As the pictures below show, the date shown on receipts - and reflected in the datastring of the Post & Go stamps issued - reset to 1st January 1970. This caused the first part of the datastring to become C1GB70 (C=Reel C, 1=January, GB=Great Britain and 70=Year).

It could prove worthwhile to keep checking eBay for stamps issued by the RAF Northolt BFPO Post & Go Trial Machine and make use of the magnifying facility there to try and read the session numbers!

I understand the date reset occured toward the end of the third week in April - probably on Thursday 21st or Friday 22nd - and the session number on the set shown is 0061. I've since seen a set (and receipt) from usage session 0067 which took place on 29th April and everything was back to normal.

As this machine is not accessible to the public, it is only being used an average of around 20 times per month. I guess a good number of these sessions will have been used to get stamps for collectors so, as an aside, keep your eyes peeled for commercially used examples - whether affected by this error or not - they will be tough to get in years to come. This low usage of machine M001 at RAF Northolt means it's unlikely many of these errors will have been vended but, if anyone can throw more light on this, I'd appreciate an email.

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