Is there any set that the forgers will not copy?

My thanks to reader BB who sent me a surprise package of assorted forgeries before the weekend.

The dog from the 2001 1st class self-adhesive Cats & Dogs set (and booklet) looks very good - until you compare it with a genuine one.

2001 Cats & Dogs (part set)  - and forgery above.

The forgery has a totally different appearance and even has pseudo-phosphor bands, which are much wider than the originals, and much more pronounced.  That was used by a 'proud member of the PTS' who I shall not name.

BB also sent this sheet of the more recent Cats 1st class stamps from 2022.  There are no phosphor bands on these which have ordinary gum, but otherwise they are very passable copies of the originals.

1st class Cats sheet 2022 - forgery with no phosphor bands.

These were sent by the eBay seller by special delivery - in this envelope.   The postage is paid with 4 x 1st class Large Christmas stamps, with a total face value £8.40 -  well above the postage rate of £7.95.  And of course the seller didn't worry about overpayment because all these are forgeries as well!

Four forged 1st class Christmas stamps (3 different) overpaying the Special Delivery postage rate.

So if you collect forgeries, there are still plenty available and you can usually find them at good prices because they are sold for postage.

But if you want genuine stamps at low prices then you need to buy from a reliable dealer.  We still have plenty of stock in our shop - 1st class, or airmail. 

 

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Royal Mail launches counterfeit stamp scanner in app

News Release about the Counterfeit Checker app:

Royal Mail today announces the addition of a new stamp scanner to its mobile phone app that will enable customers to check if a stamp is a known counterfeit.

The stamp scanner has been designed to provide extra reassurance to customers who may be unsure about whether a stamp is counterfeit or not. Customers can use the app to check whether it is a known counterfeit, preventing them from inadvertently becoming victims of fraud.

The counterfeit stamp scanner is available to customers who have downloaded the Royal Mail app. The free-to-use app has been downloaded onto more than 12 million phones and receives 4 million unique visitors each month.

Social media publicity for the new scanner.

Once the barcode on the stamp is scanned, the customer will be told whether it is scanning as a recognised counterfeit or not. If customers did not purchase their stamps from Royal Mail, the Post Office or another reputable High Street outlet, they are advised to scan their stamps on each occasion before use.

Independent arbitrator

A further measure being announced is the introduction of an expert from stamp dealers, Stanley Gibbons, as an independent arbitrator in cases requiring resolution.

The arbitration process will be activated only in cases where a surcharge has been raised and disputed by the customer. If Royal Mail’s complaints procedure has been exhausted without resolution, arbitration will be the final stage of the process.

This will involve Stanley Gibbons conducting an examination of the physical stamp identified by Royal Mail as being counterfeit. Their decision will be fully independent of Royal Mail and the judgement binding.

Customers cannot send their stamps in direct to Stanley Gibbons for assessment without going through the Royal Mail complaints process in the first instance.

Partnership working with retailers and online marketplaces

Royal Mail also committed to increased partnership working with retailers and online marketplaces. The retailers the company has strengthened their engagement with are responsible for around 90% of stamp purchases from Royal Mail. This activity will help to build customer confidence, while maintaining pressure on the criminals who seek to profit from mass producing counterfeit stamps.

In addition, the company’s social media and online platforms continue to raise public awareness about counterfeit stamps, including revised guidance and advice to help customers protect themselves.

Royal Mail will also extend the pause on the collection of the surcharge for recipients receiving mail using counterfeit stamps and continue, where possible, to seek to locate and surcharge the sender. The temporary pause will be kept under review. During this extension period, Royal Mail will maintain the process of applying stickers to items to advise the recipient that the stamp used has scanned as counterfeit.

Nick Landon, Chief Commercial Officer, said: “We continue to do all we can to protect our customers from the scourge of counterfeit stamps, and since introducing barcoded stamps we have reduced the number of counterfeit stamps in our network by around 90%. The new counterfeit stamp scanner on the Royal Mail app will help prevent customers inadvertently falling victim to stamp fraud.

==================

The app correctly identified most of the barcoded stamps which I know to be forgeries - high value Machins, Christmas and England country 1st class. But it failed to identify the 2nd Large and 1st Large forgeries, and one of the earlier Christmas stamps.

 

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Cigarette smuggler found with unusual forged stamps - Manchester Evening News

An interesting story from the Manchester Evening News concerning some forged stamps.  These didn't make it to market, but did any others?

