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.

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Printing Dates on Datamatrix stamps - check your swap returns!

I am grateful to the Modern British Philatelic Circle (MBPC) members for reporting new printings of some of the Machin definitives, something which we had not been told about by the Philatelic Service in Tallents House.

Collectors will recall that we registered dealers have, in the past, received periodic but irregularly timed lists of available printings on counter sheets stamps.  This enabled us, in many cases, to find new year-codes on security stamps before they were found in post offices.  [In other cases they were found in post offices and never appeared on the lists we received, however!]

This service - which after all enabled them to sell more stamps to people who wanted to buy date blocks - dropped off significantly. After six such lists in 2020, there were only two in 2021, and so far only two in 2022 - one to provide details of the barcoded Machins, and the second to provide details of the barcoded Country definitive stamps.

This is the list of dates from those lists with additional dates in red from the MBPC website.

 1p - 10/01/22
 2p - 10/01/22  04/04/22 (TM email 2/1/23)
 5p - 10/01/22   04/04/22 [machinmaniac comment]
10p - 11/01/22   05/04/22
20p - 11/01/22   05/04/22
50p - 12/01/22   06/04/22 [machinmaniac comment]
£1.00 - 12/01/22  06/04/22 [JF]
£1.85 - 05/01/22
£2.00 - 12/01/22
£2.55 - 05/01/22
£3.00 - 14/01/22
£3.25 - 06/01/22
£4.20 - 06/01/22
£5.00 - 14/01/22

2nd - 01/12/21    11/04/22 [JF & BM]
1st  - 01/12/21     08/04/22 [machinmaniac comment, image below from JF]
2nd L - 06/12/21   12/04/22
1st  L - 06/12/21   12/04/22

Scotland - 26/04/22
Wales  - 27/04/22
N Ireland - 28/04/22
England - 25/04/22

Now these new dates have not been provided by the Tallents House Philatelic Team.  But that does not mean that they are not there somewhere.

Specifically they could be with the Swap-Out team, who must be getting through huge stocks, given the delays that are occurring in responding to forms being sent in.  (It is likely, given the 2nd class stamp which they said at the outset that they would use by default that very large quantities of these were printed, but I would expect that a reprint for this could easily be needed.

So could I ask that everybody checks their swap-out receipts against these dates and lets me know of any new ones received.  And then take good care of anything new as I am likely to be able to provide those to collectors who want them.

Thank you!

Images of new dates

 

 

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Datamatrix low values: positions, blocks at face.

Although these new stamps are readily available from Royal Mail's philatelic service, and many post offices, it is often difficult to get collectable positional singles, or cylinder and date blocks from either.

As I have a spare set of sheets, I am able to provide these at face value, but I only have one sheet of each.   ALL THESE VALUES are available: preference will be given to applicants who want a complete set of positions.  Set of eight is £1.88.     This offer is now closed.

Low value Machin datamatrix stamps 2022.

Full counter sheet of 1p datamatrix definitive stamps.

Cylinder block options:   

block of 4, 6, 8, 10 with stamps vertical and cylinder number in top margin;

block of 4, 6, 8 with stamps sideways and cylinder number in left margin;

block of 10 with stamps sideways and cylinder number and date & grid in left margin.

 

Date block options with stamps vertical:

block of 4 with date, grid in top margin;

block of 6, 8 or 10 with date, grid in top margin and colour tab in right margin;

UPDATE 13 May 2022:

We also have some of the airmail and high values with date, and colour name, from the top right of the sheets.

 

Delivery and payment

For UK delivery postage will be low (unless signed for or special delivery is required), and with payment by bank transfer.  

For international delivery postage below cost (unless tracked/registered is required): payment by UK bank transfer or PayPal friends and family.

To apply

Please email ian@norphil.co.uk with your requirements, name and postal address for delivery.  

I will wait two weeks for responses and then email replies with costs.  

Thank you.

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Now available from Royal Mail - but not for long

As several people have mentioned in comments on different posts, Royal Mail have produced an updated Stock List for Spring 2022.

This is important because it is likely to be the last such listing the Machin and Country Definitive stamps without datamatrix codes. 

Notably the last day of sale for the old-style Machin sheet stamps is shown as 28 May 2022, ie about six weeks away!  I don't think this has been mentioned anywhere by Royal Mail, and they haven't told their registered dealers, unless I missed it.  Others are listed as 'while stocks last'.

Summary:

Machin counter sheets - 28 May 2022

Mixed Booklets* & PSBs - While Stocks Last except Harry Potter (both), 31 December 2022

Country definitives - While Stocks Last - only 2nd, 1st and £1.70 stamps are available now.

* Other retail booklets - these are not mentioned at all in the Spring 2022 list. 

It seems, though, that the blue and red 12 x 2nd, 12 x 1st, 6 x 1st, 4 x 2nd Large and 4 x 1st Large are no longer available - if you are missing any of these then it is time to find them at local post offices. Those still available from Royal Mail's website shop are shown here.  

