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Friday, 8 April 2011

Machins from Wm Morris PSB: a mix, but colours right

We now have images of the actual Machin definitives from the Wm Morris prestige stamp book.

Unlike the stamps in the publicity image (shown below), the colours are a reasonable match to the originals.


The 5p & 10p are without the security overprint, but the 50p shows the M11L and MPIL year and source codes.


There are 8 tabs attaching the stamps to the matrix - as on the second version of the King George V London Festival of Stamps psb (8 May 2010), and the security slits are type 2a 2.

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8 comments:

  1. Robert8 April 2011 at 15:27

    Type 2 security slits I would say. The gap has narrowed on recent Walsall productions but only the DLR barely visible bridges between the arcs are truly Type 2a.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8 April 2011 at 16:46

    Who is the printer of this pane? If Walsall as the GvR booklet pane then the slit is type 2 but if DLR printed this pane then it is type 2a. If printed by Walsall then the 5p and the 10p are both new.
    BM

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ian - Norvic8 April 2011 at 16:57

    Printer is Walsall in gravure, so yes the 5p & 10p as well as the 50p are all new.

    I'll correct the main blog entry. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brian Morris26 April 2011 at 16:39

    Having now checked the credits in this PSB I see all the panes are printed by Cartor in France. I know that Cartor is owned by Walsall but this is the first Machin self-adhesive stamps from this printer. Not only that but these are printed in lithography which is, I believe another first.
    BM

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ian - Norvic26 April 2011 at 17:09

    Brian,

    Thank you for this. I hadn't had time to look that closely, due to being away, but now that you mention it they certainly appear to be litho. The technical details we have from Royal Mail state that the Machin pane is in gravure - and they made a particular point of highlighting the differences.

    I'm checking with other sources.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ian - Norvic27 April 2011 at 14:12

    Pending a reply from Royal Mail Production we are fairly confident that these Machins are litho.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ian - Norvic3 May 2011 at 10:10

    And we were wrong. I've had confirmation from a trusted source in Royal Mail that Machins are and will be gravure.

    "The current format of the stamps dictates that we go with the gravure process."

    Whatever that means.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Brian Morris4 May 2011 at 18:13

    Royal Mail will use the best printing process for the Machin stamps and gravure is the best although lithography has greatly improved over the years. Gravure may also be the best process when printing self adhesive stamps.

    ReplyDelete

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