Guinness World Record at Southern England Stamp Show 10/11 March 2017

Southern England Stamp Show
(formerly the Salisbury Stamp Show)

the largest two day show in the south of the country at the
Farnborough Leisure Centre, Westmead, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7LD

Opening times are 10am to 5pm on Friday 10th March 2017
and from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 11th March 2017

The Southern England Stamp Show offers all of this...

* Continuous Shuttle bus service between Farnborough Main Railway Station, Two of the Largest Car Parks (Kingsmead and Queensmead) and the Leisure Centre (NEW)

* Largest two day Stamp Show in Southern England * Top dealers present
* Two large on site car parks * Excellent reasonably priced catering
* Chairs at EVERY table * Very easy access either by road via the M3 or rail
* One level enabling wheelchair access * Free Entry
* Free Raffle * Free programme
* Shopping centre + Supermarket adjacent

And there's more......

Guinness World Record 

  You never know where life will take you!

A couple of years ago Tony Hender of Arun Stamps was asked to supply 5,000 used Red Machin stamps, which he was able to do. This request has led to the discovery of a story that is about to have a wonderful ending.

About 10 years ago a man was taking a close look at a 6½p Machin stamp through a magnifier and he

noticed that the image was made up of lots of small dots. As he was also interested in computers he likened these ‘dots’ to pixels in a computer image. This sparked his curiosity even further so he scanned this 6½p Machin to the highest magnification possible at the time and he then noticed something that was to take him on a ten year journey that has finally reached it’s destination.

He realised that a giant image of this stamp could actually be made, utilising used Machin stamps themselves. Using a combination of mathematics, rulers and patience he made a mosaic template for a 6½p Machin magnified 300 times and duly started to fill in the spaces - all 110,000 of them!

During the completing of this task he found out that the record for a mosaic of this type in the Guinness World Records stood at 220.28 square metres and is currently held by a gentleman in Spain. This offered Peter a challenge he could not resist - after all he was already half way there - so he started adding to his existing project. The Machin Collectors Club March 2016 Newsletter reported a sale of 186,000 used Machins that was made at Spring Stampex by Tony. Well, now you know where they went!

We can now tell you that Peter has now finished his project after these ten years. His completed mosaic measures a massive 27 metres (88½ feet) x 9 metres (29½ feet) and comprises over half a million used Machins - in fact there are 528,220!

To go for the Guinness World Record Peter obviously needed a hall large enough to accommodate the mosaic. As there was nothing near where he lived, he asked Tony if he had any ideas. As one of the show organisers, Tony discussed the story with the others wondered whether we could incorporate this into the next Southern England Stamp Show. Bearing in mind the hall is 35 metres square it would be ideal.

More importantly from the club’s point of view, 2017 sees the 50th Anniversary of the issue of the Machin. We thought this would be good for Peter, good for Machin collectors, good for the show, and perhaps we could also do something for charity at the same time? So, here in summary, is what is planned so far - there are more details to work on but the Guinness World Record attempt will be made at the Southern England Stamp Show at Farnborough on Thursday March 9th 2017 - the day before the show opens.

The hire of the venue has been extended to four days from Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th March. The mosaic will be laid out on the Wednesday (it will take a whole day to do). On Thursday morning the public will be admitted to see the display. Peter’s record attempt will be verified by the rules imposed by Guinness World Records, and hopefully his name will eventually go in the records. We have also invited a celebrity to appear from Children's Charity Childline for this event as well as the media. A photographer has been commissioned to record the mosaic, and the resulting image will be used to prepare a souvenir to be printed by our printer in Norwich, couriered down overnight, to be on sale at the start of the show on Friday and Saturday in aid of Childline.

At present this event is being supported by the Machin Collectors Club, Arun Stamps, Stanley Gibbons, Gibbons Stamp Monthly, Stamp Magazine, Stamp and Coin Mart, Richard Bond (Photographer) and Catton Print of Norwich. More details are being worked on but this should be quite an event!