'Breadwinner' with 'good work ethic' caught smuggling 800 sheets of fake stamps into Manchester Airport

Border Force guards have smashed a plot by a computer science student to smuggle more than £40,000 worth of counterfeit postage stamps into Britain.

Officers stopped 42-year-old UK-based father-of-three Ogbehudia Adun at Manchester Airport after he hid almost 800 sheets of fake first and second class stamps under clothing in his luggage. Initially, Adun claimed the stamps were ''invitations'' but he later admitted acquiring the fake items from his native Nigeria to sell on the black market in Britain.

He came back to the UK via Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris and aroused suspicion due to the number of suitcases in his possession. He was also found to be carrying an excessive number of duty free cigarettes. Royal Mail’s security investigators were handed the stamps and later confirmed that they were counterfeits of the £1.75* Marine Turquoise and £2.55 Garnet Red stamps first issued by the Royal Mail in 2020 and 2017 respectively. 

Genuine £2.55 stamp

----8<----

“Border Force Officer James Pattison opened the bag where he found four, what appeared to be cardboard packages sealed with tape. The packages were beneath some clothing, but otherwise had not been concealed.

“Officer Pattison opened the packages and found what appeared to him to be counterfeit stamps. The paper appeared to be of poor quality and lacked the perforated edges that are normally seen on genuine Royal Mail stamps."  (My emphasis.)

The contents of the packages included, 577 sheets containing 13,848 £2.55 stamps (24 to a sheet!) and 195 sheets each containing an unspecified number of £1.75* stamps.

----8<----

In mitigation, Patrick Williamson said, “The defendant had limited involvement. It is my understanding that he met someone in Nigeria who asked for a favour from him, that being taking a parcel of stamps through customs.

“He realises now that this was a foolish decision, and when he got to France, he realised the error of his ways. He has expressed remorse to me, especially because of the effect it has had on his family.

''He shares the caring responsibilities with his partner and was the breadwinner of the family.

“He has a good work ethic and has worked consistently since he first came to the country from Nigeria 12 years ago. He has recently started a computer science course at a college in Leeds city centre and he currently brings home around £1400 a month.”

Adun, of Bodmin Road in Leeds, West Yorkshire, admitted possession of articles in use for use in fraud and was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and complete 15 rehabilitation activity days as part of a 12 month community order. He must also pay the court £500 in costs.

===========

* The numbers don't add up (assuming the turquoise green are in sheets of 24) and there are no pictures of the stamps.   I suspect the error is that these are actually £1.70 stamps.  

I've not heard of a £1.70 forgery, but thought I had seen a reference to the £2.55 being forged, though I can't now find it.  

If these are 'lacking the perforations' then they may be like the England £1.33 that was found a few years ago with no perforations, simply rouletting between the stamps.  

Maybe these were produced for another mailing scam (as were the £1 brown) and that this seizure is the entirety of the production.  Maybe not.  If anybody has any further information please let me know.

 

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Datamaatrix NVI forgeries shipped direct from China!

Users of GMail and other Google applications will be familiar with promoted advertisements appearing in various places - indeed if you are using a desk-top device then you will see Google produced ads on this blog.  It's a relatively unobtrusive way for us to generate some micro-pennies of income!

As some readers will know, in addition to the norphil email address I also use a gmail one.  I read my mail on my phone or my desk-top, in the latter case through a web browser, in my case Firefox.  Adverts are displayed at the head of some categories of email lists - usually the tab headed 'Promotions'.  Last week - and again today - I saw this:

I don't usually click on these but it seemed likely to be interesting, and so it turned out.  This website 'stampssaleonline.shop' uses the Royal Mail logo, and images, and offers new stamps at half-price.

A separate source says that stamps like these, and booklets, are now being shipped to customers direct from China* - here are images of the stamps he received - 1st class and 2nd class booklets of 8, 2nd class and 2nd class Large business sheets of 50.

*I've since been told that these were sent to the Yodel warehouse in the NW and delivered to customers from there.

I don't have precise evidence that the stamps shown came from the website shown, but that has been inferred to me.

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A new detailed catalogue and a forgery checklist.

Whilst at Midpex I picked up a copy of the new 'Complete Machin Stamp Catalogue - A specialised Guide to the Machin Definitive Series 1967-2021 by G J Burgess.

What, another new catalogue, you say?  Yes, in addition to the very specialised Deegam, the reasonably specialised Gibbons Concise, the freely-downloadable Stoneham, the out-of-date Connoisseur, the Machin Collectors Club catalogue, and our own detailed Checklist of the security stamps, is there a need for another?

