London Underground stamp booklet variants explained

We reported earlier what appeared to be two different types of London Underground self-adhesive booklet stamp, as the dark blue 'caption' line seemed to be larger on some than on others.  True comparison was not made easy by the (what have become) usual poor standard of registration on Walsall-printed boookets.

Doug has sent us a further set of comparison image.  For the record, though I no longer think the source is significant, these are from Tallents House, Stampex, and  Harlow, Essex.  Note that the Tallents House supply has a significant shift of the grey to the left, producing double-rings for station interchanges, a shadow on the diagonal Picadilly Line, and a double-track Northern Line (oh that it were so!)  Note also the vertical white line below 1934 against the dark blue spur.

The white numbers are achieved by leaving unprinted spaces in the printed area of the grey, magenta and cyan, a technique known as 'reversed out'.  Clearly any misregistration (as on the left example) leaves a date with coloured edges, in this case grey, but regular readers will recall the magenta/white/cyan (or red-white and blue) face value on the 1st class Jubilee booklet stamp.

According to Royal Mail,  

the printers were concerned that the blue was a very tight fit with the reversed out text and could result in a white border showing. They used varying heat in the printing stations to adjust the print width of the blue and this has caused the variation in the two images – too much heat and the blue shrinks, too little and it spreads. Not ideal but preferable to a white border.

And the reason why the mis-registration occurs in the first place is that the job has to go through the press twice and the heat and tension causes the paper to move.

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Two versions of London Underground booklet stamp

When I was first told about this difference I concluded that it was yet another case of poor registration on a Walsall printed booklet.

On most of the booklet we have the window frames in the tower are doubled due to mis-registration, and the thickness of the caption bar, BOSTON MANOR ART DECO STATION, on the booklet stamp is thinner than on the sheet stamp.

However, Dominic has now sent scans of two booklet stamps which show not only that the vertical height of that blue bar is variable (as might be expected from mis-registration), but that the spur up towards the date 1934 is also different.

(Click on the image for a larger one in a pop-up.)

Although there is some mis-registration on the left-hand stamp (see the shadow on the Queen's head and the ghostly grey colour of the face value), the thinness of the bar below 1934 is much thinner on the left-hand stamp than on the right.

And if you look at the blue caption below the stamp, this also seems to be shorter on the right-hand stamp, although that may be a trick of the scanner: I've asked for that to be checked.

UPDATE 25 January: My thanks to John G for this larger picture of the lower right corner.  This clearly shows that, while the amount of dark blue appearing in the spur is partly governed by the white space in the bluc background, the actual dimensions of the dark blue print are much greater in the right-hand stamp than in the left.  There are definitely at least two versions.  But why?  There should be one image dropped into every position on the cylinder.

Is it time for Walsall to give up printing these multi-coloured booklets?  One customer rejected multiple copies of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee booklet from other sources and asked if we had just one with the face value in white instead of with a cyan or magenta edge.  In fact we have several, but it did seem that the 'good' ones were not as common as the blurred ones.

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London Underground set issue date was changed.

Collectors will have noticed that the London Underground sheet stamps show a sale date of 8 January, and the presentation pack is also dated 8 January.

Royal Mail have now confirmed that the scheduled issue date (a Tuesday) was changed "to mirror the date the London Underground determined to use as their official anniversary".

Fortunately although this was done after printing it was before the date of issue was announced to dealers and collectors.

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London Underground Special Delivery CDS FDCS - done the way they should be

We've been sent some more images of London Underground first day covers sent from a relevant post office by special delivery to get the branch counter date stamp.  The original story is here.



First a repeat of Chris's Walthamstow(e) Central cover

Now a pair of covers (and reverses) postmarked at Boston Parade PO, close to Boston Manor station.  These also have the RMT Union metermark.

Post Offices refuse to accept Special Delivery London Underground FDCs

Once again philatelists and first day cover producers have been frustrated by the inability of our Post Office to follow its own rules regarding Special Delivery mail.

Although the number of collectors of first day covers has been declining for some years, the die-hard collectors often go to extreme lengths and expense to produce something different for their collections.  Some design their own first day covers and they, and others, often seek out appropriate post offices at which to get their covers postmarked on the day of issue with the office's counter datestamp (CDS).

This usually means paying more than the face value of the set, as normally only special delivery items (current minumum fee £5.90) are cancelled at the counter.

The London Underground stamp issue presented some perfect opportunities to get covers postmarked in this way.  Relevant post offices included Boston Parade (London W7) - relevant to the 1st class Boston Manor stamp, Farringdon Road PO, relevant to the Metropolitan Line, and Canary Wharf PO, relevant to the £1.28 Canary Wharf stamp.

