Machins 2020 - 2nd Large booklet now in circulation

My thanks to DL for reporting and sending the picture of the latest booklet stamp for 2020 to be in circulation.  This was on sale at a Royal Mail sorting office, and others are reported to have appeared on eBay.

This is the penultimate booklet, with the booklet of 6 x 1st class still to appear.  The stamp will be 2933.20 in the Norvic checklist, and Stanley Gibbons U3032.

Counter sheets

I can also now show the 1p & 5p from counter sheets.  Thanks to RP.

UPDATE 23 September
Two more new M20L counter sheet stamps have been issued, the 1st Royal Mail Signed For (RMSF) printed on 14/05/20 and 100g Special Delivery (printed on 15/05/20).

Also reprinted are the 1st Large RMSF and Special Delivery 500g both on 15/05/20.  This is surprising as, although they weren't printed in 2019 there was a February printing of both this year, which suggests that those were emergency short-run printings to satisfy immediate stock needs while Walsall were printing the new tariff definitives.    

Pictures to follow when the stamps are received.

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New Machin Security Stamps - and an apology!

Back from a week in sunny(?) Nottinghamshire, with a general apology for not announcing my absence, here on the blog and for not setting my 'out of office' message on my emails.  I thought I had done that, and tried to do it on the phone, but failed somehow.  So I'm not ignoring you: I will get round to answering emails.

In the meantime thanks for all the comments on the autumn's Post and Go programme - that certainly set off a lively debate, not least about the ethics of obtaining and selling blank strips!  More of that later.

The important news for now is that stocks of the 1st class x 12 booklets have at last appeared across the country and we have them in our shop, both as single stamps and whole booklets, including cylinders. 

The cylinder numbers - W7 red, W1 iridescent, and a new (?*) W2 phosphor - are, as usual this year, hidden by the front cover.  But the packing date cannot be relied upon as an indicator of the year code on the booklets within the pack.  Our stock of booklets with M15L stamps has a packing date of 30/03/15, but we have reports that packs with April 2015 packing dates have M14L stamps in.
(* See 'Comments' for discussion on whether this is a new W2 cylinder or the old one with the number repositioned.)

We also have the 2nd Large MA15 booklets in stock now.

Aside from any sheet stamp reprints, this probably means that the only Machin definitives still to appear this year will be the MPIL M15L 1st and 2nd class in the Star Wars Prestige Stamp Book. And we still don't have firm details on whether these will be gummed or
We now know that these will be self-adhesive, and we are reasonably certain that the 1st class will be red. 
 

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