The Complete Machin Stamp Catalogue - Burgess.

 

Well each of these catalogues has its own features, little extras, and omissions.  Whilst many will rely on the Gibbons product because that is what very many dealers use for their price lists, as a reference book it can be quite difficult to use, with no illustrations of booklet panes, and constant references back and forth to establish (often by type number rather than catalogue number) the actual contents of a booklet. (Try booklets QA1-4, for starters!)

The well illustrated Stoneham GB Catalogue, which usefully shows every PSB pane, has an arrangement for the Machins which assumes you know where you are starting from, with the first decimal Machins arranged according to paper/gum type, in over 20 different lists in 17 pages, and that's just the pre-elliptical stamps.  The pattern is repeated for the elliptical.  And as if an afterthought, all the self-adhesive stamps are in a separate section after the Booklets listing, over 110 pages after the gummed NVIs.

 

The new book

The first and most obvious thing about the Burgess catalogue is that it is A4 not A5.  It's on better quality paper than the Concise with its 250+ pages coming in at two-thirds of the thickness of the Concise's 566. 

It's also clear - all pages are in a single column, compared with the 2-column style of many of the others.  This aids clarity, with a sans-serif typeface. While some prefer Times New Roman, the serifs make it harder, not to read, but to study.   And the tabular system, with lines separating the rows means that even with the wider page, it is easy to use:

Burgess Machin catalogue 'value' stamps with elliptical perforations, page 61

The observant will notice that the Courvoisier trial stamps and the 2002 official 'RNIB' trial booklet stamps are also listed, the latter priced considerably higher than the much-publicised recent discoveries.

When it comes to the 2009> security stamps the detail is staggering.  The listing of each of the stamps with it's year code and source code (counting absence of a year code as 2009 in the same table as all the stamps with actual year codes), means 10 pages for the NVIs, and more for the special purpose stamps, the Diamond Jubilee and Long to Reign, with booklet contents being shown, rather than just the cover as Gibbons does.

NVI Security stamps listing in Burgess Machin catalogue.

Other pages show all the colour tabs for each of the stamps for each year, making it easy - if you have your collection arranged by year - to identify anything missing.  Equally it's easy to see which stamps don't exist in a particular year - no 1p, 2p or 5p counter sheet stamps in 2013 and no 1p stamp in 2014, for example.  Always useful if you have convinced yourself that a gap means that you are missing a stamp - you're not, Royal Mail did!

The section on gummed security stamps clearly shows which prestige book each appeared in.  No issue dates, they really aren't relevant expect for first day covers, and the first of any year always use the previous year's year code.

If you hark back to the Wildings, for which the (Gibbons) catalogues often showed all the printing dates and cylinders, well this book shows all the printing dates for the counter sheets, from 1p to 500g Special Delivery.

Counter sheet printing dates - Burgess Machin catalogue.

Regional/Country definitives are also covered of course, but only the Machins.  A detailed study of the pictorial country definitives would show many differences over the years that they have replaced the old 'emblem' stamps.

After the expected stamps come Machin stamps for Gibraltar, independent Guernsey, and a two-page listing for Hong Kong.  This is important and useful; I know of at least one collector who has an impressive collection of Hong Kong Machins used on cover (yes, I'm back to postal history again).

Modern non-Machin stamps are included for completeness, such as the decimal Wildings & Castles, and the 1d black (etc) definitive-sized stamps.  Booklets are shown in detail, although the (non-Machin) greetings stamps only have one illustration for the three different combinations of stamps, so here only marginally better than the Concise.  

There is also a two-page un-illustrated listing of forgeries of the security stamps.

Prestige Stamp Book definitive panes are well illustrated in the Burgess Machin Catalogue.

 

With excellent colour matching and quality printing this is an excellent book for the Machin collector even if you have others, which it will supplement.  It is priced at £29.99 and can be obtained from some stamp dealers or direct from the publisher through his eBay listing.   A pdf version is also available, supplied on a USB-stick for £16.99.  

UPDATE 15 July: If you are ordering stamps etc from Arun Stamps, Tony now has stocks of this catalogue which can be included. 

Forgeries

Just before I went off to Midpex, a collector and regular contributor here sent me a digital copy of a listing of Machin and other modern Forgeries he has compiled.  Fully illustrated with not just individual stamps, but complete booklets, 'sheets of 99', business sheets etc, this runs to 140 pages and includes Christmas stamps and country definitives.  