However, somebody in PO HQ has send an instruction of PO Branches which meant that yesterday some of those branches refused to accept first day covers for special delivery and cancellation with the branch's CDS.

One branch postmaster told one of our customer that he could accept other items with those stamps for special delivery and CDS postmarking, or could accept them on another day(!) but that any first day covers had to be sent to the special handstamp centre to get the official first day of issue postmark.

Attractive as it is, that isn't what the customers wanted.  The customer called Post Office Helpline from the branch, but was unable to make the customer services assistant understand the nature of the problem.

As this is now the subject of ongoing discussions you can expect to see more here soon.  But if anybody has had their FDCs rejected from the special delivery service, do not despair - please let me know by email (ian@norphil.co.uk) which branch is involved so that we can establish how widespread the problem is.

UPDATE 11 January: We are still in discussions with Post Office Ltd who seem to be accepting that a misunderstanding occurred, and I am confident that we will see a resolution. More details will be noted as soon as possible.

Meanwhile..... 
Here is a Special Delivery cover which was properly serviced on 9 Janaury, at Walthamstow Central, E17. It was produced by Chris Sutcliffe and although he has none available to sell you can find his website here.

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And here are some examples that we have done in the past, and some currently for sale on eBay.

Pub Signs set sent Special Delivery from Earl Soham PO (Suffolk) which is in the Brewery Shop:

Olympic/Paralympic set sent Special Delivery at Much Wenlock PO Shropshire

Burwash CDS on Rudyard Kipling set

2005 Trafalgar MS with Trafalgar Square CDS:

 

Millennium MS with Greenwich CDS, showing reverse with SD label

 

London Underground Retail Booklet of 6 stamps

On our website we show the publicity picture for the London Underground mixed retail booklet.

The background to the LU stamps is Harry Beck's London Underground map on the left, and the newer map on the right, with the cylinder numbers shown vertically at the right.  

As we know we can't always rely on the pre-issue images - but as I received a pack containing no cylinder numbers at all, I still don't know whether the image is accurate or not.  We can report that the year code is M12L and the source code MCIL.

Here are pictures of today's arrivals, which indicate that they were packed on 27 November:

150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LONDON UNDERGROUND ON FIRST STAMPS OF 2013

The oldest and one of the most famous railway networks in the world, the London Underground celebrates its 150th birthday on Royal Mail’s first stamp issue of 2013.

Issued on 9 January, London Underground features ten stamps; six charting the history of the network, alongside a miniature sheet of four long-format stamps focusing on the design heritage of its iconic posters.  The issue date coincides with the precise anniversary in 1863 of the first part of what was to become London’s Underground: the steam-driven Metropolitan Railway running between Paddington Station and Farringdon Street via Kings Cross.  

Fittingly it’s the Metropolitan Railway that features on the first of two 2nd class stamps, while the other shows railway workers, or Navvies as they were known commonly, excavating a tube tunnel.

Edwardian commuters travelling in from the suburbs are depicted on one of the 1st class pair of stamps, while the other features the Piccadilly Line’s Boston Manor, an example of many art deco stations built in the 1920s and 30s.

Classic rolling stock travelling on the tube’s ‘deep cut’ lines in 1938 and Sir Norman Foster’s Canary Wharf Station make up the £1.28p pair. Each of the stamps features a timeline across the lower quarter of the stamps using different livery colours taken from London Underground lines.

The miniature sheet features a total of 12 classic London Underground posters across four long-format (60mm x 30mm) stamps. 

Philip Parker, Royal Mail Stamps spokesperson, said: “The London Underground has a unique status as the oldest and one of the busiest underground railway networks in the world.

“For this first stamp issue of 2013 we have tried to capture the incredible history behind ‘the Tube’, which for millions of people is an integral element of their daily lives and an iconic part of London’s identity.

“Both London Underground and Royal Mail share a rich and extraordinary design heritage, so it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate a dozen classic Underground posters, featuring several artists who also designed posters for the GPO.”

Retail booklet - 6 x 1st.

A stamp book will feature two London Underground 1st Class stamps and four 1st Class Machin definitives.  The definitives will be in the new red colour.

Technical Details

Individual stamps: Designed by Hat-trick the 35mm square stamps are printed in lithography by Cartor in France. Stamp Images © Transport for London, except the 1938 image © Ian Allan publishing and 1999 photography by Paul Grundy © Royal Mail Group Ltd; London Underground & logo are registered trademarks of Transport for London.

Miniature sheet:  Size 183 x 74mm with stamps 60 x 30mm.  Designed by NB Studios, printed in lithography by Cartor in France.  All stamp images © Transport for London and Royal Mail.

Products available from Royal Mail

Stamp set, miniature sheet, 2 x FDCs, Presentation Pack, Coin Cover, Retail booklet, Stamp Cards.

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