My thanks to the people who have confirmed that non-mixed retail booklets were shown as 'While Stocks Last' in September 2021, which means that for some reason (!) stocks only lasted until new-style booklets were issued, and no opportunity was given to obtain any at the last minute.  (My thanks also to AJ for sending me the list I was missing.)

Year by Year

Many readers know that as part of our arrangement with Royal Mail, registered dealers are provided with details of new printings of counter sheet stamps.  While this is not fully comprehensive, it has enabled us in the past to provide new years' printings including date blocks (usually but not always) before you could find them in Post Offices.

On the basis that there is an opportunity to sell rather than burn existing stocks, Royal Mail have now produced a new list, the first since October 2021, and this is a summary:

Stamp	Printer	Year
1p	W	M20L M21L
2p	W	M21L
5p	D	M16L M17L
5p	W	M19L M21L
10p	W	M21L
20p	D	M17L
20p	W	M21L
50p	D	M12L
50p	W	M19L
£1	D1	M16L
£1	W1	M18L M20L
£1.50	D	2009 no code
£2	D	2009 no code
£2	W	M19L
£3	D	2009 no code
£3	W	M19L
2nd	D	2014/5/6/7
2nd	W	2018/9/20
2nd Large	D	2011/2/3/4/5/6/7
2nd Large	W	2018/9/20
1st class	D	2017
1st class	W	2018/9/20
1st Large	D	2015/6/7
1st Large	W	2018/9/20

For values shown up to £3 there is usually only one date (and for some of those no cylinder and/or date blocks are available).

For the NVIs there are in many cases several dates available for each year.  Details on request!

For airmail values between £1.42 to £4.20 there are usually only the one or two original printings.  Again, details available if anybody wants them.

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Forget Black Friday consumerism, we have new old stamps on offer

Since 2009 we have concentrated on providing information about all Royal Mail's new security stamps, and making them available on our shop. At the end of last year we said that we would stop doing this from 2019 (M19L) onwards and provided details of alternative suppliers.

Before then, and since, we had promised to start adding earlier Machins, for which we had stocks.  

We have now finished processing Machin definitives with elliptical perforations, the Y numbers in the Stanley Gibbons Concise catalogue. 


We've added over 160 stamps, and booklets containing Y-stamps, and they are available on our shop now.  All the booklets are also included in the Y section but because of the numbering, the booklets come first once sorted into A-Z order. For some stamps we have variants not listed in Gibbons' Concise such as phosphor colour variants, and easily identifiable printings by different printers, or even the same printer:

 

 

  

As well as booklets, we have also listed cylinder and date blocks and strips for many values.

 

 

 

For some of these stamps we have reasonable stocks, others we have only a few.

My apologies to readers hunting for specific categories, that I totally omitted to provide any links when I posted this yesterday.

Machins with elliptical perforations - stamps are listed according to SG Y numbers
   Cylinder and Date blocks and strips are shown separately from the same stamps sold as singles and blocks.

Booklets containing stamps with elliptical perforations  - this link shows most recent additions in the booklets category.  Sorting A-Z will show them in Gibbons catalogue number order.

We hope you find something to add to your collection, and take your mind off the political situation which we are enduring in so many of our countries, and for those in the northern hemisphere, something to shine some light on these often gloomy days.  Looking at the bright colours of the 90s makes me wish Royal Mail would go back to that sort of brightness which now seems to be reserved only for the NVIs!

Talking of which, the NVIs (1st and 2nd) are not included here because they are a whole different area to look at.  By their very nature there are more variants in sheet printers, booklet size, printing, etc, and that will take a whole to sort out.

Next will be the stamps with full perforations, the Gibbons X numbered stamps or the NVIs.

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Surprise Christmas Sheet Format as well as Booklets

As described on our website and shown here in the earlier post, this years' Christmas booklets have both Madonna and Competition stamps in.   I hadn't realised (because I didn't read the advance information thoroughly!) the counter sheets also contain both designs. 

The 2nd class, 1st class, and both Large Letter sheets all contain both designs in one sheet.  Unlike definitive sheets of 50 (which are smaller stamps), there is no central gutter - which means that there is one novelty aspect which collectors might have bought but Royal Mail didn't think of.  The first image shows a photo of several sheets (Large Letter and two airmail). 

The other two are from the Post Office website and don't show the sheet margins.  I've only shown the 1st class sheet and the 2nd class Large sheets; the 1st Large and 2nd are similar.

From the first picture you can see that the printing date and sheet number are in the upper portion of the sheet, and the traffic lights and FSC logo are at the bottom.   The cylinder numbers are at the lower left, so there is no cylinder block for the Madonna & Child stamps (and no date block for the competition stamps).

