'Slogan' postmarks and Postage Paid Impressions (PPIs)

'Slogan' postmarks

A so-called 'slogan' postmark is one which has, next to the detail of town, date and (maybe) time of mail collection, a message or slogan. Slogans may include a symbol or simple monochrome picture and there is usually a brief wording. In the main, and most certainly for the first 40 years of their usage, slogans have been used to put across an exhortation from the Post Office itself ('Post Early for Christmas') or the government ('Check Voters' Lists') or to promote important national and international events ('British Industries Fair'). But since 1957 many of Britain's towns have used the medium to publicise themselves in some way (town centenary or promoting it as a desirable place to live/work/holiday, etc.) or to announce and celebrate a purely local event. In more recent times, even commercial concerns have been permitted to advertise themselves or their products.

The very first slogan postmarks in Britain appeared in 1917, when a cash-strapped government urged people to 'Buy National War Bonds Now'. My current home town of Southend-on-Sea in Essex was one of the sorting offices issued with this slogan printing die for use in its stamp cancelling machine. And Southend has remained as one of the regular offices involved in nationwide, multi-office slogan postmarking ever since.

During the mid-late 1960s two particular 'local publicity' slogan dies were regularly alternated alongside the Southend-on-Sea town/date die. One (obviously, a slightly different design each season) plugged 'Southend Illuminations' through late summer and autumn, the other offered Southend as a 'Modern Centre' (just the place to relocate business, to live and to work) for most of the rest of each year. Prior to that there was also a 'Southend for Happy Holidays' slogan in the winter of 1963/64 and the town's 'Golden Jubilee' through the following summer. Both these last two were one-off dies and were only ever used at Southend sorting office (like all 'external' slogans, their use was paid for by their sponsor, in this case the local authority, at a contractually-agreed rate). And these slogans were also used in the 'transposed' position, to the left of the town/date die, as can be seen in the accompanying illustrations (the normal position is to the right, often over and partly obscured by the adhesive postage stamp - naturally, the Post Office preferred 'normal' (town/date die thus unobscured), while slogan sponsors much preferred 'transposed')

Southend is still a separate postal town with its own postmark and in the summer of 2005 was still using older cancelling machines with metal dies. In my opinion, these give a cleaner, sharper and more pleasing impression (providing they are cleaned and the ink replenished regularly) than the ink-jet machines now widely used at the larger mail centres, which print the postmark and slogan in two parts which are all too often out of alignment and they are often streaked or smeary. Local publicity slogans seem to be a thing of Southend's past, but the town die still appears accompanied by national slogans.

My long-term aim is to build a full set of all the Southend slogans used since the 1917 'War Bonds', through to the present day. But collecting slogans used by one town is only one of many approaches to slogan collecting. Some people chose a particular slogan and attempt to acquire an example of it from every town at which it was used (I am trying to do that with the controversial 'Jesus is Alive' slogan of 1988, used at about 350 towns). Others choose a topic - slogans featuring aircraft, or aviation generally, trains, ships, seaside resorts, animals, castles, a sport (or sport generally), religion, royalty and many more. As well as my Southend-on-Sea theme, I collect any other Essex town (Harlow was once a prolific slogan sponsor, while Chelmsford, Colchester, Clacton, Walton-on- the-Naze and other places have all used slogans). And I collect slogans concerned with churches and religious events.

If any visitor to this site is able to provide any of my wants, I will be very grateful and will of course refund any postage costs. A search of my own old cupboards and drawers, odd boxes in the loft and garage, old files, etc, turned up a few examples - maybe you can do the same. The ideal find is a nice, clean envelope with a neatly written or typed address well away from the postmark, which in turn is cleanly struck, good and dark with the ink evenly distributed so that the whole slogan and town/date impression is quite legible. The adjacent illustration of 'Swindon Bible Week' is acceptable but still a bit short of ideal. But I would rather have a scruffy, poor quality example than none at all, even on a piece of the envelope rather than the whole, as some of the other illustrations will show.

