Hints & Tips - The Long and the Short of It

The hints and tips page last week seemed to go down well with readers, thanks for your emails they are much appreciated. Plese keep them coming.

Today as the Title suggests is (again) to do with UV Lamps.

A handy tip I picked up in my early Machin collecting days was how to convert a short wave lamp into a long wave. Although I now have both types, in portable and desk variations.

If you only have a short wave lamp a simple procedure is to place a piece or strip of clear plastic from a Prinz or Horwid Mount over the stamp you are inspecting. Using this method it converts the reaction of the short wave light to long wave.

This is perfect for viewing stamps issued after 1993 with C or A phosphor, and if in doubt it will identify those early (elusive) JET phosphor errors with ease.