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London 2012 Olympic/Paralympic Sheets Offer - one only

Remember 2009?  The first set of 10 of Royal Mail's London Olympics stamps was issued, heralding another 10 each year, with many more to come when stamps were produced for each British gold-medal-winning participant.

As well as the 10 stamps, each year Royal Mail produced one of their premium priced commemorative sheets.  These were sold at over 3 x face value and although they are not priced in Stanley Gibbons catalogue the retail price is now £20-£25 each.

We have just added one set of these to our webshop at £56.

Also available is the 30-stamp composite sheet issued in 2011.  This was sold without premium and sold quickly at the time, with the price rising accordingly.  This sheet is catalogued, as SG 3204a and priced at £50.   We have this sheet available at £35.

Buy all four sheets and get £5 off, using the discount code LOND2012 at checkout.  Only one of each available.

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Royal Mail Post and Go at Spring Stampex 2017

Royal Mail have announced the line-up for their Spring Stampex Post and Go machines.  Doubtless the offshore tax havens will be offering something as well.

Royal Mail Post and Go machines A012, A013 and A014 will be attending Spring Stampex at The Business Design Centre London on 15-18 February 2017.

Each machine will vend the new Mail by Rail issue along with: 

A012 the Machin, with a ‘Machin Anniversary 1967-2017’ inscription.
A013 the Locomotive design from the Heritage Transport set.
A014 the Machin with a ‘65th Anniversary of The Queen’s Accession’ inscription.

13 January UPDATE by WhiteKinght on another post:
The Isle of Man postal service will launch its "Variable value" definitive stamps at Spring Stampex next month. The initial publicity shows 4 designs depicting "The Legs of Mann" and they look very much like "Post and Go" labels.

So far the publicity has not used that term so presumably the stamps will not be Royal Mail IAR labels but from another source - perhaps the same as the Irish "Stamps on a reel" (SOAR) (I'm only speculating here of course) No doubt More information on the Isle of Man postal service website. will give more details in the near future.

UPDATE 13 FEBRUARY:
Mail by Rail will be available from The Postal Museum from 15 February and from Steam GWR Swindon from 20 February with their respective additional inscriptions (or overprints or underprints, depending on who is describing them).  At both locations only 1st class stamps will be dispensed.
 
Jersey Post has a new set of Shell designs available from 15 February, and Guernsey Post has a set of Lighthouses from the same date.

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Royal Mail uses blog to publicise a few 2017 stamp issues

I mentioned in mid-December how dealers who are not cover producers are restricted from doing any form of publicity about new issues until Royal Mail's own publicity machine has crawled into action.  But they don't tell us when they start, so using Google news alerts and watching other blogs I can now add to the information already supplied.

The Windsor Express reports not only on the set of 10 Windsor Castle stamps that will be issued next month but continues,

As part of the Royal Mail’s Special Stamp Programme, which this year is showcasing the

‘Best of British’, April will include 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Desert Orchid as part of a Racehorse Legends package.

May’s theme will be Songbirds, while July will feature Landmark Buildings as well as commemorating the First World War.

Of course when those 'Landmark Buildings' are revealed we can expect the local press to be alerted to pick up on that news.  No such pre-issue publicity has appeared yet for the Ancient Britain stamps to be issued on 17th of this month.  Doubtless the press release will be sent out for publication the day before.

Meanwhile the Machin Mania blog, not bound by the same contractual restrictions that I have, has copied the new £5 definitive from a first day cover website.  As you can see, this is not the final version but a pre-issue publicity picture. The actual stamp will have iridescent security printing, and probably security cuts in case one gets sent through the post, by-passes cancellation in Royal Mail's high-speed but hit-and-miss mail centres, and the recipient is tempted to use it on a parcel of their own!  
    But it's not very original is it? Even the font used for the £ sign is the same as the 1977 version.
UPDATE 13 January.
I'm reminded by Peter (see comments) that Royal Mail customers with regular orders from Tallents House will NOT get the £5 Accession stamp unless they have high value definitives as part of their regular issue.- Thank you Peter.

