- Overseas residents A$15.00
- Junior members (ie under 16 years of age) A$2.50
Or contact the Group:
- By telephone
- By email at
September 2001 -update
- Australia Post were in attendance
at St.Peters Stamp and Coin Fair and Salisbury Philatelic Society
fair in October
2001and Counter Printed Stamps were available.
St.Peters Salisbury
November 2001 Update
- Congress 2001 was held at Murray Bridge,
South Australia, over the weekend of 10th and 11th November
2001.
Australia Post were is
attendance and Counter Printed Stamps were available.
Congress 2001
- The Stirling Philatelic Society (Inc.),
Western Australia, issued a booklet to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of the founding
of the Society.
The booklet contained
two Flag and Kangaroo personalised stamps with the Societies crest on the
tab.
The issue was limited
to 250 booklets.
Front
Cover of Booklet
Pair
of stamps
January 2002 - Update
- Australia Post issued a sheet of P-Stamps
to mark the playing of the Final of the Davis Cup between Australia
and France in Melbourne from
30 November 30 to 2 December 2001.
- Australia Post issued a Special Event
Souvenir (SES) sheet of stamps to mark the bi-centenary of the meeting
of Matthew Flinders (England),
his ship was Investigator and Nicolas Baudin (France), his ship was
LeGeographe, in what is
now called Encounter Bay off the coast of South Australia on April 8, 1802.
The
sheet is of 10 stamps
in a 2 x 5 stamp format.
- The reprint Tiwi paper has appeared at several locations.
NPC, 4000 Brisbane GPO, Adelaide GPO machines 1
and 2, A57 Blackwood, A59 Mount Gambier,
A83 Gouger Street, A96 Oaklands Park, A77 Murray Bridge and
B48 Victor Harbor.
- March 2002 - Update
- The reprint Tiwi paper continues to be used in more
locations. The most recent reported are :
Brisbane GPO machine No. 1 (previously it had
been used only in machine No. 2) and A10 Coolangatta.
- The Sydney Airport cliché number B99 frama machine
was issuing faint stamps with the cliché number missing
when it was visited on 2 March 2002.
- The Adelaide GPO frama machine number 2 (the keypad
machine) was issuing stamps during February and
March 2002 with not much more than the value
printed. This would certainly be due to a twisted ribbon.
May 2002 Update
- The Adelaide GPO keypad frama machine, machine
No.2, was removed from service on 26 April 2002.
The button frama machine, machine
No. 1 continues to operate satisfactorily.
- The distribution of reprint Tiwi frama paper
to post offices with frama machines has been irregular.
Whereas all of the machines in South
Australia (except Rundle Mall (cliché A15)) and some machines in
Victoria and in Queensland have
issued the reprint Tiwi paper, none of the machines in New South Wales
have issued the reprint paper.
In fact one machine in New South Wales is still issuing Festive paper and
another is issuing Emu
paper!
- Australia Post have sought to clear up
some of the confusion with Special Event Souvenir (SES) sheets,
which are a development of the
Personalised Stamps introduced in September 1999.
In the Australian Stamp Bulletin
No. 265 June-July 2002 it is explained that there are two types of SES
sheets:
Type 1 created by Australia
Post in cooperation with a third party for sale to the public. These sheets
have
the Australia Post logo printed
on the them. Examples of Type 1 are Davis Cup, LLeyton Hewitt and Stawell
Gift.
Type 2 created by Australia
Post on behalf of customers for that customers exclusive use. These sheets
do
not carry the Australia
Post logo.
A list of Type 1 sheets will
continue to be listed in the Australian Stamp Bulletin.
A list of sheets, including
Type 2 sheets produced on behalf of customers who are willing for this
information to be published,
will be available on request from the Australian Philatelic Bureau. As
the list is
updated (quarterly) it will
be included in future Stamp Bulletins.
- Many countries in the European Union
have begun issuing ATM etc. with the value shown in Euro only.
--oo--
July 2002 Update
- Although Festive Frama paper was withdrawn
from general use in October 1999, Festive Frama paper
continues to be reported as being
used in Frama machines!
The latest use of Festive paper was
on 10th July 2002 from York Street, Sydney (2000/1 machine).
Note: This is the "mid" rate in the present button set
values of 45c, 49c, 50c.
The button set values that were applicable when Festive paper was withdrawn
were 45c, 90c, $1.35.
- The Adelaide GPO has issued two more Counter
Printed Stamps in 2002.
The first was a change of literal
from "ADEL GPO" to "ADELAIDE GPO".
Although 1st April 2002 was
announced as the issue date, it was not available until mid-June 2002 due
to
problems with the equipment.
- The second issue was for St.Peters Stamp Fair
on the weekend of 22-23 June 2002.
- Some of the most sort after varieties in
Australian Framas and I suspect the same applies for ATM from
many other countries,
are Zero Values.
