Slogan postmarks for August? Maybe - and other interesting postmarks and news

We are a 18 days through August but so far I have had no reports of new slogans.  Mind you, with the low amount of stamped mail anyone receives these days - apart from dealers and other collectors - it's hardly surprising that we have had no reports yet, not even for the default British Heart Foundation (BHF) slogan.

Mind you, the BHF slogan may not continue for much longer.  John F reports seeing this on Royal Mail's website: 

Royal Mail are working in partnership with the charity Missing People to raise awareness of their support services for anyone who may be thinking about disappearing, anyone already away from home, or friends and family with a missing loved one.

Update: John has advised that this partnership has been running for a number of years - although I've never seen any evidence of 'raising awareness' - so it is unlikely that it will replace the BHF slogan.

On which subject I received two today, sadly on the same envelope from Sheffield Mail Centre. Margaret also sent one from Home Counties North, date unclear.

British Heart Foundation slogan Sheffield Mail Centre 17 August 2026

British Heart Foundation slogan Home Counties North ?? August 2026

UPDATE 20 August. I am pleased to say that SS in Canada has now returned from holiday and has sent a couple of items for inclusion here.  Out of 11 UK packages only three were postmarked and on one the stamps were pen-cancelled. The other 7 had nothing!  Anyway, here is a much clearer BHF slogan from Birmingham Mail Centre on 11/08/2026.

British Heart Foundation slogan Birmingham Mail Centre 11 August 2026

As a reminder of an occasional non-slogan ink-jet postmark, JohnH has sent this one from North & West Yorkshire showing a situation when the machine settings do not produce a slogan, only a summary.

Non-slogan inkjet postmark from North & West Yorkshire, 18/08/2026

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

---

Other postmarks and postal markings

At the time of writing I haven't found anything to show here, but in the absence of anything new I shall probably delve into history!

Another one from SS in Canada, who received this package from Wotton Under Edge in Gloucestershire.  Nice use of the top three values of the datamatrix Machin stamps and 3 x 20p for the £8.60 up to 100 g rate International Tracked and Signed. 

Wotton Under Edge self-inking datestamp 27 July 2026

The post office is in the Co-operative supermarket in Long Street (Google Streetview 2025)

A dull day in Wotton Under Edge, outside the post office, July 2025.

---

Remember, slogan postmarks appearing in August will be added to this post so check here before you spend time scanning and emailing.

A reminder of what these monthly listings are for.

For each month I record the different slogans in use, plus the default slogan that is used when there is nothing else.

For each of these I try to record only one of each of the basic two types, plus any that are reversed on square envelopes, which normally only gives three or four.  

Occasionally a slogan appears with different line spacing in the same format.

I do not record multiple versions of the same as any of these unless I later get a much better example of one that I showed purely for the record, but which is otherwise not very clear.

The only exception to this, which doesn't seem to happen much these days, is when a slogan is used well out of time.  

I mention this only to avoid readers unnecessarily duplicating what has already been provided.

---

Five New Machin Priority Service Stamps - 28 February 1995

In February 2009 Royal Mail issued the first self-adhesive definitive NVIs and high values stamps with new security features.  This was the birth of the Machin Security Stamps which indirectly lead to the bulk of posts on this blog over the next decade.

Then in November two surprise additions to the series were added, the Recorded Signed For 1st class and 1st class Large to “satisfy an operational demand at Post Office counters”.

As we know these were self-adhesive, die cut, with security features, with slits through the stamp and with iridescent printing across the design.   The slits were said to be designed to inhibit the removal of these Stamps for fraudulent sale and re-use.

But although this was described as an innovation it wasn't actually new – the concept originated in 1994, as shown in an internal Royal Mail document found by one of our contributors MM.

This document shows that Royal Mail were considering special stamps for Priority Servics with what would seem to be the very same security features.

“The stamps will be self-adhesive and die-cut, 25 to a sheet, with additional security features because of he stamp's premium.”

