there were also electronic SVMs inset into walls outside post offices.

In London I have encountered a few post boxes with inbuilt SVMs at the back. None of them were functioning even back in the 1990s.