Your editor was lucky enough
to get a double strike on Tiwi paper, zero value over 20 cent value, when
obtaining stamps from
Murray Bridge (A77) in South Australia recently.
--oo--
September 2002 Update
- After being available for only approximately
six weeks, the counter printed stamp issued from Adelaide GPO
with the literal "Adelaide GPO"
(see August 2002 update) was withdrawn on 1st August 2002.
- Although all counter printed stamp
machines have now been removed from service at GPOs, following the
removal of the machine from
Adelaide GPO, counter printed stamps continue to be issued from stamp fairs
in
South Australia.
The latest such issue was for
the South Australian Congress held at Para Hills Philatelic Society on
21-22
September 2002.
- PStamps (Special Event Souvenir Sheet stamps)
continue to be issued by Australia Post and are still popular
with collectors.
Two of the more recent issue have been for
the Victorian Canine Association (sheet of 20 stamps) and for
Father's Days 2002 (sheet of 10 stamps)
each sheet has decorative selvage.
--oo--
November 2002 - Update
- It has been announced by Australia Post that all Frama
machines will be withdrawn from
service on 30 June 2003.
- A Special Event Souvenir sheet of stamps was available
at for the Melbourne Stampshow held
over the weekend of 4 to 6 October 2002.The
sheet consisted of twenty globe stamps with
sports figures, the theme of the show, on
the tabs.
--oo--
- Swanpex 2002 was held at the University
of Western Australia, Crawley over the weekend of
12 and 13 October 2002.
A Special Event Souvenir sheet
of stamps was available. The stamps were the Kangaroo and
Flag and there were twenty stamps
on the sheet. The tab featured the logo of the event and the
wording "sWAnpex/2002/CRAWLEY"
.
There was also available two
sets of covers. One set with stamps from the SES sheet affixed,
the other set with the stamps
perfin.
--oo--
January 2003 - update
- The new frama paper, titled "Farewell Frama",
was released on 13 January 2003.
This paper continued the policy of
a design repeated over the length of the roll, however, unlike
previous papers this paper incorporated
10 different Australian fauna or flora; kookaburra, waratah,
common heath, helmeted honeyeater,
magpie, Sturt's desert pea, gang gang cockatoo, royal
bluebell, brolga and Cooktown orchid.
It required 12 stamps to show the complete design.
N.B. These three stamps represent only approximately one
third of the complete design.
- When the stamps became available from the NPC machine
on 13.1.03, there was no decimal point
in the value (unlike the stamps from Sprintpak
illustrated above), however, from approximately
20.1.03 a decimal point was included in
the print about half way up the digits in the value.
The no decimal point variety could therefore
prove to be relatively scarce.
- It has been reported that the Frama machine at
Broadbeach (A20) and at Bundall (B91) have
been removed from service.
- It had been announced that all Frama machines
and Frama papers would be withdrawn at the close of
business on 30 June 2003.
March 2003 - Update
- Strathpine (B13) Frama machine has been removed from
service prior to the announced date of 30 June 2003
for the general removal of all machines.
- Caloundra (A24) Frama machine was removed from service
on approximately 13 March 2003.
- At least one other machine , Canberra GPO (2601) is
reportedly out of service and will not be put back into
service before 30 June. (Both machine have issued
Farewell Frama paper).
- Several Frama machines are issuing stamps with very
faint and/or poor imprints, eg B15 Port Pirie, A83
Gouger Street, A10 Coolangatta and it is
reported that as replacement ribbons are not available, there is
unlikely to be any improvement in the quality
of print from these machines.
- Farewell paper Frama stamps have been issued from three
machines that had previously been thought to have
been out of service viz. A2 Toowoomba, A43 Bundaberg
and A91 Underwood.
These machines although they did issue Farewell
paper were not accessible to the general public and are still
considered to be out of service.
- A list of Frama machines that have issued Farewell
Frama paper is now available and anyone interested
in getting a copy of the list should write,
telephone or e-mail, Ted Barnes at the address shown below.
May 2003 Update
- With the demise of Frama machines in Australia on 30
June, it is apparent that postal staff are reluctant to
have the machines that are not working perfectly,
eg ribbon need replacing, as several machines have been
producing less than acceptable prints. Two
of this examples are A10 Coolangatta and B15 Port Pirie.
- It has been reported that the two Frama machines at
Sydney International Airport, B99 and post-code, have
been out of service for some time due to
a shortage of Frama paper and that it is unlikely that they will be put
back into service before 30 June.
- A decision was taken at the most recent meeting of
the Group that ever effort will be made to keep the Group
operating for so long as there is an interest
shown by members either by submitting articles to the newsletter,
by general correspondence and/or by interest in
the Postal Bid Sales.
- Postal Bid Sale No.9 was another successful sale conducted
by the Group. Held in April/May 2003.
sales of approximately
A$5,500.00 were achieved from the list of lots that totalled 2,800 approximately.