Meanwhile the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog publishes the programme in full, and even fills in the November 20th issue as "Platinum wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke Of Edinburgh".  I suppose that wasn't too difficult to work out, was it?

Finally, I was pleased to see that at last Royal Mail have their own blog!  To be strictly honest it started last August with an article about Postboxes and Anthony Trollope, and has had articles about
Star Wars, Beatrix Potter, and so on.  But unfortunately there is no interaction: you can click the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and email icons, but not comment or ask a question.
       Which rather suggests that they don't actually want you to ask questions, nor do they want to know what you think about their stamp issues which is a pity.  Fortunately some of them read the philatelic press and several blogs.  The Desert Orchid stamp from their blog is shown above, and the wren from the Songbirds set is show here.  I don't know who the artist is, but it is an attractive work (you can probably see it larger if you click on this image) and it is good to have art instead of library or even commissioned photos.  (Is there any point in paying for a bird photo to be taken when so many good ones already exist?)

Update:
As mentioned by a reader, The Racing Post, Betfair, and others give more details about the Racehorse stamps:

Eight horses - four Flat and four jumps - from the past six decades will be honoured with an original-artwork stamp. Desert Orchid's portrays him en route to winning in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup, while his career highlights also included four King George triumphs.

So, that's the round up of news from other sources.  The Windsor Castle and Mail by Rail stamps pages have been added to our website.

Happy New Year!

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Royal Mail 2017 stamp programme announced - plenty of Machins

As promised, Royal Mail have now released their 2017 programme and many lucky people have already received the January Philatelic Bulletin.  On the back page is a list of 2017 issues (see left), and a selection of pictures which may or may not be used for stamps - no promises given that one of them shows a 2015 post and go stamp!


The programme (updates highlighted in yellow,):

17 January	Ancient Britain
6 February	65th Anniversary of the Accession - £5 Machin definitive We're told that Tallents House customers with regular orders will NOT get this stamp unless they have high value definitives as part of their regular order.
15 February	Windsor Castle set and miniature sheet PSB* and retail booklet
15 February	Post and Go Postal Heritage: Mail by Rail
14 March	Music Giants - David Bowie
end March	New Tariff Machin and Country Definitives
6 April	Racehorse Legends
4 May	Songbirds
24 May	Exhibition Generic Stamp Sheet Finlandia
5 June	Machin Anniversary including PSB
5 June	New Style Machin Anniversary Post and Go 1967-2017
20 June	Windmills and Watermills
13 July	Landmark Buildings
31 July	World War I including PSB
22 August	Classic Toys
13 September	Post and Go Royal Mail Heritage: Air Mail
13 September	Postal Museum Opening stamp sheet (Generic/Commem?)
14 September	Ladybird books
20 October	To be advised
7 November	Christmas
16 November	Lunar New Year of the Dog
20 November	To be advised

* The four panes in the Windsor Castle PSB contain
a. 2x 1st (external) and 2x £1.52 (internal) views
b. single 1st (external) and single £1.52 (internal) views
c. Eight Machin definitives: 2 x 2p, 2 x 10p, 3 x 1st class, 1 x £1.05, so only one set - again!
c. Eight Machin definitives coded MCIL M16L: 2 x 2p (new), 3 x 1st class deep scarlet (new), and 2 x 10p and a single £1.05 as already issued in Beatrix Potter PSB.  So TWO sets of the new stamps. 
d. 4 stamps from miniature sheet in different positions
The retail booklet contains 1st class deep scarlet Machins coded M17L MCIL

Post and Go News for 2017 from the January Philatelic Bulletin
a. More Enquiry Office machines countrywide from April
b. More static sites
c. Exhibition programme

Spring Stampex 15-18 February
Scottish Congress Perth 21-22 April
MIDPEX Warwickshire Exhib Centre 8 July
Autumn Stampex 13-16 September

Confirmation of 2016 developments which impact on 2017: Pictorial stamps used in Enquiry Offices in parallel with those at Post Office SSKs, new labels introduced at PO SSK machines for parcel/packet barcoding, 'Post a Parcel' tested at the party political conferences - although it is unclear how much of a test this was given the limited access: one can imagine only those who actually wanted to post a parcel from the conference would actually do so whereas collectors with access would have tested it anyway!