Design: a centrally-placed embossed Machin head (29.5 mm), with the service indicator at the bottom of the stamp which would be of similar colour and branding to the specific services. Unfortunately there are no pictures (in any case it is a black and white potocopy) and we don't know what colours they were planning. I suspect predominently dark blue iwith different inscriptions, per this leaflet.

(More on the new labelling and system below.) 

The costs of the service, and therefore of the stamps, is shown as follows.

Recorded Delivery - 55p

Special Delivery - £2.70

Registered - £3.00

Registered Plus to £1500 - £3.30

Registered Plus to £2200 - £3.60

Note that these are supplementary stamps – in addiition to 1st class postage (or a choice of 2nd or 1st for Recorded Delivery) for the weight concerned.

The issue date was to be 28 February 1995 with stamp cards (PHQ cards), presentation packs, and “philatelic souvenir covers”, which is an odd way of saying First Day Covers. 

The alternative postmark was Windsor (with the primary one obviously being Philatelic Bureau Edinburgh).

No printer was identified at this stage.

Click on the image to see it enlarged

So what happened? Why did this apparently good idea, suggested with the new 1993 branding, fail to be implemented?

Was it problems with Post Office counters, with users, with separation of the different classes in the mail stream?

Maybe someone decided that using an extra stamp for the priority service would be a problem, although it could reduce the number of stamps required. (Stamp dealers of course would have plenty of other value postage to use!)

One thing I do know – if these had been introduced in 1994 as planned, I would not have been as involved in Machin Security Stamps as I came to be in 2009/10 etc. At that time I had not retired, and my interest in Machins was far reduced from its previous peak, and my focus switched to the stamps and postal history of the countries of the Former Soviet Union.

On the other hand, I would have been able to put more focus onto the aforementioned, and Great Britain modern postal history and usages, and I might not have as many boxes to go through now.

 

More on Priority Services.

When introduced in 1961 Recorded Delivery used yellow labels which over the years varied to several different shades of orange. Registered Mail, of course, had used numbered blue 'R” labels for over a century, and Special Delivery was identified by a white on green label for many decades.

The June 1993 leaflet 'Now Even Better” illustrated the labels for the new services (shown above), which used dark blue in all cases, which I thought could lead to confusion compared with the previous system. Although the labels stuck on envelopes and packets had different text, further confusion was possible for users as the Registered and Special Delivery (SD) forms were both headed Guaranteed Delivery. In fact it really made no difference to processing as both Guaranteed Delivery services provided the same service, the only difference being that SD paid up to £24 compensation, and Registered paid up to £500.

Recorded retained an orange aspect, Registered had a light blue background to the number labels, and SD had an orange background to the number labels.  Soon afterwards pre-paid postal stationery envelopes were introduced.

From the top, Registered Plus, indicated by the pale blue + at the foot, Registered, and Special Delivery which is lighter blue.

 Here's an example from March 1994.

It's impossible to know, apart from by the postage paid, which service is being used (and not necessarily then!).  In this case postage is £3.08 which is 38p first class postage for a 40-100 g first class letter plus £2.70 Special Delivery fee. 

For the delivery postman it is clear that this is a priority item, but for tracking at any stage from the post office counter to delivery the barcode on the reverse has to be scanned.  Did posties carry any barcode readers then?  

By 1995 a further rebranding introduced the Silver Service for inland Special Delivery and from from 12th October 1998 they were all combined into a single rebranded service under the Special Delivery banner.  (GB Philatelic Society)

This is an interesting and relatively short-lived period in British Postal History affecting more expensive mail than just ordinary letters.  Material is not easy to find, but stamp dealers were always big users of premium services and their covers are more likely to be kept.

I've got more like the one above, but not many.  This will be the subject of a post on the Modern Postal History blog some time.

---

Machin Definitive first day cover offers at reduced prices.

Some collectors collect first day covers (FDCs) because they are attractive with a cover design which complements the stamps.  Others collect because they are also a reminder of the date the stamps were issued, and in the case of definitives it helps to identify different versions of the same stamp when comparison of mint stamps might be more difficult.

Official first day covers have been produced for basic new definitives and for prestige book definitive panes (usually the only panes they provide on first day covers).

