Metered Postage From Around The World

Others had mention that they collect metered postage. Here is an assortment of metered postage from various countries. I will start my country of birth, the USA.

Then, the Canal Zone. The impression is pretty weak, though.

The Republic of Panama.

Two Metered stamps from Spain.


A meter from Germany.

A meter from Colombia.

This one from Colombia shows a meter printed over two stamps.

Hope you enjoyed. Happy collecting!

Enjoyed those, Smauggie!

I have begun (since joining SCF and widening my horizons!) to collect metered mail. Just from my own incoming mail (though I recently recruited my Mum to save hers, too!).

I have lots of duplicates, because of regular from the same companies. Happy to send you some, if you'd like?

The two Spanish examples you show are both actually ATM stamps (machine-vended postage, sometimes generically called Framas). Spanish ATM stamps can be confusing, though, because they use the exact same labels for metered postage (France does too). The difference is in the lower left corner - if it's machine-vended, there is generally nothing there (sometimes a tiny number corresponding to the machine that was used), but if it's metered postage, the date is shown. The difference is that you could walk up to the vending machine, buy the labels, and use them whenever you wanted on whatever piece of mail you wanted, whereas the metered postage was dispensed at a post office and used immediately on whatever piece of mail you had presented at the counter.

The 314 Pta ATM stamp you show has a decent value in the Michel ATM catalogue because of its high face value. These are more commonly seen as metered postage rather than ATM stamps, I think.

Here's an example of a metered label taken from Keijo's blog (he's here as scb).

Ryan

I tried in my ignorance to soak some of those Spanish vended stamps. Won't be trying that again.. soggy mess!
Will be snipping them from now on!

Thanks for the info, Ryan. It's a good thing I also collect computer-vended postage (CVP).

For my own collections, I do my best to keep the whole cover though I suspect I will be going to cut squares unless I end up in a bigger apartment/home.

Me too same result.

I have experienced both the Spanish and Singapore
vended, tend to lose clarity in the printed value,
sometimes disappearing altogether.
(these examples had not been soaked)

I found a couple more to share.


This meter was used in Panama by the armed forces there.


A meter from the eastern hemisphere.

Ghana! There's new one.

"Stop licking....Start Franking"

I have many metered mail labels from the 50s and 60s..i have WAY too many things to collect..:(
Are they of any real value? (besides the fun of collecting?)

gord: As with all things philatelic. The value is in learning about things (both personal and monetary). People do buy and sell metered mail.

Found a nice Canada meter today. An earlier one, too. Figured we can't have a Western Hemisphere without Canada.



Does anyone know when Canada started using metered postage?

Edit: Found another one.

Canadian Meter Postage Stamp Catalogue by Ross W. Irwin - illustrations and prices - staple bound 8x5

The picture on the front of this photo is of a 1923 meter tape but otherwise I do not know.

Wait till you see the joy on someone's face when you
have a meter impression he is missing

Australia's first meter was 1928
Canada's must be somewhere aroun that I would imagine.

Update, more searching found a Canadian Archives page on the Irwin collection, dates 1908-2007, including notes and meters from Newfoundland.
http://www.archivescanada.ca/englis...6_191_57_212

Censored, metered cover from Argentina.
April 15, 1942. The stamp features a nice cap and pole design, an symbol of liberty used by many countries in the western hemisphere including early US coinage.

Great Britain



Brazil



Ecuador



France