Olympic / Paralympic definitives update

As expected the colour of the new 1st class definitives is almost exactly the same as the 'flame' colour previously used for the Machin 1st class.

As indicated by Royal Mail, the 1st class stamps are in sheets of 50 with gutters.  This gives only one cylinder block and one printing date block per 50.  The 20g stamps are issued in sheets of 25, two different layouts matching the two panes of the 1st class.  But because there are two sheets there are two cylinder and date blocks per 50 stamps.  However because of the different layout of the stamps on the two panes, the set is actually three different cylinder blocks and three different date blocks.

The length of the sheet is just longer than A4 so the images are slightly cropped.

The stamps in the Presentation Pack appear to be torn from ordinary sheets rather than being cut.


While on the subject of cylinders I was disappointed that the two packs of 50 booklets yielded no cylinder numbers.  Although we know the two different booklets were printed side by side on the same web, the packing dates are 3rd & 7th November 2011. 

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