This is another tour de force, and I hope he makes it available to others interested in modern forgeries.

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News update - or lack of it.

Greetings readers!

I'm sorry for the recent silence but the only news of late is the addition of a new slogan postmark almost every day, it seems.  We're up to six in February - you can see them all here if you haven't seen them on letters.  I think I've had two, and not very good examples at that.

 

After our recent snow last weekend was, for us in the east, almost balmy, and we were able to enjoy working in the garden instead of the office on Saturday and Sunday, although the muscles were aching a bit by the end of it all as they are unused to digging etc.  And all around us were signs of spring as snowdrops and other flowers broke through and flocks of songbirds flitted between our feeders and the buzzard wheeled and called at a great height.

I've been adding new stock to the e-commerce site (or shop) over the last week, and sorting other material for sale there or elsewhere. 

Latest additions to the shop include Fools & Horses PSB stamps and the 2nd Large 2020 business sheet, National Parks and a few other Maximum Cards, and some Australian modern postal history.  Next additions will be a range of used and mint Machin forgeries. 

News to come concerns a new retail booklet and the King Arthur set, but I won't be able to tell much about these until they are issued.  All I can say for now is what was published on the back page of February's Philatelic Bulletin - The Legend of King Arthur set to be issued on 16 March consists of 5 x 1st class and 5 x £1.70 stamps, and the associated presentation pack, first day cover and stamp cards.

Finally, if anybody is interested in Machins or any modern issues on non-philatelic covers, please let me know and I will sort some out.  In fact, if you have any area of collecting, British, Commonwealth, Foreign or thematic, that you think I might be able to help with send an email (no long wants lists at this stage) and I'll see what I can find.

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New postage rates bring wider opportunities to use 1st class forgeries.

With little news on new stamps these days, it seems that every day something new comes to us in the way of forgeries.

Today an email arrived from a customer in Ontario, Canada, who had a letter from the Chester area, which was delivered in just three days!  That in itself is worth remarking on.   Here's the letter:

Letter from Chester to Ontario delivered in 3 days, postage rate £1.70.

 

The very white of the head points to a likely forgery, even allowing for scanning variations, but the close-up shows this to be a well-known and widespread forgery, with reversed lettering:

Forged 1st class stamp with alternate lines of 'iridescent' printing mirrored.

Somebody remarked earlier in a comment that the new 1st class rate was very useful for airmail rates.  This enables the users of these to easily and totally pay for many of their overseas sendings using only 1st class forgeries.

The £1.70 rate for European letters to 100g, Worldwide letters to 20g (and postcards) uses two of them.

The £2.55 rate for Worldwide letters 21-100g uses three of them.  What could be more simple.

Whilst in no way applauding this fraud, it does give overseas collectors the opportunity to acquire some different postal history!

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Another new forgery to help online sellers - Signed For!

We reported only in December about a raft of new forgeries, mainly available on ebay, but bought by the new online sellers who require cheap postage for their low-price sales, or simply to reduce their overheads.

The most common one reported to us was the 1st class Large (as shown further down) - and we had some delivered here on an eBay purchase of GB postal history, though not by a regular stamp dealer.  The seller was somewhat upset to realise that he had been sold a pup.

Now we've had a report of a forged stamp which will be even more useful for those sellers, and that is a new 1st class Royal Mail Signed For.

UPDATE 8 February: What wasn't obvious from the eBay listing is the backing paper, which DP provided details of, together with a UV picture:

This is the same arrangement on the backing paper as the 'iridescent' printing on this stamp:

 

and the same backing paper here but turned through 90º:

Like the 1st Large, this has only 9 lines of text not 13 and there is no year code (these started in MA13). Although the image above is a photo, and distorted, it appears that the lines of text are curved, rather than straight as they appear below.

So look out for these on your eBay purchases, they are valid on international mail as well, though I suspect the average online seller wouldn't realise that so it is UK readers who will most likely find them.

Please send images to the usual email address of any that are found on incoming letters.

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CONTINGENCY BRANCH POST OFFICES and their postmarks

I've had a number of emails about unusual postmarks, ones that are not often seen especially on mail.

JF writes about Contingency Branch 10 which is in Wells, Somerset.

“It has only been open since 13th January.  Prior to this, central Wells has not had a PO for very many months since the semi-Crown office closed.  Efforts had been made for another outlet to be found but nobody wanted it.  Not even WH Smith.  The original owner of the business wanted to retire but could not find a buyer and the property was nearing the end of the lease. 