If you are interested in slogan postmarks, the standard starting reference is Collecting Slogan Postmarks, Cyril H Parsons, Colin G Peachey & George R Pearson, published by the authors, 1986 Reprint. This incorporates a fully-illustrated catalogue of all the slogans used at UK sorting offices from 1917 through to 1969, together with dates of use and the offices which used them (if only a few) or otherwise how many dies in total were used. The authors followed on with Slogan Postmarks of the Seventies, Slogan Postmarks of the Eighties and Slogan Postmarks of the Nineties, the latter in two parts.

Postage Paid Impressions - PPIs

In 1966 the Post Office introduced a new scheme which allowed senders making bulk postings (20,000+ letters or 5,000+ packages) of mail in identical size, shape and weight covers to do so without having to apply an adhesive postage stamp or individual franking meter impression (stamp). Instead, the item covers could be pre-printed with a Post Office approved 'stamp' showing that it was 'postage paid' mail (obviously, the sender still had to pay the Post Office the requisite amount per item). This scheme saved either or both the sender and the Post Office time and effort and was quickly taken up. The 'stamp' was officially called a Postage Paid Impression (PPI - sometimes erroneously translated as Printed Postage Impression )and the scheme, considerably extended over the course of time, is still in use today and now accounts for the greater volume of all letter mail. It is used to send out magazines, bank and credit card statements, gas, electricity and other utility bills, tax demands and other government department circulars - and all that advertising material commonly and derisively known as 'junk mail'.

Initially, the Post Office specified a simple basic PPI design of a rectangular 1.25 x 0.5 inch frame containing a four-line inscription - 'POSTAGE / PAID / TOWN NAME / Serial no.' The town name was that of the sorting office which processed the sender's mail and the serial was unique to each sender (each town beginning at '1'). Users such as magazine distributors who mailed from several towns were allocated a 'PHQ' (Postal Headquarters) number to save the need for several separate PPI envelopes. From the beginning there were variations on the actual line layout and font face and over the years since many senders have somehow managed to depart quite some way from the officially approved basic designs.

In 1968 the two-tier letter post system was introduced and PPIs were quickly revised to incorporate a large '1' or '2' for First and Second Class or 'R' for 2nd Class rebated mail. Soon 'P' for Parcel post was added and a few dual-purpose PPIs with 'R2' (Rebated or standard 2nd) or '2P' (2nd class letter or parcel) also appeared. At the beginning of the 1980s a long, narrow frame became fashionable for a while, as did circles containing 'R' and with rows of straight or wavy lines to either side (a rather pathetic simulation of a 'real' postmark). Then in 1982 the Post Office introduced several new, approved designs. One featured double banks of chevrons and vertical 'POSTAGE PAID' in a rectangle, another an eight-sided (not a true octagon) shape with a three-line border, a third a triangle with two-line border.

Subsequently, fake 'real' postmarks became popular, with a circle containing the town name and often the serial and a bank of straight or wavy lines to the right, with the class code set in it, all this being a much closer simulation of ordinary letter post postmarking. Later still there were attempts to make the PPI look like an adhesive postage stamp, even including a 'perforations' border! This latter was especially popular with Rebate mail senders. During this era too, some senders began printing their name and/or a return address close to the PPI. Other embellishments included a 'Sealed under permit' box adjacent to or joined to the PPI, showing that the sender regularly posted printed matter under a PPI to overseas destinations. Those sending overseas under PPI were also supposed to add 'GREAT BRITAIN' to the PPI legend.

