More New Security Machins on sale at London 2010.

Dealers and collectors have been discussing at length which would be the next Machin stamps to show the new MA10 year code.  And we found out sooner than expected.  Not only did we find new stamps, but also found that they had been packed in 2009!


The 1st class and 2nd class Large booklets of 4 are now available with code MA10 to the left of the eye (adjusted in Photoshop Elements).

Edit:

Eagle-eyed Robert has commented on something we all seem to have overlooked!  The year code MA10 to the left of the eye is not the only change.  On the 2009 booklets the text to the top right is 

...YALMAIL at the top, followed by

...LFOY... followed by

.. MAI...

As you can see the FOYAL has been replaced with ROYAL in the 2010 stamps, and the line below it now incorporates the origin code, MAIL now reading MFIL.

Both booklets have been printed with W1 cylinders - base colour, phosphor and overlay.

The packing caption shows that the 2nd class booklets were packed in February, but the 1st class booklets were packed in December 2009!

Now on Sale
We have a limited supply of these and other stamps with security features now listed on our e-commerce site.

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London 2010 Festival of stamps - Post Office presence

The key here is the difference between Royal Mail and Post Office (Counters Ltd).

Royal Mail were always going to have a big stand selling all their philatelic products as part of their support for the international exhibition and festival.  The presence of Post Office Ltd was by no means certain.  For Stamp World 1990 at Alexandra Palace there was a Mobile Post Office trailer in the car park.  I can't remember a presence at StampShow 2000, although there probably was one.

But as recently as late February Post Office Ltd couldn't tell us whether they would have counter facilities or even Post & Go machines at London 2010.  It does seem that the arrangements were made quite late in the process, but we did indeed have a Post Office presence, albeit in some fits and starts!

At the left, off shot, the Post & Go Machine.   At the right, the counter with scales, horizon desk and printer.   Not full facilities, but certainly I was able to draw cash from my bank account (avoiding a trip across the road to Barclays' ATM), stamps could be bought, letters and cards posted.  And, of course, the Horizon machine could produce the much-derided white label - but these labels were not white - Islington joined Wales in having the golden Machin labels!

No copies of my own to show here as they have to be posted and are not handed back, so here is one from Brian's postagelabelsuk blog:

The system produces receipts and certificates of posting which identify the branch location:

Meanwhile on the other side of the booth, the Post and Go machine was finally persuaded into life.  The Post & Go label (this one for Airmail) shows the branch code 002010 for the Festival:

The Post & Go stamps (known almost universally as Faststamps) also bear this code:

With appropriate juggling it was possible to produce the collectors-favourite strip of 5 different Faststamps:

But the Post & Go machine hasn't been programmed to show the Branch Location, although it does show the Branch code:

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Some first day covers have been prepared, and some letters sent through the ordinary mail. It will be interesting to see if there are any problems with the time-limited Post & Go labels which, issued on 8 May, had to be posted by 9 May. But there are no collections on 9 May, so the ones I posted this morning will be picked up on 10th May! Examples of actually posted, and first day, envelopes will be added when received.

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London 2010 Festival of stamps - photo-gallery

Had an enjoyable trip to London yesterday and the Festival of Stamps and the Business Design Centre in Islington.  Lots of news, but first a gallery of first impressions.

09.30 Ticket Holders starting to enter the building.

The queue extended round the corner and alongside the Hilton Hotel.

Auction House Spinks advertise on a London cab - it's a long-term arrangement but the driver now appreciated why he was parked up outside the Hilton!

10.15 After a breakfast break at the conveniently placed and friendly Cafe Uno, our first view of the main hall, with Royal Mail's stand in the far distance.

Royal Mail's huge stand with many serving points which kept queues quite short.

... with some super-large stamps (even if this one is in the forecast colour rather than as issued):

And lastly - discovered mid-morning by some and not until the afternoon by others!  The Post Office counter, with malfunctioning Post & Go machine off-screen at the left.

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Quality reproduction of PUC £1 !

These are scans of the PUC £1 facsimiles.  The printing on the reverse is over the whole block, so the GvR cypher is in the centre of the block.  I'm impressed!

Cartor heavy with the ink in Souvenir Sheet?