With no one coming forward the business owner agreed along with the owner of the premises (City council I believe) kept the lease on for a long time.  However Peacocks opened a shop over on the High Street and agreed to take over the PO as well.  All this was prior to the first lockdown.  A public consultation was started but in the interim the owner of Peacocks, as you know, went bust.  Hence the PO was back to square one! 

The City council agreed to free the bus station enquiry/waiting room up on a temporary basis until such time as the regular PO is agreed and set up.  These premises are small and cramped with room for two staff and two distanced customers.  With only one cluttered counter it is a bit difficult to transact business comfortably but at least it is a better option than no PO!

Later I had the opportunity of asking the counter clerk about the designation.  Apparently there are otherwise known as POW 'Post Office on Wheels'!    Perhaps it means it can be set up in temporary fixed premises anywhere as in this case.

Datestamp from Contingency Branch 10, Wells, Somerset 2021.

Wells (Somerset) Bus Station Post Office

I believe this is the type of unit on wheels, and this has now been confirmed. (Thanks PA)

 

Coincidentally the subject has been covered in the latest Journal of the BritishPostmark Society, which lists 24 branches and provides illustrations of self-inking datestamps (SID) numbers 6, 9, 18, 25, 27, 37, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 55 62, 64, 65, 67, 76 and five for which no number is identified, and one which continues to use the SID from when it was in the newsagents.

In the same journal John Enfield has started a series of articles on Outreach branches, starting in North West England.

And even more coincidentally, I received an eBay lot posted at Contingency Branch 46 in Westwood Avenue, Lowestoft, Suffolk. 

Datestamp from Contingency Branch 46, Westwood Avenue, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

The sharp-eyed will notice that the elliptical perforations are 'wrong' with parallel sides - yes these are forgeries!  The seller was rather disappointed to find that out when I contacted him and explained all the things that could identify it - like, no year code, straight rather than wavy lines of ROYAL MAIL text, and only 9 of them instead of 13, as well as the perforation. 

If you have any examples of Contingency branch datestamps please send scans and they will be added.

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So many questions about this strange stamp.

A collector in Canada was advised to ask my opinion on this stamp.  It is clear from the perforations that this is not genuine.

The genuine £2.42 stamp was issued on 17 March 2020 to pay the airmail rate for letters from 21-100 gr to Zones 1 & 2, ie the world outside Europe.

Sadly there is no postmark on the piece but the smudges suggest that it was on a latter processed by a machine, rather than a packet.

(Image of the forgery has been changed to a sharper one, supplied today.)

The die-cuts appear to be acceptably close to normal (although the right one shows as a dark line on the Queen's back) but
The die-cut 'paper clips' are in fact printed on to the surface - there is no visible cut or indentation to the surface of the stamp.  The perforations are of the 'cookie-cutter' type not seen on forgeries of GB stamps for some years and of course lack the elliptical perforation.  Each corner is different, not even the diagonally opposite are exactly the same.  There is also no evidence of two-bar phosphor tagging.

Also this is the first airmail Machin forgery since the £2.25 in 2018. (There have been forgeries of Christmas and regional airmail-rate stamps.)

Even without the tariff changes which have taken place this year since the spring we would expect these stamps to be in use for only about 12 months, and they are rarely sold outside post office branches, so the principle question is why were they produced?  The only plausible suggestion I have had so far comes from a local expert who has an extensive collection of forged Machins, who wrote "it is probably from another bulk worldwide scam maildrop and only used for this purpose".

In other words an organisation trying a scam by mail (fake lottery tickets or some other way to make money from the gullible or unsuspecting) used forged stamps to minimise their outgoings and maximise their income.  This was the purpose behind the original £1 MTIL forgery. 

UPDATE 2 FEBRUARY: Further information from our correspondent confirms that this was indeed from a money-making scam...

in which the sender (in the UK) claimed that the individual to whom the letter was addressed (in Canada) was the beneficiary of an estate, and could collect the benefit if money to pay fees or expenses was forwarded. Based on the way the letter was addressed, the recipient believes the name and address were likely pulled at random from a telephone directory listing. The envelope and the scam solicitation were discarded.

So if you live outside the UK and have received anything similar, please examine the covers you put aside 'until you can get round to them' and let me know* what you find.  Or maybe you have bought some locally-sourced (ie outside the UK) kiloware.

* By email. Ideally a sharp scan of the whole envelope or piece and a close-up of the stamp.  Photographs really don't do justice to stamps apart from giving a general idea of a collection.