I believe this is the first time that this country has ever had two stamps of different designs in the same sheet, other than in se-tenant pairs/strips.  If anybody does want se-tenant pairs or strips of 10, then I can order them.

Printing of the Christmas stamps usually starts in high summer.  What is interesting from these pictures is that the 1st class sheets available locally were printed in July while the 2nd class were printed in September.  There will be many other dates: I don't aim to record them all, but will list in this post, any more that people provide.

UPDATE 18 November
For the record, here are pictures of horizontal pairs from the centre of counter sheets - what would have been gutter pairs had there been a gutter!

Although delivered to many post office branches unfolded, these are often soon folded and thus less desirable.  This format is not available from Royal Mail at this time.

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New Country Definitive Stamp printing brings more grey heads and no silver

A new printing of the 1st class Scotland and 2nd class England country definitives was made on 19 May 2016.  As with the 2nd class Scotland the silver cylinder for the Queen's head and (in the case of the Scotland stamp) value has been dropped, and these details now appear in grey.

Unlike the 2nd class Scotland, which was printed in all four panes on the sheets, the four panes on the latest printing are shared, with the Scotland 1st being in the left column, and the England 2nd being in the right column, ie two panes each on a master sheet.

The cylinder numbers are once again C1, phosphor, yellow, magenta, cyan and black, reading downwards.  The single phosphor band on the 2nd class stamp is easy to see, but the 2 bands on the 1st class stamp are more difficult to see in normal light.

UPDATE:
I was surprised to find, on checking my reference collection, that the change from silver to grey on the 2nd class England stamp appears to have taken place at least four years ago, when Cartor took over the production of these.  I have a block with a printing date of 10/07/12 and another 12/07/13, with a different master sheet configuration.  And the latest one is yet another new configuration. 

This picture shows the cylinder numbers for the three printings I have with a grey head.  As you can see, the first printing (10/07/12, released by Tallents House on 3 January 2013) has the England 2nd class in just one of the 4 positions on the master sheet.
The second printing (12/07/13) has the same stamp in all 4 positions - either more were needed or the print run was shorter.  This was available from Tallents House from approximately September 2013 to January 2014.
The latest printing (19/05/16) has just two positions for the same stamp.  
These are obviously all new cylinders but ISP/Cartor for some reason see no need to increment the numbers - and Royal Mail apparently see no reason to suggest that they should do so!  As far as I know there have not been any Cartor printings of this stamp other than those shown.

The second picture shows both stamps from the current printing.

The stamps, including date and cylinder blocks, will be added to our webshop for purchase in November when we re-open.

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2015 Machin Definitive Stamp reprints now available.

We can now show the 5 new stamps which were originally reported here.

The 1p, printed 21/01/15 - for sale in our webshop here.

The £1, printed 13/01/15 - in our webshop here.

The 2nd class counter sheet - 26/02/2015

1st class Signed For - 25/02/15

1st class Large Signed For - 24/02/15

New Tariff stamps.

These are expected in stock very soon.  If you would like date blocks of the above (we mainly have one of each) please let me know as soon as possible.  Otherwise if you wish to order the new values in addition to those shown here to be sent in one batch, please wait until the new values are added.  We have sufficient stock of the single stamps.

Known printing dates are:  
Updated 23.3.15 (thanks Brian)

£1.33         26/01/15 and 27/01/15

£1.52         15/01/15, 23/01/15 and 26/01/15

£2.25         14/01/05 and 15/01/15

£2.45         16/01/15

£3.15         19/01/15

£3.30         19/01/15 and 20/01/15

Any more dates found?

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New Definitive Stamp sheet printings

Some more new printings of 2014 definitives have been reported.  Please let us know if you would like date blocks of any of these and we will do our best to obtain them.


2nd class - 28/10/14
1st class - 27/10/14

2nd Large - 29/10/14
1st Large - 30/10/14 and 31/10/14

97p - 22/12/14

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More new printings of Machin Definitive Stamp sheets

More stamps from the May 2014 round of printings are now appearing:


10p       -  21/05/2014
20p       -  28/05/2014
2 Large -  19/05/2014
£1.47    -  22/05/2014
£2.15    -  27/05/2014

Date blocks of 8 of all these are available on request and while stocks last.  They have been added to our webshop, but not in the Recent Additions category - look at the individual listings within 2014.

Of more interest to collectors of the basic stamps, we are expecting to have stocks of the first Special Delivery reprint, the 100g stamp with M14L year code very soon.  Cylinder numbers and Date Blocks will be available.  This will be numbered 2985.4 in our system and is now available to buy.


UPDATE 11August
Back from our August break, I can now add images of the new Special Delivery stamps:

Comparison with the original - because of the silver printing the coding in the iridescent ink shows up in ordinary scans.  The blue ink on the new stamps is deeper, but no more than might be expected during the print run.

 Full sheet of the new stamps showing the 8 grid positions:

And a microscope view of the security coding:

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