Introduction to collecting ATM stamps
I admit that I have a lot of “projects” going on; and one of them is building a digital archive of various ATM (or variable rate stamps) stamps I have. The reason for my project is related to fact that several ATM’s (especially those printed on thermal paper) are self-destructive.
1994 Spain - Michel#ATM9. This ATM is on the road to self-destruction. The print containing face value has already faded almost unreadable.
Without conservation most ATM stamps will be more or less destroyed in 20-50 years of time; several notably sooner (and yes, I have already lost dozens of ATM’s). The only procedure that guarantees a perfect conservation is to maintain ATM’s in in cold (like freezer of the refrigerator). And that is something I’m not willing to do.
ATM stamps do have also another downside: most of them use non-soakable adhesive. Thus they should be collected on paper, preferably on a whole used cover. So in a sense they are like the recent non-soakable stamps.
Despite these downsides ATM’s provide IMO an interesting challenges for anyone interested in collecting stamps. In essence there are as many ways to collect ATM stamp as there are collectors. ATM’s can be collected by country, by vending machine type, by topic etc. And being such a young branch in philately it definitely has a breach of fresh air without the old grumpy men.
Of course one can wonder why on earth to collect something that will selfdestuct? Just because!
As for catalog values… Most ATM stamps have a catalog value of 1-2€ with random exceptions that go up to tens or hundreds of Euro’s. Personally I have never quite understood why ATM’s are given such a high catalogue value. I admit, they are more scarce than normal stamps. But in the end very few collectors want/collect them.
As for printed references/catalogues… The normal country- and worldwide catalogues contain a simplified listing of ATM’s and for most collectors (me included) this is enough for most cases. But there is also “one book to rule them all” – Michel Automatenmarken-Spezial Katalog. If going deeper with ATM’s, it’s definitely worth the price.
But that’s all I’m going to say right now about the topic. Hope you do enjoy the upcoming posts with pictures (and details) of various ATM stamps of the world.
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“I admit, they are more scarce than normal stamps.”
Here in Argentina it is the other way. ATMs are way more common than normal stamps…
I have been collecting ATM since 3-4 years. I have a fairly good collection of almost all the countries but so far have not been able to get any of Argentina.
There are three issues of Argentina as I understand from the various websites and Michel’s Catalogue.If you are from Argentina which appears to be the case I would be thankful to know whether you can help me to get ATMs of your country (mint,used and used on cover) either in exchange or at cost.
Will be thankful for your response
Rao
Nice to reading your philatelic articles about all
the ATM, welcome to my daily updated personal
collections about all the worldwide ATM issues,
http://gulfmannATMcollection.blogspot.com
@Pablo:
That’s interesting… Based on kiloware I have a gut feeling that in Spain and Portugal ATM’s are somewhat common, but elsewhere they are in a minority (and in many places, like Finland extinct)…
With ref to article unsoakable stamps all my Atm stamps (spain) I remove the backing envelope (not soaked in water)
And mount them as normal in stamp mounts