Anything else I find out will be reported here, and to the relevant specialist societies.

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Spot the difference? How many things wrong with these (barely 1st class) forgeries?

Early forgeries of Machin definitives were poor.  Of the more recent ones, many have tell-tale signs

Early 24p postal forgery

like poor perforations or a very poor printing, but generally the most recent Machin forgeries have been getting better and better.

But now we seem to be coming out of the other side of the quality peak.

I'm showing two examples in this post, one 1st class booklet and one 1st class Large sheet.

As we know all modern Machin definitives have a semi-transparent ink layer showing the letters ROYAL MAIL in a pattern.  In many cases some of these letters can be different indicating the year or production or sale, and the source (sheet, booklet) of the stamps.  Later, a similar more visible pattern was added to the backing paper of all definitive self-adhesive stamps.  

Here's the latest booklet example to grace our pages.

I mentioned a similar stamp earlier this month, so one sign is obvious if you have read that post. But how many differences can you detect without seeing the actual stamps?  I have 8 - 10 depending on how you want to count!

I'll add more details later.

So what about this 1st class Large?  You may need to click on the image to see the larger version.

For sale on eBay at £24.99 for 50 (v £57.50 face at current rates) they are described as 

... unfranked stamp is one which has been through the postal system but which hasn't been marked as used.

Sold for collecting and philatelic purposes

So what's wrong with that?  The backing paper has a faint security text printed on it, although it's difficult to see.  The stamps also have the semi-transparent security printing.  The listing has a picture of a sheet of 50, but it's not a Business Sheet or a counter sheet, the implication is that the stamps have been removed from envelopes and affixed to some genuine backing paper.  Very neatly.  

There are at least three obvious pointers to these being not quite what they seem.

Again, more later, while this is discussed on twitter and elsewhere. 

Best wishes for the Festive Season! What a year 2020 has been!

Maximum card of No 10 Downing
Street, residence of
the UK prime minister

Who would be a politician?  You make promises that the electors know that you won't necessarily keep once in power; that's a given.  You say things that people 'take out of context' when it suits you.  But even when you put on your really earnest face, and look really tired and tell people that they can have Christmas together, you overlook the fact that circumstances may change, and you may have to change the rules.  

That's what happened here on 19 December; with a week to go the rules changed so that 'Christmas' - normally several days of meeting and eating - was cut to just one day, and for Londoner's and others who moved up to tier 4, no visits at all.  Back to square one.  I know the politicians could have made different decisions earlier and maybe we may not have been under quite such tight restrictions as many people are in now, but that broadcast had some of us feeling great sympathy for our PM and his scientific advisors just as we did back in March and April.

As one of my American dealer contacts wrote just last week: 'The currently available vaccines seem to be effective against the current version of the virus.  However, the "enemy has a say in all this".  We DO know that the virus WILL mutate, but we don't know HOW the virus will mutate, nor if the current vaccines will be effective as the mutations occur.'  And so it has turned out. 

It won't make any difference to us; we weren't planning to visit anybody even though we have several sets of relatives within 5, and 20, miles.   We have plenty to do, with Netflix and Amazon Prime in addition to most other tv channels, and dozens of board and card games, many of which have been packed for a year in preparation for our moves. 

 

2020 & 2021 Special Stamp Programmes
This year's stamp programme met with the usual range of criticisms - too many, too expensive, and just plain "why?".   Out of 14 issues, only two or three could be regarded as commemorating something really significant to the United Kingdom events and institutions - the 200th Anniversary of the Royal Astronomical Society, the end of World War II, and 250th anniversary of the birth of William Wordsworth.  Oh, and the London 2020 International Philatelic Exhibition - like so many others a victim of circumstance.  It's cancellation didn't stop Royal Mail from issuing a sheet of 25 Penny Blacks which were only available as a £19 sheet!

Whilst the first two issues mentioned were stand-alone, the last could only be justified by Royal Mail under a banner of Romantic Poets in which Wordsworth shared the limelight with nine others.  And even then, they were illustrated by abstract lino cuts rather than the faces of the poets themselves.  What is it about this country that we can show rock stars (living or dead) but not William Wordsworth?  

Everything else was either a blatant thematic/topical subject or a popular entertainment subject (or both):  Royal Palaces and Insects, Video Games, James Bond, Coronation Street, Sherlock, Queen, Star Trek.  When this last was revealed more people than ever declared that they would stop collecting new issues and not wait for a change of reign.

Perhaps we are all Sherlocked!