But there are variants for which there is no official FDC, because Royal Mail do not regard the stamp as new.

FDC for new 1st class security stamp
from Olympic retail booklet

When we started producing FDCs we tried to fill those gaps, not with especially designed covers but in the main with the covers that Royal Mail produced for the issue. We generally used standard definitive covers for definitive variants, or the cover produced for a special stamp issue, such as a retail or prestige booklet.

Recognising that the PSB panes often contained duplicates or stamps which were not new, we gave our customers a cheaper option than Royal Mail by using just singles of the new stamps in the panes.

Reviewing our stock of Definitive FDCs I find that there are some which never made it to our web-shop, and have only ever been offered at the time of issue on our website, and those which were are now offered at lower clearance prices.  I hope there will be some of interest to more recent followers of the blog and long-time readers.

The list is a pdf file which will remain listed in the Links table to the right of this page. A separate file, linked from that one, has illustrations of some of the covers, and scans can be provided for any others.

Because it's a pdf file you cannot leave comments there, so please follow the usual pattern and leave a comment here for any covers that you want.  As usual, there are several of some, and only one in stock for many.

To order:

- please leave a comment here with your name, and then 

- send an email with your Name and Address and Blog Follower ID to my usual address - see top right.  And indicate which item you want (A, B, etc) in case more than one is available.  Please check the existing comments before you write.   

I will process requests in the order they are received but not always immediately - I am not checking every five minutes!   If other people have already asked, by all means put your name down, but we have very low stock of some of these covers.

Thank you for looking - further discounts for larger orders.

---

Random Offers - quirky and unusual - Week 47.

It was a busy weekend, partly dealing with customer orders for discount postage so this is the first offer for this week.  Update: second offer added (E)

Items offered have now been consolidated to one place, which is a linked page, rather than a blogpost.   

D. Ephemera mixed bag, pick and choose - Free to blog followers!

D1 - Machin black postcard from the National Postal Museum 1981, printed by the House of Questa, issued to mark Ten Years of Decimal Machins.  [One available].

D2. - Machin blackprint by Harrison & Sons 15 February 1971 [One available].

D3. - British Postal Order Gift Card (undated).  Designed to hold a standard postal order of the time in the same way as Book Tokens and Store Gift Cards, for sending through the post.  [Two available.]

 

D4. - Telephone Stamp Card issued by Post Office Telecommunications in 1979, before British Telecom - and I thought Busby was a BT mascot.  Inside there's room for up to 20 Telephone stamps and this too could be used as a gift card to a friend or relative. Telephone Stamps could only be used to pay for telephone charges which, at the time, you could pay in cash at the PO counter.  [only 1 now available]

D5. Lastly a proper postal item - a parcel tag for the Royal Mail Parcels Direct Bag Service for mailings to Charities.  When this was used mailbags would be delivered to the charity intact, which made handling easier for Royal Mail and for the charity.  This may have been for the children's TV programme Blue Peter in 1994.  Just one of these available.

 

Pick and Choose: if you are interested in any or all of these, leave a comment which I shall publish as soon as I can, and say which ones you would like.  Then send me an email with your name and address and blog follower ID.

I'll mark the blog as soon as I can as individual items cease to be available.  

---

E. It's what's inside that counts - Kent Air display 1935 - £10 including postage

When you buy mixed lots of covers you get some good, some ordinary, and some in quite poor condition.  Certainly this isn't a cover that would make it into a collection or display.

1935 cover posted locally at Margate with 1½d Jubilee stamp.

There isn't even anything on the even grubbier reverse to indicate where it cam from: without the contents it is nothing.  The letter, however, reveals that the addressee is a lucky prize-winner in the Isle of Thanet Gazette contest to win a free flight in an air display by Sir Alan Cobham.  

After service in WWI in the Royal Flying Corps and then the RAF he joined De Haviland as a test pilot. He flew around Europe, to Cape Town, and then to Australia leaving from the River Medway in Kent.

