Tuesday 15 April 2014

Spectacular Buckingham Palace Prestige Book and Miniature Sheet Errors

It's many years since we had any tasty errors from Prestige Stamp Books.  Back in 2007-9 it seemed to be happening all the time giving the impression that 'normal' books might be the rare ones!

The Machin Anniversary PSB was the biggest mess with multiple errors, but there were several others at that time including the Regional Stamps Anniversary, and in 2009 the Darwin PSB.

But today a lucky collector - who has one PSB on standing order and ordered two extra - found that the extra two in his delivery from Royal Mail's bureau both have pane 4 inverted!


For the last prestige book Enschede had the definitive pane flipped when they perforated it (or had the perforator inverted), now they have processed at least one sheet of stamps inverted.  That's Winston Churchill on the balcony... almost invites a caption competiton, doesn't it?

As usual, we will be pleased to hear of any more of these - or any other - errors on this book.


Meanwhile it seems that lightning does strike twice, even if the events are 5 years apart!

Back in September 2008 one of our readers was lucky enough to find the Regional Anniversary PSB with one pane duplicated:


Now the same collector has bought this Buckingham Palace miniature sheet, from the same post office!


As you can see, the sheet has not been trimmed at the left (the cutting guide line is shown 1mm into the coloured design), so the bar-code, FSC certification and short name are all present.  Like the Buckingham Palace PSB, the miniature sheet is printed by Enchede.

How lucky can some people be?  But it could as easily be you - visit your local post office and see what they have!

UPDATED 22 APRIL
It now appears that all the stock in Post Office branches is with the selvedge (which is rouletted to allow separation) while that which came from Tallents House has the selvedge removed!


12 comments:

  1. Erm, I'd actually question whether the photo of Winston Churchill waving was actually taken of him on the balcony at Buckingham Palace... It certainly isn't from the same "photo opportunity" as the famous photo of him with the then Royal family as the drape over the balcony was the famous red velvet and NOT the Union Flag as here. Oh dear... J. Paul Murdock

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    2. Another picture on Getty Images shows many of the ministers* on the balcony with a Union Flag, [*World War II, V,E,Day, London, England, 8th May 1945, The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the balcony of the Ministry of Health in Whitehall with some of his War Cabinet colleagues, Shown are L-R: Oliver Lyttlejohn, Ernest Bevin, Winston Churchill, Sir John Anderson, Lord Woolton and Herbert Morrison (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images] It seems that the caption in the Illustrated London News and Bridgeman Art Library and elsewhere (as used by Royal Mail) is wrong.

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  2. I just received my Prestige book as part of my standing order and the pane is upside down. Maybe it is supposed to be.

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    1. Nice thought :-) - but no, it is supposed to have Mr Churchill etc at the foot, and the caption at the top.

      Thanks for letting us know - there may be many out there still to be found.

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  3. Speaking of errors, has anyone else found creases in their Buckingham Palace FDC envelopes.
    I ordered five from Tallents house and found them all to have a crease in the same place; the crease did not appear in the insert card, only the envelope.
    I spoke to Tallents House and someone arranged to send replacements. I found the replacements to have creases in the same place as the original batch. I spoke to Tallents house again and today received my second set of replacements (have you guessed yet)?
    I know it’s April but April Fool shouldn’t carry on for the whole month.
    I‘ve given up now, I’ll use these and accept that for this issue my covers will be less than perfect!

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  4. Regarding the Mini-sheets I purchased 2 at my local P.O. and got both of them with the untrimmed edge I think (as you do) that the printers have made a lot of mistakes across the whole printing issue!

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  5. I have a set of 6, a miniature sheet, a counter booklet and a prestige booklet none of which have errors. Do I have a rare grouping worth a lot of money? By the way, I couldn't be one of the "lucky people" who buys a booklet with an upside down pane in it from my local post office as such items are never sold there (nor miniature sheets etc etc)

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  6. I understand that stocks at the PO of these are now VERY limited and are likely to be taken off sale mid-week. Busy buying all I can now!

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  7. Ian

    I buy 30 minature sheets from local postaoffices and have 26 left. All havethe bar code strip attached. However all the minatures sheets I received from Tallents House had the bar code strip removed. The balance of them have already been usewd as postage!

    John embrey

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    1. I'm sorry but I just don't believe in all these "errors" that are coming to light - from PSB inverted panes to inverted security overprints and even the inset font and small ^0g on the Post and Gos. I would prefer to use the term "deliberate mistakes"!!!!!

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