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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