It's not issued until 19 February, but we know that there are four new stamps, being the 1p, 2p, 81p and 97p on gummed paper, litho by International Security Printers. Unfortunately the selection of stamps once again means only one set per book, so dealers and collectors wanting singles are likely to be using the remainder for postage, so look out for them.
Publicity image
Actual scan:
UPDATE 4 Feb: Now that we have stock I can show the microscope pictures - more will be on our website later this week.
The 81p from this book compared with the sheet stamp issued in March 2014, and with the 68p from the Roald Dahl prestige book:
There appears to be no noticeable difference between the stamps in the book and those in sheets, including the A-Z of the UK Bletchley Park and the Britons of Distinction Alan Turing. All were litho printed by Cartor, perf 14½.
UPDATE: Chris H has sent this UV picture which shows that once again the 1p stamp has an orange glow from the ink. This also happened with the 5p stamps from the First Airmail and Dr Who PSBs and the 1p and 5p from the Football Heroes PSB.
UPDATE: Publicity pictures from our website to show what Jonathan is referring to in the comments.
Pane 3 with £ missing from the £1.47 !
Pane 4 with £ missing from the £1.28 !
If this scan of the actual pane is anything to go by, the 81p appears to be printed in 'sea green' rather than 'holly green'!
ReplyDeleteThe mock-up pane shows iridescent codes MRIL/MA12 on the 1p & 2p as if they came from coils!!
It does look more like the old 20p, doesn't it?
DeleteThat image was taken from eBay as my stock has yet to arrive and I had only a cursory glance in the PO to check on coding. We will soon know.
A question related to a different pane in the booklet...panes 3 and 4...are those actual scans? The DNA and Stainless Steel stamps on those panes appears to be lacking the £ symbol. Also the text and Queen's effigy appear grey instead of white.
ReplyDeleteSome of the stamps ARE missing the £ symbols on those publicity pictures,, but there is no consistency - a poor job all round either by GBH or Royal Mail. I'll add the picures to this post.
DeleteI wonder why the original colour was used on the 81p Machin and not the current colour?
ReplyDeleteI understand that they have stopped supplying copies of the Machin pane for FDCs to the trade because the 81p is in the wrong colour, but that they will not reprint the book, even if supplies run low. Whatever happened to quality control?
ReplyDelete