In 1932 he started the National Aviation Day displays – a combination of barnstorming and joyriding. This consisted of a team of up to fourteen aircraft, ranging from single-seaters to modern airliners, and many skilled pilots. It toured the country, calling at hundreds of sites, some of them regular airfields and some just fields cleared for the occasion. Generally known as "Cobham's Flying Circus", it was hugely popular, giving thousands of people their first experience of flying, and bringing "air-mindedness" to the population.  From 1933-35 there were two simultaneous tours throughout the season but these stopped after a fatal mid-air collision over Blackpool.

Letter from Gazette to lucky winner (divided scan - letter complete)

National Aviation Displays Ltd Display Flight Ticket.

Just one available, so if you would like this leave a comment which I shall publish as soon as I can.  Then send me an email with your name and address and blog follower ID.  I'll provide payment details as soon as I can.

---

F. Welsh local? No, Argentine Cinderella!   -  SOLD.

This might appeal to collectors in Wales, or of Welsh material - especially if they live in Argentina - buenas tardes!

In 1865, a group of Welsh people grew tired of the English domination of their land and peoples. Led by the Reverend Michael Jones, this group took their ship, the Mimosa, and sailed to what became Port Madryn in Argentina. The group of about 150 people wished to find vacant land to occupy where they could preserve their culture and avoid the economic oppression they felt in Wales. 

In September 1965 the Argentine Government issued an 8 pesos stamp to commemorate the centenary of the Welsh colonisation of Patagonia. The stamp design shows the tea clipper Mimosa, which was specially converted into a passenger vessel for this voyage, against a map of the Province of Chubut, where the Welshmen made their settlement. They landed at Puerto Madryn, Patagonia on July 28, 1865, sailing from Liverpool on May 25. [Ships Stamps website]  

8 pesos Argentina stamp marking the centenary of the Welsh colonisation of Patagonia, depicting the Mimosa.

The early settlers livied in caves or pits dug into the ground, but they persevered until the building of the Patagonian Railway in 1886, which precipitated the expansion of the settlement. In 1965, their descendants issued a commemorative label to honor the centennial of the colony's founding.

Since the inscription "Post Cymru" (Welsh Post) occurs at both the right and left sides of the stamp, it is easily mistaken for a regional postal issue. Done in green with black, the stamps were issued in rouletted sheets of 50.

"Cwladfa Patagonia" (Colony of Patagonia) appears at the top right above a vignette of a black sailing ship approaching green cliffs. At the bottom, in black, is the inscription "Mimosa, Porth Madryn, 28 VII '65", indicating the date in July, 1865, that the colonists arrived. [Cinderellas Riga Stamps website]

"Cwladfa Patagonia" (Colony of Patagonia) commemorative label to honor the centennial of the colony's founding.

Again just one available - free of charge - so if you would like this leave a comment which I shall publish as soon as I can.  Then send me an email with your name and address and blog follower ID. 

---

More to follow as I delve deeper into the boxes.  If you are looking for something unusual, drop me an email about it and if I have any, I'll let you know.

All offers are now in a separate page - see link on right under 'LINKS'   ➡︎➡︎➡︎➡︎➡︎➤

This will be expanded with more offers, and a brief post will be added in the blog for each week. 

Thanks for looking!

---

More one-off errors and quirky things for the collector - week 46.

As I work through my accumulations looking for what I really want to keep, and therefore finding things that I don't, there will be more one-offs that will be offered to blog readers first.

Items offered have now been consolidated to one place, which is a linked page, rather than a blogpost.   

Such was the speedy success of the Football Legends book, that I've decided to make one post a week, but probably with additions during the week.  So when you first look there may be something that you don't want but if you look at the same post later, then there may be additions.  At least that's the way I shall try to do it.

In all cases if you want the item, please leave a comment with your name or first name and initial, and then send an email with your name and address to my usual address - see top right.  And indicate which item you want (A, B, etc) in case more than one is available.  Please check the existing comments before you write.   If you already have my bank details send the money and I'll post as soon as I can.

Buyers outside the UK email and I'll provide postage cost and payment options. 