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Another year passes - the end of 2016

Lack of time prevents this from being the usual comprehensive Review of the Philatelic Year - you probably all have your own high points and low points.  I suppose one of my low points was discovering that if I wanted to send postcards from New Zeland with other than the $2.20 definitive stamp, I could use 2 single $1 stamps and a 20c definitive, but without exception all the $1 special stamps available were larger than the British special stamps we are used to at about 38/40mm square, which left little room for a message!

On the definitive front, there was just one new stamp value on the tariff change in the spring, producing one Machin and four country definitives.  A welcome change from the £14-worth of Machins in 2015.  Royal Mail seem to have been at sixes and sevens over booklets and stamp colours with the last of the Long To Reign purple stamps (in the Beatrix Potter booklet) being issued on the same day as the first red booklet stamp (in the padlock booklet), with both types being replaced by a new darker colour three months later.  The use of the new colour in all booklets and business sheets went part way to making up Royal Mail's financial shortfall from the spring.

Post and Go output continued apace with more museum locations and Enquiry Offices added, although the output of Open Values from Post Office self-service kiosks has abated - only to be replaced with a larger horizon-type label with 2-D barcode.  That this carries the Machin head and has a year date, suggests that Royal Mail are hoping that collector interest in these will continue.  Certainly they are an important element of the evolution of postage payment, and should be included in a postal history collection - has anybody received one suitable for keeping yet?

The special stamp output continued unabated with the highlight for me being the Agatha Christie issue, a marvel of design and intricacy and so much better than photographs of whatever this week's subject was.  Many new issue distributions suffered because of problems with Royal Mail's computer accounting system, with delivery of customer orders very erratic and sometimes very late.  Dealers suffered less than ordinary customers but were affected by the accounting failures.  The fall out from this may not be over, but at least we can draw a line under the delays and customer service shortcomings that occurred.   I understand that there are still problems with customers not being told when their deposits are exhausted, or when credit cards have passed their end date.

That Royal Mail find it unnecessary to publicise the multitude of slogan postmarks that are being used, often for very short periods, continues to frustrate collectors and reporters alike.  On the other hand the Postmark Bulletin (which shows special handstamps) is now available free and also online.  Sadly the number of sponsored postmarks continues at a low level.  The non-availability to collectors at special handstamp centres of some 'postmarks' applied to Royal Mail (expensive) special souvenir covers is annoying and seems to go against all post office principals.  If it cancels a stamp on a special cover, it is a postmark.  If it is a postmark it should be available to everybody. 

And so we come to the end of another year.  Once again I am unable to use the photograph that I prepared last year and which was inappropriate due to the mildness of Christmas here.  (You'll see why when it does eventually get used).   My thanks to all our customers, to the readers of this blog and especially to the many contributors - many of whom remain anonymous meaning that I don't know just how many there are.  Despite our 10 week holiday, you have remained loyal to this source of information, and I am very grateful for that - as are all the readers.

Once again we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Most people will realise that this is not a picture of winter in Dereham, this year or any other.  It was taken in the Mount Aspiring National Park in New Zealand's South Island.  I don't know which mountain it was, they were all snow-capped in mid-October, but the sky was blue and the sun was warm!

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Museum pieces pressed back into service for holiday season

It's not unusual at the busy Christmas period for some of the old postmarking machines to be pressed back into service - surprising really as the mail still needs to go through one of the bar-coding machines, and there is ample evidence from our incoming mail that postmarking can be by-passed on those.

Norwich Mail Centre and 'Lancashire' - probably Preston Mail Centre - have both resorted to using their Universal machines this year, the latter bringing the Snowman slogan out of retirement.  Most likely it was still in the machine from last time it was used!

