New (?) Hasler Meter Imprint

With the reduction in stamped mail that most of us are seeing, I find myself taking a closer look at the varieties of metered mail coming my way. This is the latest:



I have never seen that particular imprint before and would guess it is a newer meter from Hasler. Clean looking anyway. I suspect it will become more common as newer Hasler meters hit the market.

While many on SCF may take a dim view of these items, I find them an interesting sub-topic and it may very well become a new collecting speciality in the not too distant future, as stamps seem to be less used.

I believe that is a newer Hasler. Just got a bunch of meters over the weekend, I think I have one of two of those like yours in that group.

Hi wt1

I think that meters are slowly beginning to grab a hold with some collectors because a lot are becoming aware of the fact that they too play a part in the postal history of our hobby.

Here, in Canada, there is a professor from the University of Guelph that specialised in Canadian meters and he also published a couple of handbooks on the topic plus he had a column in the Canadian Stamp News in the early to late 70s if I remember correctly.

I think it takes people like him to eventually push cetain topics into popularity. The same can be said for cinderella stamps and perfins etc.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Yeah, and afterall, those meters are so attractive -- each one a work of art in itself.

I mean really, who would want to collect something like this, when you could have a piece of metered mail ...





Written with tongue firmly in cheek,
KirkS

KirkS: Those stamps are some of my favorites!

I never said I was abandoning the collecting of stamps (No way!) ... just that with the abundance of metered mail now reaching my home, there has to be other collecting opportunities to consider.

Back to my original post about Hasler, here's another meter just received in today's mail ... this time a blue one. Again, I have never seen this particular variety before. At least Hasler is getting more colorful with their metered mail imprints :

I'm a stamp collector and these meter mail are just junk for me even in different colors. A stamp depict someone or something. You can always learn with a stamp. I'm a collector but i'm not going to collect just anything. I collect stamps.

I proudly own a plate bock of both CE1 and CE2. They are a fantastic study of Americana in design.

Well done wt1,
these Hasler labels are the cutting edge of contemporary philately,
It is good that you expose them occaisionally.
The main objective for collectors at the moment
is just to save them, hoard them.
Yours will be the joy of collectors to come in later years.

A prominent philatelist at our club is beginning
to create a catalogue of western Australian labels.
A large problem is that collectors do not undertand them,
when a catalogue arrives, with methods of production, history etc
more collectors will climb aboard.

Thanks for the encouragement, rod222.

It has been mentioned on several posts in this site before, virtually everything is collectible to someone. May not be for profit, but for the joy of collecting, whether it's stamps, precancels, postal history, airmail etiquettes ... or even meters.

I just have the normal Hasler.



Got this cool Neopost:

Anyone know if it is possible to source a reader
for the "laser readable block" on these meters?
Would the "laser readable blocks" have a consistant format
across all countries?

Odd timbres667 that you use the word 'junk' in reference to meters. Some people do consider them junk while others like them for the study they can entail.

I made reference to 'perfins' in one of my postings and I cannot help but think of a couple of reference books I have in my collection that refer to perfins as nothing more than 'junk' and worth nothing more than the waste paper basket. Well, were they ever wrong! Look at perfins today and the prices some of them are going for. There are also societies and clubs that are devoted to them as well.

Who knows, maybe it is just a case that these 'meters' just have not seen their day - - - - yet <G>

Chimo

Bujutsu

If it is full of holes, keep it. It might be a perfin.

I do not believe they would only have a constant format if all countries adopted the same standards. At this point I think very few countries are even considering laser-readable barcodes (please educate me on this point if you have more info). These blocks are required by law for use on mail in the US as a part of it's attempt to upgrade mail security (and dare I say, trackability).

Edit for Bujutsu:
Found a cool link: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Intern...tamp_Catalog

Meter Stamp Society (US Organization from what I can tell): http://www.meterstampsociety.com/index.html

Thanks for that url Smauggie.

A lot of information there that will certainly come in handy.

Chimo

Bujutsu

They are periodically available in cereal boxes. In the good old days, in the backs of comic books...





Before you ask (or worse, don't ask but assume), I borrowed that pic...not my hand...