Treasures of the Archive PSB - pane 1 variation

Although Royal Mail's prestige book FDCs have only a part of the Machin pane, early prestige stamp books were produced with no clean way of separating the pane from the book. Later panes were produced with rouletting against the binding edge, and later still a second set of rouletting just to the left of the stamps. (Most notably this meant that the official FDCs for the wilding pane of the 'Gracious Accession' PSB had only 8 of the 9 stamps on the pane, because the 2nd class red, with the diagonal watermark, was to the left of the right-hand rouletting.)

As many people know, registered dealers can buy loose panes from prestige stamp books, which enables us to service FDCs without having to remove the stamp panes from the books. This is why you often see panes with no stitching holes in the left (binding) margin. (These panes should not be available mint as they are supplied only for covers.)

The loose versions of pane 1 from the ToA booklet are markedly different to those in the books: they have no rouletting at all. This ought to be mentioned in some of the more specialist catalogues.

Machin variations - latest Prestige Stamp Books

As must be expected the Machin definitives in Prestige Stamp Books are usually distinguishable from those issued in sheets, if only because of the different printing process. But colour shades, depth of shading on the portrait, and even positions of the face value also vary.

Here I'm comparing the 17p, 22p, 62p & 90p definitives issued in sheets on 31 March 2009, printed in gravure by De La Rue, with the latest booklets. All these images are scanned in the same session, so are directly comparable.

I have been advised by an eagle-eyed viewer that the Treasures book was in fact printed by Cartor, according to the imprint, and not by the parent company Walsall SP. I don't have time to change the captions, but it does mean that the two 17p stamps were printed by the same company - and they are different!

17p
From left to right - De La Rue gravure sheet printing, Treasures of the Archive PSB (litho, Cartor), Royal Navy Uniforms PSB (litho, also Cartor):


22p - De La Rue Sheet printing and Treasures of the Archive PSB (Cartor litho)


62p - De La Rue Sheet printing and Treasures of the Archive PSB (Cartor litho)



90p De La Rue gravure sheet printing, Royal Navy Uniforms PSB (litho, Cartor):


1p - Royal Navy Uniforms PSB (litho, Cartor) version compared with 2006 sheet printing:



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Nearly Christmas!

Due to other commitments I've been unable to provide details here or on the website about the 2009 Christmas stamps, which feature stained glass windows.

Seven stamps this year -

2nd & 2nd Large - Angel
1st & 1st Large - Madonna and Child
56p - Joseph
90p - Wise Man
£1.35 - Shepherd
... as well as a miniature sheet and Smilers sheet, the last of which you can see here .

I must admit this is one of the better designed Smilers in recent years. OK some labels show only arms rather than heads, but better than the Pantomime of last year, I think.

As in previous years, the Madonna and Child stamps will be reissued though I'm not sure why, as both 1st class stamps feature the Madonna and Child and the rest are quite obviously religious?

Business Sheets: DLR using 2 different die-cuts at the same time?

Back in March we reported that the Security slits on the Business Sheets proved conclusively that they were printed by De La Rue because the semi-circular arcs were the same as those on counter sheets, ie one continuous unbroken arc.

Now we have news that the latest 1st & 2nd (small) Business Sheets have been found with split arcs, similar to those on the Walsall-printed booklets. We're referring to these, for the time being as
Type 1 (continuous arc), Type 2 (Split arc)

At first it appeared that Royal Mail had asked De La Rue to change the die-cut, and this suggested that we might also see changes on subsequent printings of the PO counter sheets of 50p - £5 and 1st & 2nd including Large Letter.

The dates first reported to me were

1st class - 13/02/2009 &
2nd class - 18/01/2009

Latest reports
2nd small -
14/01 Type 1
15/01 , 16/01, 17/01, 18/01 Types 1 & 2
09/03 & 10/03 - Type 2 only

1st small
13/02/09 - Type 1 & 2

No changes yet reported to the Large stamps.


It would not be economical to have a printing press printing business sheets in single columns and it must be assumed that they are printed at least two or maybe three or even four columns wide*. As long as all the die-cuts are the same this would be unremarkable. But if two different die-cuts appear with the same printing date it suggests that two different die-cuts were used in different positions on the machine.

* This is not to say that all four columns would be printing the same stamps: there could be two columns of 1st class and two of 2nd class.