It is the intention
of the Group to continue to conduct two Sales per year, in April/May and
October/November,
whilst interest from both buyers and sellers continues.
Anyone interested
in receiving a copy of the Postal Bid Sale listings should write to Ted
Barnes at the
postal or e-mail
address shown as bids are welcomed non members of the Group.
--oo--
- Postal Bid Sale No. 10 will be conducted in September/October
2003 after a successful result from Sale No. 9
which is now concluded.
Bids from non-members for lots in the Postal
Bid Sale No.10 are welcomed.
- Despite the impending removal of Frama machines
in Australia, we continue to attract new members to the
Group and this augurs well for the
future of the Group.
Membership fees have been maintained
at a very low level and this is no doubt one factor in new members
joining as it surely represents great
value for any one interested in world ATMs.
- Australia Post continue to issue Special Event
Souvenir sheets of stamps.
One of the latest issues commemorates
the Last Time Tour of one of the most popular Australian
entertainers, John Farnham.
The sheet features details of ten
of Farnham's greatest hits from the period 1968 to 2002 together with
photographs of Farnham throughout
his career.
--oo--
July 2003 Update
- Frama stamps were withdrawn in Australia at the close
of business on 30 June 2003 and the Frama story that
began with the issue of the Barred Edge Frama
issue on 22 February 1984 came to an end.
- A special Last Day postmark was used on 30 June to
mark the occasion.
- Three examples of inverted Farewell Frama paper being
issued have been reported from A57 Blackwood,
A96 Oaklands Park and B48 Victor Harbor.
- Postal Bid Sale No. 10 will be conducted in September/October
2003. Bids from non-members will be accepted and any non-member wanting
to obtain a copy should write, telephone or e-mail for a free and post-free
copy.
September 2003 Update
- Both Frama machines at Sydney International Airport (SAI) ie no-postcode and B99, were fitted with Farewell Frama paper before removal of all machines.
- The Sydney International Airport (SIA) no-postcode Frama machine was not withdrawn from service until 7th July2003 . The self service station adjacent to this Frama machine was out of order and in an effort to provide travellers with the opportunity to purchase stamps, the licensee of the post office at SIA sought and was granted permission to keep the no-postcode Frama machine operating until the "station" was put back into service (this occurred on 7 July)
- Counter Printed Stamps with the literal "Congress 2003" were available from the South Australian Congress stamp show held at Tanunda on 30-31 August 2003. The CPS were printed on the kangaroo and koala series of six stamps. The minimum value available was 50c.
- Counter Printed Stamps with the literal "St. Peters 2003" were available from the Stamp and Coin Fair held on 20-21 September 2003. The CPS were printed on the kangaroo and koala series of stamps. The minimum value available was 50c.
There will be a further three stamp shows held in Adelaide viz Salisbury, Stampex and Aeropex, in 2003 at which counter printed stamps will be available.
- Australia Post have issued another of the Special Event Souvenir sheet of stamps that have been so prevalent over recent years. Issued to commemorate the Australian International Airshow held at Avalon Airport, Geelong, Victoria held on 11 - 16 February 2003, the sheet of ten stamps, in a five by two format, features a globe of the world with Australia prominent and highlighted and on the tab and an aircrft disappearing off the tab with the airshow logo streamimg out of the engine.
For further inforamtion about the Group or to obtain a
copy of the Postal Bid Sale catalogues please write to:
Ted Barnes. 6 Kerrison Avenue, Ridgehaven,
South Australia 5097. Australia or telephone 08 82642728
or e-mail: tedb@hotkey.net.au
--oo--
New members are always welcome.
Simply send details of name and address and collecting
interests, together with the appropriate membership fee to the address
at the head of this page, or e-mail for more details.
--oo--
The listing for the regularlarly held Postal Bid Sales
normally exceeds 1500 lots with estimates from A$1.00 to A$1000.00.
Bids from non- members are welcomed.
Any non-member of the Group wanting a copy of the
listing with a view to bidding at the Sales is invited to write to the
SAFMISG at the address shown above for a free and post free catalogue.
--oo--
Some Group members and other study groups have established
website relating to framas/ATM that might
also be worth a look:
http://home.tiscalinet.be/ATM-world
http://www.atm-center.de/kat
http://eurowave.gmxhome.de
http://membres.tripod.fr/imagesdepepierres
http://www.fut.es/~jjj/atm/abgles/welcome-a.html
www.atm-stamps.de
www.gallery.uunet.be/leon.swinnen
More sites will be added if and when they come to our
notice.
Updates are include only for the months when the Group
newsletter is not issued. For complete information about Australian and
world machine issues you should join the Group so as to receive the newsletters.
For more information about these items and much, much
more, read the Group newsletter that you can receive six times per year
simply by becoming a member of the Group.