We now have copies of the London 2010 Festival of Stamps Souvenir Sheet, containing 11 Machin definitives printed by Cartor.  As is to be expected, these show marked differences to the normal sheet stamps printed by De La Rue.  Although Stanley Gibbons' Concise catalogue will probably only assign a number to the whole sheet, specialist catalogues should allocate numbers to individual stamps.

Here are the stamps, Cartor Souvenir Sheet stamps first, followed by the separate DLR stamps:

In fairness I ought to compare the Cartor printings of values they have printed before with their previous versions, but that can come later.  I think the comparison of the 20p & 60p values is most interesting!

London 2010 Festival of stamps - 1st class double-head

Proof that the 1st class double head stamp really is being sold in sheets, contrary to Royal Mail's stock list, but as mentioned in an earlier reply to correspondents:

The stamp is printed in sheets of 25, formed into 6 sheets, three across and two down.  Twin-pane sheets are available but Post Offices will generally have sheets of 25.  Sheet markings:

- the caption is above columns 1 & 2,
- the sale date below columns 4 & 5,
- the cylinder numbers to the left of row 4 (C1 phos, C1),
- the traffic lights to the right of row 4 (phosphor above red),
- the barcode and short title to the right of rows 1 & 2, and
- the positional grid to the left of row 2.

If I had been involved I would have made sure that Festival of Stamps was fully capitalised, but maybe I'm just old fashioned?  How about you?

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The truth behind the MA10 security code?

I have been advised that the previously reported security code MA10 is regarded as a production date, included on these stamps in the same way that the year is included either as a microprint in the design of, or reversed out of the phosphor on, special and commemorative stamps.  As such the production date will be included on all future security printings, this year and in subsequent years, in any format that needs a reprint.

(My response to this when told, was that production dates are only added to commemorative or special stamps.  They are not even included on the Madonna Christmas stamps, whilst their secular counterparts in 2007 did have the year shown in the phosphor.  Similarly Royal Mail didn't see the need to include the year in the original security stamps.  You can draw your own conclusions as to why this change has been made: but it can't be only because collectors will want them, though.)

As Royal Mail no longer provide a true philatelic service, only a sales and marketing function to collectors, it will be up to dealers and collectors to find them, as they will not be regarded as new 'visible change' stamps by Royal Mail for standing order purposes.   I can easily anticipate their response to any challenge on this position, based on previous responses to similar illogicality: the stamps are not sufficiently different to previous stamps and we didn't want to send them to collectors who didn't want them.  (Note: this is not a quote, it's a suggested response.)  I did ask a Royal Mail trade manager about these changes over 2 weeks ago, but have not yet had a response.  I suspect he is busy getting ready for the London 2010 Festival of Stamps.  Guess what?  So are we, and we are dealing with current orders at the same time!

As regards the 2nd class x 12 booklets, we have been advised that, having sold the booklets at Stampex, Royal Mail's Tallents House 'Philatelic Service' is refusing to sell them either to collectors or to dealers by mail order even though they have them and can, we understand, easily identify them.  We've also been told that the cellophane wrapping on the packs of 50 indicates if all booklets inside have Cylinder numbers.  People who buy all their new stamps by mail from Tallents House rather than spending time queueing at Stampex may have to reconsider their tactics - or their collecting interests!

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King George Accession surprises

Our supplies of stamps etc for the May Festival of Stamps are starting to arrive from Royal Mail, and are bringing some surprises with them. The colour of the 1st class double-head stamp is not 'flame-orange' as originally described, and as pictured on the Stamp Cards, the colours of the PSB panes are different, and the PSB panes are guillotined into the designs (as we were told they would not be). The one non-surprise so far is the predicted security codes on the PSB Machin pane.


You will recall earlier pictures of the new 1st class double-head 'flame-orange' stamp: the later image of the full sheet being quite different in shade to the publicity photos of the single stamp.

Well we don't have the single stamps yet but we do have the miniature sheet.  As you can see from this scan of the actual sheet, the colour is very similar to that of the 'whole sheet' image shown above, and totally different to the publicity image and the Stamp Cards (see below).

