Horizon label

A second class large Horizon label 2009. Early labels were very crude.
2003 "VOID" Horizon labels for training post office staff.

An Horizon label is an adhesive postage label that is a type of variable value stamp. The labels were introduced in the United Kingdom in 2002[1] as part of the computerisation of the counter services of the post office network of Royal Mail using the Horizon System.[2] The first labels were large plain labels composed purely of text but later labels are of a gold colour with a Machin head and a repeating pattern of the words ROYALMAIL in order to prevent forgery.

The labels received a frosty reception from philatelists initially as they were seen as replacing postage stamps, but as they have become more complex and more stamp-like, collectors have warmed to them and they have now become a popular collecting specialism in the U.K. and an established part of modern British postal history.[1]

The training of postal workers includes the use of voided horizon labels,[3] noted as early as 2003.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 "GB Postal Stationery, Postal Labels and Postmarks: Horizon Labels" by John Holman in Gibbons Stamp Monthly, February 2008, p. 43.
  2. ↑ Horizon Labels British Postmark Society, 27 June 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013. Archived here.
  3. ↑ "Another view" by Douglas Myall in British Philatelic Bulletin, Vol. 51, No. 5, January 2014, pp. 149-151.
  4. ↑ "Horizon Training Labels" in Dummy Stamps, Issue 25, Quarter 2, 2012, p.12. Archived here.

External links

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