Following on from its participation in TAIPEI 2023 (see article), the security printing company Cartor Security Printers returned to Asia in 2024 with a promotional stand at the biggest philatelic event of the year, the CHINA 2024 Asian International Stamp Exhibition in Shanghai (see article).
Related to our field of study, the Company installed its DKU kiosk with the CSP2 code on its stand. This small desktop computer system, developed by Intelligent AR, was first used for promotional purposes at the CICE 2017 exhibition in Nanjing (see article, published in VARIABLE 46), and at other international philatelic events in the following years.
With two production sites in France and the UK, Cartor is one of the world’s leading security printers and manufactures postal and philatelic products for more than 180 postal administrations. Cartor is the manufacturer of the rolls of self-adhesive thermal labels used by Intelligent AR kiosks in several countries, and other variable value stamp printing equipments, details of which are covered in hundreds of articles published on our websites and in VARIABLE.
As at other philatelic events, Cartor produced rolls of special sample labels to be issued by the kiosk during the Shanghai exhibition. In this case they produced rolls with two series of designs, which were alternated by the machine over the five days of the event.
The first series consists of five designs that include common elements such as the exhibition logo and mascot, the Cartor logo and a Datamatrix code directing one to the company’s website. Each design features a wish or inspirational word, in English and Chinese characters; Health, Wealth, Love, Wisdom & Courage.
The second series consist of four designs with the same common elements as the previous series. Two designs have a background illustrated with flowers and the iconic urban skyline of Shanghai viewed from the Bund … by the way, the experience of witnessing the sunset from the Bund is worth a visit to this city … The other two designs are illustrated with panda graphics.
Via the main system menu, visitors had the option of printing a set of labels with a ‘basic’ programmed imprint, ‘Cartor Shanghai 2024’ (images below). Visitors could also customise the wording printed on the label and even add one of the programmed emojis.
At the start of the exhibition, the bottom code on the sample labels was BNCN24, followed by the machine code, CSP2 (bottom left strip). After a remote software modification, this code changed to DN (November) or DD (December) CN24 and the machine code appeared as CSP3 (middle and right strip).
Cartor first released their series of sample labels during the TAIPEI 2015 philatelic exhibition, in order to introduce the new Intelligent AR postal kiosk (see article, published in VARIABLE 37). Since then Cartor has produced more than 50 sample label designs for different philatelic events around the world, all of which have been featured in articles published on our websites and in VARIABLE.
Although interesting from a collecting point of view, these issues are not stamps, have no face value and are not issued by any postal administration. They are just sample labels from the company, produced to show its printing work and to promote the Intelligent AR postal kiosks. Visitors are able to use the kiosk, see the various printing options, test its operation, and finally obtain a souvenir in the form of sample labels.
Conceived strictly for promotional use, initially the use of the kiosks and the printing of sample labels were free of charge for visitors. Quite rightly, from 2017 onwards, at some events visitors had to pay for the labels issued; in some cases a more or less symbolic amount to control the use (and abuse) of the machine and avoid long queues in front of the stand. In other cases it was by way of supporting the event organisers or philatelic organisations (the case of Stamp Active in the UK, for example – see article, published in VARIABLE 48).
Unfortunately, in CHINA 2024, the quantity and pricing of the sample labels were not in the category of “giveaways” usually produced for promotional/adverting purposes by security printing companies for these types of events.
(English edition rewritten by J. Gareze – December 2024)
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