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PSB Panes:

The publicity image for the Machin pane is probably closest to the actual thing, with the background printed silver on white.  The perforations are as usual, with two holes beloe the elliptical hole.  As predicted these new self-adhesive stamps have security features (uninterrupted cuts of type I as on sheet stamps), security code MPIL (for prestige book) at top right, and MA10 (for 2010) to the left of the forehead.

Close-up of the stamps:

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The Seahorse PSB pane is printed silver on cream, not silver on white, and the loose ones we have been supplied with barely include the whole diadem, whereas in the book the full pane includes the whole of the left frame of the original stamp design.  The stamps are well produced, but.....

There are no extension holes to the perforations as shown in the publicity images for panes 1 & 2.

Plans, intentions, publicity, marketing and reality.
Mock-ups are just that - we shouldn't put too much reliance on them actually showing how the stamps/panes will turn out in reality.   To be fair, Royal Mail always say that they are working images - in the 6-12 months before they are actually issued - but is it too much to hope that the images and descriptions in their own Philatelic Bulletins might be accurate as soon as the stamps have been approved and printed?

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STAMP CARDS
The stamp cards for the 6 May stamps show the 1st class stamp in the colour we thought it should have been in - and possibly the colour that Royal Mail intended.  Sadly the actual stamps are rather insipid compared with these:

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Golden Machin Horizon labels in Wales - update.

We have news from the principality that the introduction of gold Machin Horizon labels to Wales was delayed by a week. 

The image shown, courtesy of Brian on the PostagelabelsUK blog shows usage at the Senghenydd PO near Caerphilly.   The office CDS has been applied, as well as the Cardiff machine postmark for 20-IV-2010.

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Brian has reported that some of the gold labels were mistakenly sent to POs in Kent.  Some may have been used before instructions were sent to withdraw them, so keep your eyes open!

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Updates:

'Kent' referred to above turned out to be two branches in Orpington.
Bassett Avenue sub-PO in Bicester (branch 170137) also has them (before 8 May), as well as one in Norwich (before 14 May) and one in Stockton-on-Tees (posted 12 May).
In use 8-15 May at London 2010 Festival of Stamps PO - branch code 27508 London N1

20 May update: reported posted from Horsham, Surrey.
Also one from Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 dated 12 May.  Branch 362832.
22 May update: Lower Castlereagh (Belfast), branch 249704 - 1 May 2010. (Image to follow)

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Machin MA10 usage record - 2010 security print

I've been asked by several people just when these new stamps were available, and what is likely to be the earliest known use.

We know for sure that the 6 x 1st (MSIL) with new postcode advert had a philatelic distribution date of 26 January, and dealers may have been supplied a week or two earlier.  We prepared one FDC for a customer who wanted the booklet advert and 6 stamps.   These stamps could have been used from this time.

We know for sure that the Olympic Booklet 2 (MCIL) was issued on 25 February and first day covers were produced by many people.  We produced some with all 6 stamps and some with only the Olympic stamps, putting the remainder aside for postage.  We used some of these in February and March, though not many as we tend to use special stamps to our customers.  I don't know how many were used, nor where they were sent!

The 12 x 1st and 12 x 2nd (MTIL) booklets were available on the first day of Stampex 24 February, but it is unlikely that any were used postally.   As we indicated earlier, the 1st class book was released by Royal Mail to collectors as a visible change with no printers imprint on the back of the book.  Oddly in the January Stock List there were two entries for this - UB309 dated 15.12.09 and UB310 dated 26.01.10.  This duplication was explained away as an error, and UB310 is missing from the April Stock List.  But there are two versions of the booklet!

I spent an hour looking through the kiloware - stamps that I had torn off incoming mail since Christmas - and found no MA10 stamps.  But two did arrive in the mail this week, so the earliest known dates so far are shown below.  Do let me know what you find, so that the record can be updated.

MCIL - 11.3.10 - philatelic use for special handstamp.
              7.4.10   Leicester.

MSIL - 30.3.10   Ipswich  (from the Postcode advert booklet)
             12.4.10  Medway & Maidstone

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Scan of 2nd class from book of 12 to demonstrate how easy the codes are to see.  The security layer on the 1st class gold stamps is also much easier to see on these recent printings than on some of the 2009 printings where deciphering the code was almost impossible.

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Now on Sale
We have a limited supply of these and other stamps with security features now listed on our e-commerce site.

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