Lancashire -43- 14 DEC 2016 Happy Christmas PLEASE POST EARLY

Norwich Norfolk CFC 2, 9 - XII 2016

For some reason Norwich adopted the Roman numeral designation for months as used in Wales on this machine when it was first installed.   This one has been seen used on 5, 9 and 12 December.

UPDATE 22 December
Thanks to JG for providing these additional examples.

Aberdeen Mail Centre -C- 16 December

 Lerwick Shetland, 8 XII 2016

Peterborough: two machines, with -A- die showing only the year, and (? )M3 with more of the date but sadly off the envelope!

Once again, Ipswich is using at least two Universal machine dies (one with inverted place/time unit), even though the mail is also processed at South East Anglia Mail Centre.  Whereas the modern machines adapt the ink-jet to cope with square envelopes which are presented with the stamp in the top-left corner (and address sideways), Ipswich run the same letter through the Universal 6 times (3 front, 3 back) until they hit the stamp!

If you have any other examples, please send details and pictures.

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Slogan postmarks September-December 2016

A number of slogan postmarks were in use while we were away, and I've now found time to list and illustrate most of them here.  There have been two non-Christmas slogans used during the Christmas campaign period which is most unusual and hides another story - more later.

Organ Donation Week this was apparently used 3-6 September, both examples I have being used on 5th.   The two versions differed in layout which is often the case.  The Intelligent Letter Sorting Machine (iLSM) reads

Royal Mail supports

Organ Donation Week

organdonation.nhs.uk 

The Integrated Mail Processor (IMP) machine layout is:

Royal Mail

supports Organ

Donation Week

organdonation.nhs.uk

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Reserves Day Was used on 7 September for delivery on 8 September.

Peterborough has the iLSM machine with layout on two lines.

The IMP machines had the slogan in 4 lines, with the date shown as '08 Septermber'.

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Thinking of You Week As this website shows this 'event' promoted by the Greetings Card Association is now in it's 3rd year, and we can look forward to it again in 2017.  The layout on both types of machine was the same:

It's Thinking of 

You Week!

Send a card to

raise a smile

There is a difference, however.  The iLSM has the exclamation mark (!) after 'Week', and the IMP have it after 'smile' !  The week ran from 26 September - 3 October but I don't know yet what period the postmark was in use.

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Although the Stroke Association slogan was the normal default on 18 August, at least, Gatwick Mail Centre had a Postcode slogan:

Please remember

to write the

postcode clearly

www.royalmail.com

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The 70th anniversary of Mensa was marked in September.  Again I have only one example used on 30 September, from the Norwich iLSM, the slogan reading:

Mensa

The High IQ Society

70th Anniversary 1946-2016

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UPDATE:  National Poetry Day (Thursday 6 October 2016) was marked with a slogan used on 5 October.  Thanks to MG for supplying this image from Dorset & SW Hants.  Website.

National
Poetry
Day

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A continuing theme of Health Service slogans continued with the Stay Well slogan coinciding with the launch of the 2016/17 campaign (see website).  This slogan was simple and to the point but with no website, unlike others.  This is from the South East Anglia IMP:

 STAY  WELL

THIS WINTER

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Royal Mail plugged the Man Booker organisation's literary prize winner as they did last year. Following the Australian and Jamaican winners, we now have the first American winner being marked on a British slogan postmark for no apparent reason.  So

Congratulations to 

Paul Beatty

winner of the 2016

Man Booker Prize

I have only one example used on 25 September, from the Norwich iLSM.

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At the beginning of November Royal Mail marked the 80th anniversary of television.  The iLSM at Dorset and S.W.Hants had this on 1 November: I don't know the full period of use as it was not the subject of a Royal Mail press release.

80th anniversary of

broadcast television

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The annual remembrance slogan was used again this year, almost certainly from all machines, although I only have this example from Home Counties North on 09-11-2016

Lest we forget

11.11.16

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#GivingTuesday is the day to do good stuff for charity, straight after Black Friday and Cyber Monday - so says their website.  For this one I have both IMP and iLSM versions, the later coming in two sizes on similar-sized envelopes.