Each new item on offer will be sub-headed, thus:

A. 97p Counter Sheet date block mis-perf. - SOLD

I can't find this shown on the blog when it was discovered back in 2014.   It's the counter sheet of 97p Machins printed 18/09/14, with the die-cut perforations shift left, into the design, and down.

 

 

 

Although not clear on the image (click on it to enlarge) the selvedge extends to the full height of the row above.   Price is £25 including UK postage.   

SOLD - thanks to several people who asked.  Sorry Bill S - too late.

B. Postal Union Congress £1 reproduction pack £14 plus £1 UK postage (1 available)

In 2010 at the London Festival of Stamps Royal Mail issued a wide range of products associated with two new stamp issues.  They also issued extra unrelated products for the international audience that attended the show, one of which was a high-quality reproduction of the PUC £1 stamp in a block of 4. Individual stamps from the block are being bought on eBay for up to £6.50.  

 

I have one of these.  Remember - check the comments before putting your name down to make sure they are still available.  I will process requests in the order they are received but not always immediately - I am not checking every five minutes!   If two other people have already asked, by all means put your name down, but if those are successful your comment will not be published, nor answered as there is no way of doing so.

Postage internationally depends on destination. 

C. 1948 Olympic Games reproduction pack £7 plus £1 UK postage - SOLD

A Facsimile pack, written by Douglas Muir, includes details of the selection process and unadopted designs from the 20 artists and printers who were invited to submit designs for consideration by the Stamps Advisory Committee of the time. The pack includes a non-postally valid Facsimile Sheet of the four stamps printed in gravure as a block of four.

Postage internationally depends on destination.

---

Alan Wilson dealer list - has found a new home!

Modern collectors of Machins may not recall Alan Wilson, and I admit I had forgotten about him until I found his price list in one of my boxes.

NO LONGER AVAILABLE - three people emailed, but none put their request in the comments section, which would have avoided the later two from doing so. 

Wilson was 'a leading dealer' and his catalogue was advertised in the January 1990 edition of the British Philatelic Bulletin.  

This is not a work for the faint-hearted, it is very detailed indeed - ideal for those who take their Machin collection to great depths - shades, phosphor screens, different perforator and head types, value positions,
variations in phosphor coated paper, etc,

But all was not what it seemed, as this report from The Independent shows.

In 1995, the cloistered world of philately was shaken by the confession by a leading dealer that he had been forging rare stamps for more than a decade. Alan Wilson, a bookish 36-year-old bachelor who lives with his mother in Luton, walked into his local police station and told officers he had tampered with ordinary stamps to make them appear rarer and more valuable.

The sophisticated fraud brought him about £100,000, but his sense of guilt eventually led him to confess. He was given an 18-month suspended sentence and fined £30,000. Ironically, the fakes he manufactured were of such a high standard they have since become sought after by collectors.
 

So if anyone would like this price list - it has a few notes and highlights - please let me know in the comments and then email your address if I don't already have it.

Please check the comments before emailing in case it has already been claimed.

NO LONGER AVAILABLE - three people emailed, but none put their request in the comments section, which would have avoided the later two from doing so.

---

To Surcharge or Not To Surcharge - the inside deal.

Collectors and dealers alike agonised over what Royal Mail intended for non-datamatrix stamps three years ago.

What soon became apparent was that there was a grey area.

Some stamps were definitely invalid and should be swapped, some would definitely remain valid.  And some would remain invalid but would also be accepted for the swap scheme.

Here and on various philatelic forums people were asking why Royal Mail didn't just produce a list of what would remain valid and what would not, and what would be swapped and what wouldn't.  The grey area didn't matter so much because stamps could be on both lists.

Thanks to a reader and regular contributor we now know much more.  The reader was given a tour of part of a Mail Centre and spotted a notice board with some very useful information, which I have reproduced below.

So what does this tells us? 

At the time of printing ordinary old Machin and country definitives are invalid and the £1.10 surcharge applied.

The Machin Signed For and Special Delivery stamps should not be surcharged.  Likewise the Machin airmail postcard, 20g and 40g stamps.