After the Post Office was re-organised into three divisions in 1987, Royal Mail Letters adopted a distinctive, stylised three-line 'M' logo for its Mailsort scheme (which replaced Rebated mail) and this soon appeared on all the PPI outlines described above, in place of 'R'. Mailsort in turn gave way to Presstream and the fancy 'M' disappeared. From 1994 it became a requirement to include 'ROYAL MAIL' in all PPIs. In more recent times, Mailsort has been resurrected (but not its original 'M') and the currently fashionable PPI design is a slightly squat rectangle with a large background-coloured '1', '2' or 'm' set in a dark surround at the left and ROYAL MAIL / POSTAGE PAID GB / TOWN SERIAL to the right. However, even Royal Mail itself is not consistent in the PPIs which its own departments employ, with some adopting a 'square' shape with the class code figure above the 'ROYAL MAIL' etc. box, 'GB' sometimes appearing in the top left corner of the class code box and some non-standard fonts employed! So it is hardly surprising that over the years and especially from the 1990s many senders have managed to get away with some quite unique interpretations of PPI designs. Nonetheless, what is surely one of the most deviant - and amusing - to date, Nationwide Building Society's 'sun, roof and chimney stack' outline, seems to have been dropped lately. Shame!

Finally, in 2004 yet another PPI variation appeared, when private mailing firms began processing mail for third parties, handing over the packed and sealed envelopes or wrappers to Royal Mail at designated access points for final delivery. All the PPIs seen so far from these firms have been vertical rectangle frames with a prominent letter 'S' in the top, POSTAGE PAID / serial no. (all 'C9 100nn' so far - 'C9' indicating 'Condition 9 Access', the Royal Mail criteria under which the firms are licenced) at centre and a six-point star logo (that looks very like a front view of a childs's 'windmill on a stick', though I believe it is intended to represent a 'fan' of envelopes!) in the bottom. Most also have their own or the client name and/or logo immediately to the left of the PPI (the example illustrated here is a Royal Bank of Scotland Group logo and the processing firm is UK Mail).

I have a large collection of these 'cheap 'n' cheerful' PPIs and want to see it continue to grow. The number of licence serials issued over the years runs to thousands and the variety of designs and minor differences between one envelope and the next from the same sender makes it a vast field of study, with ever-new discoveries to be made. And of course new senders are joining the club all the time. PPIs may tend to look alike at first quick glance, but with all those different designs and detail changes, towns and serial numbers, identical they are not! So, if you care to help me by saving your 'junk mail' envelopes and polythene wrappers, I will be very grateful and will, of course, be very happy to refund your postage and packing. I prefer to have the whole cover - and if it does not have the sender's name on it, please jot that on the item (well clear of the PPI, please) and month/year received, if you are able. But I won't refuse examples cut from the mailing cover (ideally at least 4 x 2 inches - 10 x 5 cms - if possible). Don't forget PPIs are on polythene wrappers as well as paper envelopes. And they even appear rubber stamped or on self-adhesive labels sometimes.

If you do want to help my collection, please keep putting them aside and send me a bunch once in a while. Also look through desks, drawers, cupboards, files and filing cabinets, the attic, etc. for older examples that have got put aside for whatever reason. And if your employer uses PPIs, maybe you can scrounge a few unused envelopes or wrappers for me? Or those from other firms that come in to your workplace?

Much of the foregoing comes from Postmarks of England & Wales, James A MacKay, published by the author, Dumfries, 1988, which has a whole chapter on PPIs and several pages of illustrations, also Collect British Postmarks, Dr J T Whitney, 7th edn edited by Colin G Peachey and V Brian Crookes, British Postmark Society, Hemel Hempstead, 1997, which too has a short PPI chapter with further illustrations.

The British Postmark Society has a website at http://www.britishpostmarksociety.org.uk (it is on my 'Links' page for a one-click visit, if you wish). The BPS publishes an informative quarterly Journal (formerly known as 'the Bulletin'), which covers all types of British postal history (and current events) relating to postmarks and associated matters. The Society also has a range of publications for sale, including the slogan postmark titles mentioned above, and current stock and prices are detailed on the website. For further information write to the Hon Sec, John A Strachan, 12 Dunavon Park, Strathaven, Lanarkshire ML10 6LP, Scotland (enclosing the usual courtesy of a stamped and self-addressed envelope, please) or use the e-mail address given on my 'Links' page.

Home | ROERDOWW2 | Essex War Memorials | Beard(s)more ONS | Richard's Ancestry | Jo's Ancestry | Haiku & Tanka | Postmarks | Links