If the Walsall/DLR differences are recognised or mentioned in the specialist catalogues it is probably fair to assume that these differences will be as well. And it makes it all the more important to look at ALL stamps received in the mail. Suddenly the 'boring' 1st & 2nd class Machins are starting to look interesting!

New Horizon Label Indicators!

As of today some indicators change as follows:

1LL becomes 1LG

2LL becomes 2LG

BLL becomes BLG

AX becomes AAX

BLL is British Forces but counters need a BFPO number to input to the system, or else a zero label might be produced (for the forces that are in active service areas, like Iraq and Afghanistan).

AX/AAX are Airsure designations. If anybody reading this receives an Airsure item with the new AAX label I'd like a picture of the label and cover to put on our webpage for Horizon labels. Please email me at ian@norphil.co.uk

Security Machins update - Code R = Rolls !!

This month's surprise new stamps are the 1st & 2nd Machin definitives with security features from rolls or coils.

As with the Business Sheets and booklet stamps these have security codes, in this case 'R' - MRIL, as shown in the picture:



But if you're a collector with a Bureau standing order for 'visible changes', you won't get these despite there being a quite obviously visible change, because this is not a philatelic product. The rolls are available only from Royal Mail Direct in Edinburgh (ie the room next to the Tallents House bureau), and exist only as rolls of 10,000. So if you have the price of a small car - £6,900 - you can buy 10,000 of each. The rolls have sequence numbers every 10th stamp, so the way to collect will probably be in strips of 3/5/10/11.

Here's a picture of the coils including the bar-codes. (All pics courtesy of AW.)



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EDIT: These are not on philatelic release. They were discovered on a mailshot from a financial institution, and only by the addressee spotting the new code. Therefore there are NO first day covers.
We will, however, have some strips with and without serial numbers, and single stamps will also be available. We'll be writing to regular customers about these in the next couple of days, and welcome enquiries from other collectors.

EDIT:
We now have these together with all the other security definitives in our online shop. If the combination you want isn't there, please email from the site and we will do our best to supply you.

Security stamp variations now on our online shop

At long last I've had time to scan in detail all the various stamps, together with the security codes on the NVIs. The 1st class gold just doesn't seem to scan as well as the 2nd class blue because of the metallic factor of the ink, so I haven't got a picture of the C code, the stamp from the mixed/custom/commemorative booklets of 6 - Design Classics and NAFAS, or the S code, the 1st class book of 6.

So here are the four Business Sheet stamps

 

and here are the five normal booklet stamps - books of 6, 12 & 4 (Large)

All these, and the 'C code' and sheet stamps can be ordered at our online shop. Note, postage and packing is 80p extra and we don't yet have automated payment facilities (eg PayPal) because we like getting stamps on letters containing cheques - but we do take PayPal, & UK and European bank transfers.

We also have some Business Sheet top panels for some of the Security stamps; many of these have yet to reach post offices while stocks of the old sheets are being used up.

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Design Classics retail booklet update - not numbered!

I mentioned on the latest site update that unlike booklet 2, booklets 3 & 4 had that number on the edge.

Well, that was on the publicity pictures - for what they are worth. I now have the Concorde booklet and there is no number; the edge caption is the same as on books 1 & 2.

When in July 1969 did Apollo 11 land on the moon?

Royal Mail is issuing a 10-stamp commemorative sheet marking the 40th anniversary of the first manned moon landing. The sheet is issued on 21 July. Internetstamps are producing a similar Business Smilers Sheet and they have sponsored a pictorial postmark for the 20th July for covers that they are producing. That postmark of course can't be used on the Royal Mail sheet which is issued the following day.

This all comes down to the fact that the moonlanding was a night-time affair, grabbing prime television audiences. I remember watching through to the early hours of 21 July as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon's surface. In Houston it was still 20 July, which is why wikipedia records that "On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above".


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Post and Go labels - version 3

We can't expect any prior announcements about Post and Go labels ("they're not stamps, we're not interested," a Royal Mail spokesman might have said), but another change seems to have taken place yesterday.

First issued in new machines in October, they've already undergone one change with the addition of 'perforations' on the upper and lower edges. Now there is a completely new design in the style of postage that can be generated from the home or business computer, which is marketed under the names of 'Online Postage' and 'Smartstamps'.

This is the first version of Smartstamps as produced in 2004, later changed:


And this is the new version of the Post and Go Label (not the Faststamps), which seems to have been put into use at Derby yesterday (30 June):


Now all we need is for the all forms of computer-produced postage to have the Machin head and collectors will really be pleased!