#givingtuesday

GivingTuesday.org.uk

29 November 2016

The IMP has the date abbrevaited to 29 Nov 16 for some reason: there is plenty of room for the same format as the iLSM.

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We've had confirmation that the St Andrews Day slogan was used again on mail addressed to Scotland to arrive on 30 November so we can assume it was used on 28/29th.  (Image awaited)

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And so in the middle of November we start the Christmas campaign, with the Post Early slogan, which used two quite different holly-adorned slogan layouts on the different machines, with different sizes in use at Exeter.

Remember to post

early for Christmas

royalmail.com/greetings

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One of our contributors had tried to get Royal Mail to mark the Battle of Hastings with a slogan postmark.  One was lined up for use in October, which would have been good for first day covers using the stamps of the commemorative sheet.  In fact it was scheduled but suddenly pulled for no apparent reason:

The actual surrender was at Berkhamsted in early December 1066, so a slogan was suggested for this December, but the response was that no other slogans could be used during the Christmas campaign - absolutely not!

So..... on 6 December the NHS Blood and Transplant campaign was the subject of a further slogan!

                            NHS

Blood and Transplant

Sign up as an organ donor

organdonation.nhs.uk

I don't know the period this was running - surprise, surprise, no RM press release again.

UPDATE 23 December 2016
Quite accidentally I found an article about this campaign in get Surrey.  "A mother who campaigned for organ donation awareness to feature on postmarks on envelopes across the UK was thrilled to see her suggestion become reality." She wrote to Royal Mail in 2014 and heard nothing but was surprised to find 'her' postmark on a letter or her doormat.

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The previous 'Post Early' slogan continued after, or alongside the above, but it was again interrupted on 14/15 December to mark the centenary of the Cub Scout movement.  The actual big birthday party was 16 December, and the slogan incorporated the Cubs100 logo, with the legend

100 years of fun, adventure

and skills for life

 

Note this last also has the wavy line handstamp struck for some reason, as if 11 wavy lines weren't enough!

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After the international postal deadlines have passed the Post Early slogan is replaced by the Last posting dates for 1st and 2nd class mail, again with two slightly different holly-adorned layouts:

It's Christmas time!

Last posting dates

First Class 21 December

Second class 20 December

with the IMP abbreviating the month to Dec.

This may give rise to a further change tomorrow when the Second class date has passed - watch this space, and your post!

UPDATE 22 December:
At least two offices have reverted to the Royal Mail 500 slogan on mail received today, according to reports.

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Shortage of 2nd class stamps may mean M17L appears early on

According to reports received, 2nd class stamps are in very short supply in some areas.  A

correspondent from Leicester writes:

Her post office ran out of second class stamps a few days ago and they can’t get anymore.  All second class, both Christmas and Machin.  They have no counter sheets or books and they resorted to cutting up the Business sheets. It’s probably been like this for a week.  All local shops including a very big Tescos have none either. Comment was overheard – “We have had our allocation”.

Now it may be that PO Supplies at Swindon are not making any more deliveries - although there is still a week to go, and stamps will be needed after Christmas, so holding back makes little sense.  There were printings early in the year and again in July and October.  Will the next one be in 2017 with a new year code?  And will branches with SSKs run out of 2nd class Machin and Hibernating Animals stock and use 1st class rolls in the 2nd class position instead?

UPDATE 18 December:
A sub-postmaster locally told me that he too is cutting up business sheets in the absence of counter sheets of either Machin or Christmas stamps, and the booklet rack is empty. Judging by the MBIL-coded stamps received on Christmas cards (from people who I would expect to use booklets) the problem seems to be widespread.

Keep your eyes open - your mail is not just Christmas Cards, it is the stamp on the outside too!

UPDATE 11 January
We've had no news on further shortages - all areas have new supplies by now, but early-December printings of both 1st and 1st Large counter sheets have now appeared.  It really does seem likely that 2017 printings will appear ere long.

UPDATE 7 February:
The 2nd class M17L has duly appeared from a printing of 04/01/17.

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