Definitive-sized Wildings and the 1d red (and black and 2d blue) stamps should not be surcharged.

Post and Go stamps should not be surcharged unless underpaid.

And as we know, Christmas stamps without barcodes remain valid.  

Dates and timing

The £1.10 surcharge applied in 2023, so we don't know whether the poster has been updated, replaced, or whether RM HQ have simply assumed that all postal operatives now know what is what - which, given the high turnover of staff, would seem to be a foolish assumption.

But it's something.  And something that I will try to explore with Royal Mail.

 

 

---

Machin and Regional Invalidation: SwapOut delays update

It is many months since I wrote anything substantive about the SwapOut scheme to replace invalidated stamps with new barcoded definitives.  The system worked substantially well, and apart from the occasional glitch (soon corrected), most people seemed satisfied if annoyed at the amount of effort involved and that the change had happened at all.

Since Christmas, however, readers and other dealers have been commenting that the turnaround has moved from the original 7 days to much longer.  Indeed I'm told the Terms and Conditions have been changed to '30 days' - but the allegations are that it is closer to 7 weeks!

UPDATE -  I received a batch today dated 27 February but posted 4 March, for the stamps I sent on 30 January - so not quite 7 weeks.

Use up your non-barcoded stamps slogan August 2022.

I decided to try to find out whether this was the occasional glitch or an on-going problem.

Mechanics

I phoned and established what the mechanics are for the process.  The support line is at Doxford (Sunderland) but that it only the very important call centre.  We send stamps in to Edinburgh, and we get stamps back from Edinburgh.  

Each of our packages is logged onto a database in Edinburgh when it is opened for processing, not before.  So of my 8 packages in the last four weeks only that posted on 30 January has so far been logged into the system.  

The target turn-around is still 30 days, so if we experience a longer delay and phone Duxford, they check the database and they might arrange to send replacements.  I imagine they wait a couple of weeks after the 30 days to ensure that when we ask, the replacements are not in transit which might mean we end up with two sets of replacements!

Manpower

It is evident that the manpower devoted to this task has was reduced after the original surge in submissions.  I'm told that additional staff were added when there was a further surge late last year, but that the numbers have probably been reduced again.  Obviously the call centre can't answer for management but it does seem likely that if more people are sending in larger batches additional staffing must be applied.

Freepost address and certificates of posting

A reminder that you cannot get a certificate of posting if you use the Freepost SwapOut address. If you require one for anything not sent by Special Delivery or Signed For (and you should) then you must use the address shown above, with the EH12 9GT postcode or to this address for batches over £200:

Royal Mail
Swap Out
Tallents House
21 South Gyle Crescent
EDINBURGH
EH12 9PB

 

---

A Handbook of British Barcoded Stamps

When Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died it brought the end of our Security Machin Checklist, which listed the Machin definitives from 2009 up to and including those issued with Datamatrix Barcodes.  Before that I had indicated that although there was much to be learned from a study of the data contained within the barcode, that was not something I would be pursuing, much in the same way that I did not produce a Post and Go Checklist.  We would also not produce a Checklist for the stamps of King Charles.

However, it is clear that a large number of people around the world are interested in the stamps of the new reign, and that a number of those are interested in delving into the hidden world of the datamatrix code. So I am pleased to provide details of a new Handbook covering this subject.  Users of the Complete Deegam Machin Handbook will be aware of it already, but I'm sure there are collectors who never got into the complexities of that volume but who nonetheless are interested in these new codes.

The Deegam® Handbook of British Barcoded Stamps.

 

● Published as linked Adobe PDF files (delivered via WeTransfer)

● More than 100 Mb of data and images

● In colour and printable

● Constantly updated (five times a year)

● Suitable for Windows PC and Mac

2022 was a remarkable year for British philately! Two ‘radical’ changes took place at almost the same time – first, original definitive stamps were replaced by barcoded ones, the invalidation of non-barcoded definitive stamps from 31 July 2023 preceded by a Swap scheme allowing users to exchange old for new.