This won't make any difference to Royal Mail, of course.  The existing policies will continue and probably get worse.  I've looked at the outline of 2021's programme and I can find 50th, 70th, 75th and  550th anniversaries.  From a short look at Wikipedia I can see that Peter Ustinov, Dennis Brain, George Formby, Malcolm Arnold, Humphrey Lyttleton, Dirk Bogarde, Deborah Kerr, Peter Sallis, Harry Secombe, Thomas Gray, Nobel Chemistry laureate Geoffrey Wilkinson, and John Keats might all have qualified, all have anniversaries next year, and that list includes eight popular entertainers.  But there are NO centenaries, or bicentenaries as far as I can see.   

Breaking news: the first issue for 2021 will be in the national media on 27 December, and the programme will be announced on 5 January.

 

Machin and Country Definitives
There was nothing excepetional in the definitive range, by which I mean we had the usual tariff change in March, which brought 15 new stamps.  There were no new stamps for the second tariff increase on 1 September, but the final one (from 1 January 2021) gives us 7/8 new stamps before Christmas. 

Some late M19L reprints of security definitives were finally supplied early in the year, and M20L reprints appeared through the year in the usual way.  The first two (February and March) prestige books (PSBs) both contained M19L stamps but only three new ones between them.  Subsequent PSBs (there were three more before the year was out) contained 6 or 7* new gummed M20L stamps (*depending on how you see them). 

The number of different postal forgeries found during the year was remarkable, with 1st class books and sheetlets of 12, sheets of 99 (11 x 9), and 100 (two panes of 50 - 10 x 5), 1st class Large sheets of 66, getting better and better but unlikely to fool astute collectors.

Making an appearance for the first time was the 1st class (definitive-sized) Game of Thrones stamp in booklets of 12 (it was only ever issued in 6s).  Making a reappearance on eBay was the 1st class Olympic games definitive (just the one type) in sheets of 16, some of which were despatched direct from China.  This was followed by the 1st class Machin with the reversed text which I reported here.

Even after this sheets of 16 x 2nd class Christmas stamps in four designs (2016, 2017, 2018 & 2014) were circulating, followed by mixed sheets of self-adhesive £1.55 country stamps, and finally this year's 2nd, 1st and 2018's £1.25 Christmas stamps were being used by eBay sellers.  The £1.33 Christmas 2016 stamp has also been found.  Many of these Christmas forgeries are in the smaller size of the Machin definitive rather than the original Christmas stamps so would be easily spotted.

I haven't had time to report and show all these.  I suggest readers who are really interested should join the MBPC and read 'Fake News'.  I hope to have some more forgeries, mint and used, for sale next year.

Post & Go
Once again there were no new designs, but there were new printings as needed. Branches continued to use stamps in the wrong place, so 2nd class stock being used for 1st class (and airmail) stamps and 1st class stock being used for 2nd class.

The tariff changes produced new stamps with different service indicators for airmail zones. Unfortunately alleged software limitations produced a misleading 'Zone 1-3' inscription which referred only to Zones 1 and 3.  This was corrected on Royal Mail machines (not PO SSKs) and the need will disappear from 1 January with the consolidation (for the time being) of the basic rates for all zones. With the range of stamps reduced, the cost increased as more expensive 100g airmail stamps were provided in place of the ones no longer needed.

Post Offices

There has been little to write about regarding actual post offices, although contributions to the postmarks topics allowed me to write about Mobile and Outreach postal services which I hope was of interest. 

The news about Post Office Ltd and their former sub-postmasters rolls on very slowly but has culminated this month in the news that the first six have had their convictions - for theft, false accounting, false representation and fraud - quashed.  Another 40 will come to the Court of Appeal in March.

There were, of course some early releases of special stamps, though maybe not as many as in previous years and fewer letters were posted.

Finally, news that I haven't had time to report suggests that Post Office is looking to replace the existing NCR self-service kiosk machines and has launched a process to find the next generation.  I'll cover this next month, but if you want to look at the paper, which includes some interesting diagrams about data relations and systems integration, click here (downloadable pdf).

 

Postmark Slogans
I'm indebted to all the readers who have continued to send in details of the slogan and other postmarks they have received during the year.  The number of Universals is probably down, but then letter mail was also down over the year by a significant amount, and it won't be until next month that we find out just how busy - in emergency postmarks terms - mail centres were during the Christmas period. All we know at the moment is that there are a few Universals, that parcel volumes are up, and the postmen and women are working their socks off in trying conditions. Our thanks to them all.

