New Postal Rates April 2007

Due to the increase five new Machins will be issued on 27th March 2007.
16p ( pink ) 48p (rhododendron), 50p A new colour ( light grey) 54p (rust) and 78p (emerald Green)

The 46p Machin in old gold will be bought back into use ( this is not classed as a new stamp, but to specialists it will be a new variety, printed on the dull paper which is at present used by De La Rue for Dunstable printings.

New 48p and 78p country definitives will also be issued for all 4 regions of the UK.

40th Machin Anniversary Stamps and products are described below

40th Annivesary Of The Machin Definitive

From previous posts we all now know of the program from the Royal Mail (re produced here)

A Miniature Sheet (£2.68p ), First day cover (£3.63p), Uncut press sheet (£64.32 ) £1 Sheet definitive singles (£1 each).

Also if you collect them £1 cylinder blocks dot & no dot x 6, date blocks (left and right hand), Presentation Pack (£3.20 ), Prestige stamp book (£7.66p ) , Generic Smilers Sheet(£7.35 ), And last but not least, A medal Cover.

Taking each in turn we can now describe the contents of the products.

1/ Miniature Sheet:


Printed by De LA Rue Security Printers in gravure

A new £1 definitive in Ruby Red (replacing the current colour mauve ) set vertically setenant with the current £1 (or obsolete mauve) value. Two new special issue 1st class NVI stamps will sit each side (size 35mm 37mm). To the left shows a picture of Machin and caption Arnold Machin 1911 - 1999.

The second Special issue is also 1st class NVI and shows the first pre decimal 4d value from 1967. Both this and the Arnold machin stamps will be embossed so they stand out from the rest of the sheet. This will also be available in presentation packs.

2/ £1 Ruby Sheet stamps

Also printed by De La Rue in sheets of 200. dot and no dot sheets are available for those who collect cylinder blocks, also left and right date blocks.
3./ Prestige stamp book entitled The Machin The Making of a Masterpiece
This will consist of 4 separate stamp panes.>
Pane 1:

Machin definitives.
Top row 2p, 48p, 2p Middle row 46p, label showing the Queen wearing Tiara and 46p bottom row 2p, 48p, 2p

Pane 2:
£1 ruby definitives x two set setenant vertical with a central label showing a Machin head as seen through a camera lens.


Pane 3:
Anniversary 1st special issues x 4 in two rows. Two Machin Portraits and two 4d pre decimals


Pane 4:
Definitive 1st & 2nd class stamps
Top row 1 x 1st class large PIP and 1 x 2nd class large PIP

Middle row 1 x 1st class standard size, a label showing Roland Hill, and 1 x 2nd class standard size.

Bottom row 1 x 1st class large PIP and 1 x 2nd class large PIP

First day covers, for all products no doubt and a generic smilers sheet showing 20 x Arnold Machin special issues, The setenant labels will show all pre decimal stamps issued from (1967 - 1970) These consist of 1d - £1

½p PaleTurquoise Side Band Left

The ½p Machin with sideband left printed by Harrison and Sons in Photogravure FCP/PVA gum is one of a kind. Although it is not a rare ( far from it ) stamp, prices in catalogues tend to reflect that it could be overpriced at £25 ( FINE USED ) - ( £55 UNMOUNTED MINT ).

The reason for the high catalogue price is due to the fact that this stamp was only available from one source and most of the stamps that came on the market are of low quality. The price quoted above is for top quality stamps with full perforations only.

The source of the stamp is from a mixed value pane in the £1. 00 (bound) Wedgwood Booklet issued 24th May 1972.

Many booklets were printed but the panes on the majority were very badly trimmed at the bottom during separation, guillotining, of the made up booklets, which was the method of manufacture. Hence the ½p without trimmed perfs are very difficult to come by unmounted mint.

Untrimmed panes were printed just for dealers and The Royal Mail to service first day covers , so used stamps with good to average perfs are more widely available.

When you are looking to purchase this variety in unmounted mint condition be sure to check that is a well centred copy and that the perforations are not trimmed. Trimmed perfs should be classed as damaged and either purchased at a large discount or ignored altogether.

Did you know that these stamps, due to a phosphor shift are also known with a Broad band left?
They are also known with an overprint. These overprints can only be found from the £1 STAPLED VERSION ) of the decimal Wedgwood booklet. It was issued with the overprint "SPECIMEN".

Overprinted stamps listed from the booklet are are the ½p 2 band , ½p left band, 2½p side band ( left or right) a 2½p centre band and a 3p two band. These are quite rare and are highly collectable.

It has been suggested that these booklets with the CTO overprint were sent out to certain firms to attract future advertising.