The second change was caused by the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II and succession by HM King Charles III.  Both changes triggered different reactions among collectors. One group decided to stop adding future new issues from Royal Mail to their collection, either on the introduction of barcodes or the death of the Queen, while others - as always when there is a major change - see a new starting point in their collecting interests, as these barcoded stamps present a further milestone in the development of the postal service.

Therefore, it has been decided to create a separate publication for these barcoded stamps – The Deegam® Handbook of British Barcoded Stamps (or, in short, HBBS). The term ‘barcoded stamps’ includes not only barcoded National and Country definitive stamps with images of the monarch King Charles III or Queen Elizabeth II, but also barcoded Christmas stamps. In fact, Christmas stamps have the same format and similar features to the definitive stamps. In other words, this Handbook contains all GB barcoded stamps.

The same structure and navigation as that used in the Machin Handbook HB5 are used for this Handbook although the text is presented in one column rather than two. There is an ‘Introduction’ that is structured similarly to the Chapters of Handbook HB5 – so that in the future this Introduction can easily be divided into Chapters (if necessary). 

It contains a catalogue of barcoded stamps. This is divided into three levels to suit beginners, intermediate collectors and specialists. Each level forms part of the unique numbering system which never changes no matter what new values or variations are issued. Every value has its own section, making it very easy to find the stamp you are looking for. In addition, all FDCs (more precisely, non-cancelled FDCs) are displayed in order to visibly present the barcodes on all stamps. An appendix for forgeries has also been added.

The Handbook is updated every 2-3 months with Deegam® Reports which are free to registered owners for a period of time. Every Handbook is created to order so yours is always the latest version when you buy it.

This Handbook is currently the only publication on British barcoded stamps on the market! The author is very optimistic that many collectors will share his enthusiasm for barcoded stamps.

Sample pages of The Deegam® Handbook of British Barcoded Stamps (HBBS) are available from the ‘Handbooks’ page of the Deegam website at https://www.deegam.com. 

 

The price of this new Handbook is £29, but there are a number of other purchasing options if you already have, or want to buy, the Machin Handbook.  See the Deegam site for details.  I urge readers to look at the sample pages referenced above, as even from these few you can see how detailed and comprehensive this Handbook is.

---

Another datamatrix error - 2nd Large Machin 2022 counter sheet.

Readers who have been following the exchanges in the comments about datamatrix-coded stamps having a glaring omission will be interested to see these pictures.

There is no doubt that this sheet of stamps exists, with no datamatrix code on the 2nd Large counter sheet.

Machin 2022 2nd class large counter sheet with no datamatrix code.

The story is that 

"A local post office had these issued and sold some before being recalled."

But then who alerted the administration that recalled them?   And were they legitimately acquired (after others had been sold) before others were returned?

Machin 2022 2nd class large counter sheet with no datamatrix code showing security details.

Machin 2022 2nd class large counter sheet with no datamatrix code showing printing date.

 

It was, for decades, established practice that faulty stamps were to be returned when discovered, and any posmaster or post office employee who retained any was at risk of dismissal (even though they were paid for).  

I'm sure the principle still holds.  These stamps will be listed in The Deegam Handbook of British Barcoded Stamps, and mentioned in the next Deegam Report.  

Were there any more of these?  Are any other errors on Machins lurking - waiting to be revealed?

---

Late arrival in the Machin collection.

It's 18 months since the King Charles definitives were issued, but as we know Royal Mail printers produced an enormous number of 2nd and 1st class Machin definitives such that they are still being sold now, and are certainly still being provided in the SwapOut scheme.  

But there is still room for discoveries and I am indebted to CB for sending this picture of a massive shift of the iridescent layer on a 1st class booklet stamp.  So large is the shift that it is impossible to establish whether this is from a book of 8 MEIL or book of four, MFIL.

UPDATE: Thanks to HJF & DG I can confirm that this is a MFIL/M22L stamp with barcode date 14.03.22 based on interpretation of the barcode.

1st class Machin booklet stamp with 2mm left shift and slight downward shift of the iridescent printing.