 

The business in 2020
The decisions we took to stop selling all new Machins after M18L and the Covid-related decision to shut up totally for most of this year means that our sales volume was down to less than 10% of 2019 which in turn was about 50% lower than 2018: it's just as well we don't do this for a living!  But with or without the pandemic we would have had to have closed at some time due to our relocation.  The pandemic made this a much longer process than it would normally have been, of course.  

Now, as things settle down here, and most of the stock has been unpacked, we have to catch up with other dealers.  According to word in the trade, business has been phenomenal, and that's even for dealers without detailed websites.  So we will reopen our online shop (shop.norphil.co.uk) from Christmas - but we will not process any orders until January 3rd, as many as possible being posted on January 7th.

We hope that existing customers/readers will find something of interest, and we will welcome new customers as we expand into other areas of worldwide philately.  We will also be offering some bulk lots of postcards and postal history, and will also expand onto eBay and probably to Delcampe for some areas.  As always the user name is norvic, so when you are browsing those sites, take a look and see if we are there.  We'll try to put news here and on Twitter as well.  

 

The future

There can be little doubt that things will get worse before they get better in 2021.  Despite the endeavours of the politicians the enemy at the gate will be there for some time before sufficient vaccines are available and effective against all strains of Covid-19.  And sadly there will be some who are confused by the rules and others who simply refuse to obey.  Only yesterday police had to contend with a demonstration in London against the restrictions and some officers were injured. 

A local dealer was telling me about a hospital in the midlands where management had to call taxis for staff because anti-vaccine protesters and Covid-deniers were verbally abusing the nurses and doctors coming off shift who are fighting to keep people alive.  The staff were returning to the hospital rather than suffer the abuse.

Sadly the anti-vaxers could well be the people who acquire the virus without showing symptoms and pass it on to others.  So don't engage with them; don't argue, steer well clear.  Protect yourself and others as best you can, and be kind to people.

We philatelists are generally solitary, although we meet at stamp clubs and fairs.  Maybe in 2021 some of this will happen again, but don't hold your breath.  The better we protect ourselves now, and in the future, the more likely things will return to normal.  

We count ourselves very lucky, considering the number of tradesemen we have had in our house & garden this year: I make it at least 20, not counting all the delivery drivers from Royal Mail, Amazon, Morrison's, and take-away drivers, etc.  By them being vigilant we and our local family are still safe, and as far as we know, so are they.

We thank you for your patience and good wishes both during the year, as we coped with the delays and the move, and for the festive season.  This summary is not a comprehensive or considered as usual, but let's hope in 12 months things will be so much better. 

We wish all our readers - customers or not - the best festive season you can have in the circumstances. To those who have lost friends or family during this pandemic we offer our sympathies.  We hope that you and your friends and loved ones stay safe now and in the future.
In the meantime let us be grateful for what we have and be kind to everyone.

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Latest 1st class Forgery, and unsurprising Post and Go news.

Ahead of Royal Mail's January price increase there is still news in the philatelic world.

1st class Machin Forgery - another new one

My thanks to DL for sending this picture of a 1st class Machin forgery used to post an item he bought on eBay.  It's not the sort of thing likely to fool anybody, unless Royal Mail now take it on board as a new feature - but that's hardly likely given that the forgers have got there first!

1st class Machin forgery with alternate lines of ROYAL MAIL mirrored

As you can see, the top line and every alternate line has the ROYAL MAIL text shown as

There's no year code and I can't see a source code.  It has the squared-off elliptical perforation, and narrow varnished 'phosphor' bands.

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Post and Go news

It comes as no great surprise that the 20-coded Winter Greenery have been found (at Oakham) in the wrong machines, as illustrated here by DF.   The surprise is that the explanation given was that the bulk packaging (presumably from the printer, unless PO Stores had repackaged) had the wrong labels on!

2nd class Winter Greenery 2020 Post and Go stock used in 1st class machine.

Meanwhile The Postal Museum have confirmed that, provided London is not under Tier 3 restrictions, they will be open on 1 January 2021 and it will therefore be possible to obtain their version of the Post and Go stamps with the new rates on the first day that they are applicable. 

Doubtless somewhere in the country there will be franchised sub-post offices (or some ex-Crown offices outsourced to WHSmith) with NCR Self-Service Kiosks enabling collectors who want the basic stamps not subject to additional inscriptions in the new set.   I wonder what will crawl out of the woodwork - surely there is not a huge stock of Birds, Fish, and Flowers held illicitly for just such an event?

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