USA "APC" & "SSK" stamps

There are approximately 2,500 self-service kiosks located at post offices around the USA.  Note that there are approximately 30,000 post offices in the USA, so these kiosks are normally only found in larger metropolitan area post offices where they are required to dispense $15,000 of postage monthly in order to remain viable.


For many years, the machines were referred to as "APC" kiosks (= Automated Postal Center), and many of the earlier stamps & postage labels read "APC" .   Later, the machines were rebranded as "SSK" (Self-Service Kiosks) and the stamps and labels now read "SSK".


--> I am presently working on moving content from an older site to this one!  Stay tuned (Dec. 15, 2023)



New APC Machines


On April 10, 2012, the USPS announced that on April 12 they would start a pilot program at 10 selected Post Offices across the USA that would be able to sell printed-on-demand FOREVER stamps in 6 different designs.   2 of these 10 machines were in the greater Dallas / Ft. Worth (DFW) area.   I only found out about this program around April 18, 2012, and thus my earliest dated examples are from that date.


The blue kiosks that were installed from April to approx. October 2012 received various upgrades over the years, but remained essentially the same for 6 years.   In August 2018, totally new replacement kiosks (now in a gray color) were installed nationwide (until about October/November).  Some of the earlier machines (noted by collectors) were here in the north Dallas area, and the earliest that I was able to find was August 25, 2018.


Lobby of the Northwest Plano, Texas Post Office with the SSSMC (Self-Service Ship And Mail Center) machine, one of the 10 pilot kiosks in the USA in April 2012.


In late summer to early fall 2018, the "blue" machines were replaced with newer "gray" models at all post offices.

ONLINE EXHIBITS:

  • In 2014, the USPS issued a "Spiderman" themed APC stamp (#CVP90), see the 1-frame exhibit here: Spidey
  • In 2015, the USPS issued a "Charlie Brown" themed Holiday stamp (#CVP98).  You can view or download my 16 page exhibit here: Charlie Brown CVP Stamp
  • In 2017, the USPS issued a "Cookies" themed Holiday stamp (#CVP101).  Some stamps exhibited a "printing flaw" that shows up as little black "specs" on 3 stamps.  The errors were consistently spaced in the same intervals on the sheets (for several weeks worth at the machine until they switch to a different stack of labels).  I was given a 3 foot section of unprinted (other than the pre-printed design) of these labels and I can confirm that this is a consistent flaw on this particular stack of labels.  I had a 4-page exhibit about this at the 2018 Mid-Cities Stamp Club EXPO.  You can download the exhibit here:  2018 Cookies Christmas / Holiday Stamps (this file is larger, around 19 MB and does include an extra page that shows the relative positions of these errors).
  • A major change (new kiosks) were installed in 2018, along with many changes to the stamps & postage labels.  My 48-page exhibit is here:  SSK 2018 Machine, Stamp & Label Changes.


APC / SSK Service Class Inscriptions

The various "small" APC / SSK stamps and "large" APC / SSK postage labels come with various "service inscriptions", which designate the mail service class for which they were purchased.   Generally this is for various domestic mail classes, such as:

  • First Class Mail
  • Parcel Post
  • Priority Mail
  • Express Mail


The detailed listing for the above can get to be rather convoluted, so I have put together a list of the various varieties.   Due to this site's limitations with listing tables longer than 30 rows, I'm making this table available as a PDF here that you can download, click here).


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