The email reminded me that I had been given an identical stamp (on cover) by a relative.  Unfortunately neither example is postmarked so we don't know where the stamps were used.  

Second example of a 1st class Machin booklet stamp with 2mm left shift and slight downward shift of the iridescent printing.

If you do get stamped mail - and Christmas is coming - it's still worth looking for oddities like this.  Whilst not valuable it is interesting, especially if you can include a photograph in your collection which shows the error more clearly.

I don't recall seeing anything as prominent as this on the barcoded stamps before.

---

Another break and an important announcement

I hope everybody in the UK had a good long weekend, and elsewhere that you enjoyed the normal weekend!   Now that the bank holiday weekend is over, we will be taking another week off.  There are no pictures in this post, partly because I wanted to get it out now on Monday night and deciding which images to use and aligning them just takes time. 

The office will be closed from this Friday until at least Saturday 8 June.  It may be possible to answer emails and accept blog comments in this time, but no promises.

Invalid Machins and Regionals - last chance

More importantly, when we return I shall arrange to take my remaining stock of Machins, Regional Machins, and Country definitives (and associated products like booklets and presentation packs) to another local dealer.  

When he has had his pick of anything he needs to replenish stocks, I shall prepare the rest to send to Royal Mail to exchange for what I suspect will be even more datamatrix Machins - not that the King Charles stamps are any better, I shall still need to get rid of them somehow.

So if you need anything at all to add to your collection that is in the current lists do please let me know as soon as possible.  You don't have to pay for everything in one go if it is a big order.  All you will be doing is stopping potential additions to your collections from going to the incinerator.

This is definitely your last chance!

Other GB collectables.

Keeping with the Machin/Country theme, over the years I have produced definitive first day covers, especially when Royal Mail did not.  Some of these are from booklets, especially prestige booklets when you really only want one of each of the new stamps, not the whole pane.  

Others are those which are not regarded as new by Royal Mail, such as the security definitives definitely first available at one of the London shows where Royal Mail had a presence (2010 Large letter booklets, for example).  

Lastly there are Machins and country definitives by different printers for which even Stanley Gibbons Concise declines to show the differences although they have been well written up.

I have spares of a few of these so if enough people are interested I'll produce a list of what is left.  None will be expensive, partly because the expensive stamps (like Special Delivery) were rarely first found in a way that we could be sure of an issue date.  (See the back of the Security Checklist for examples of what was produced - we don't have all of these in stock of course.)

And I am still working on a list of aerogrammes, including some thematic subjects, and this will be done more quickly if you tell me are interested.

Other other GB collectables.

Do people still collect first day covers and have gaps to fill?  If you do and would like some good quality unaddressed covers with special relevant postmarks, let me know.  This only applies to Queen Elizabeth issues and mainly from 1998 onwards.  We also have stocks of some of our own design FDCs which weren't promoted properly at the time for some reason (probably lack of time due to too many issues!), including some prestige book pane sets.

Special postmarks were once the thing that everybody had to have, and there was even a Postmark Club which could supply on a standing order basis.  These can be very useful for thematic interest so if you have a thematic collection, and want to know what exists, do ask - sport, military, trains, ships, coats of arms, etc.

Other non-GB collectables.

I can't profess to have much in the way of South America or Asia, but I do have worldwide postal history, picture postcards, some stamps mint and used, etc.  

If you collect particular countries or themes, or card subjects, let me know and I will try to find what we have.  There might be a delay because while I do know that I have many things, I don't always know where they are.  I've found a lot more whilst checking mixed random boxes for invalidated Machins etc, but when we moved four years ago(!) some part-full boxes were amalgamated for ease of stacking and moving, so there are things still to be found.

POLITICS - NOT HERE!

If you want to escape from pre-election turmoil, then I can promise you there will be nothing here about the UK's forthcoming general election (on 4 July for anybody who doesn't know) - unless there is some campaign literature or similar bearing interesting stamps or postal markings.  Given that candidates' promotions are delivered free by the postman, that is highly unlikely!

---