Larry Rosenblum GB Stamps USA

Anyone who is serious about Machins has bound to have come across the name Larry Rosenblum. Larry is well known in Machin circles and has written many articles for the GB Collectors Club in the United States. I have also mentioned his name on several occations in the past.

Regular readers will be pleased to know that Larry (left) , who has his own Machin Mania website (more about this later) has agreed to continue with this blog and post here once per week whilst I am offline.

Many thanks Larry, we do appreciate it very much. This will not only help keep the site active, whilst I am offline, it will also give another person (s) respective to the blog on Machin musings.

http://machinmania.blogspot.com/2007/04/larry-rosenblum-and-gb-stamps.html

Readers. Please help us to help you.

This blog has mainly been been set up FOR YOUR BENEFIT so please do respond to the posts, your input is very important to the maintenance of the site, just press the leave a comment button or drop us (my self) or Larry a line by email with your usual questions or comments. Larrys email address is LR@GBSTAMPS.COM

Many Thanks in advance for your support.

Roy

Now for something that seems to be on everyones mind.......A moan about Royal Mail.

Follow the link to Michael Dodds blog where he informs readers about a Royal Mail Stamp Issuing Policy Petition.

Machin Exhibition Opens Today

Its always nice these days to find something for nothing and Nothing, zilch, nowt or Zero is exactly what you will pay on the door to the Royal Collage of Art where The British Postal Museum & Archive are hosting an exhibition The Timeless & Classic: Elizabeth Queen & Icon.


Opening today 19th July 2007 it will run until the 15th August 2007. Opening times are 10am - 17.00 pm Monday to Saturday.


If you are visiting London over the next month add it to your itinerary. The address is Kensington Gore, London SW7, next to the Royal Albert Hall.



Douglas N. Muir, the curator of Philately at the BPMA has said " this is a marvellous and unique opportunity to see the Machin design in progress in its entirety from the development of the coin effigy through the many stages of different designs to the final timeless icon.



It has also been said that "this has now been reproduced 200 billion times" Well with the image above, ( neat eh) its now 200 billion and one.

The Scots Connection and A Move Overseas

You may be aware that sometime back I started to update my web site with details of various Prestige Booklets and their contents. This project was going smoothly until suddenly due to my other commitments and my forthcoming move overseas I have found myself with less and less time to finish the project.

I have managed to add a couple more pages, but as my time over the next 2 weeks will be even more limited, this blog and my website updates will have to be put on hold for a couple of months. It will get finished eventually I promise.

We now have a confirmed date for moving (July 30th) which is only two weeks away. I will be off line for a period of 2 -3 months after this date. I am sorry about this as I know how much readers look forward to these posts. Do not fret though, as Arnie says "Ill be back" so please do not give up on on me. Keep checking this site for updates, I may get the odd oportuntity to post something.

One of the latest posts to the web site was a insight into the Prestige Booklet entitled a Scots Connection. I am reproducing this here for those that have not had the chance to browse the site at this time.

Above left is a picture of the front cover and below details of the contents and pics of the panes. The Pictorial cover shows a picture of the famous Forth Road Bridge.

This was a first for this type of Prestige booklet and their contents. It was the first of three to include Regional Machin stamps. The other two regions to be introduced at over the following years were Wales and Northern Ireland.

Printed by the House of Questa in litho issue date 21.03.1989. The booklet is made up on interleaving pages and label panes containing the Scottish Regional Machins which describes information on Scottish history through the ages.

Pane 1 (above) : 9 x 19p Scotland definitives ACP/ PVAD

Pane 2 (above) : 6 x 14p Scotland definitives C B FCP/ PVA

Pane 3 (above) : 5 x 14p LB, 2 x 19p 2B, & 1 x 23p 2 B FCP/PVA

Pane 4 (above) : 6 x 19p Scotland definitives ACP/ PVAD

What is interesting and not normally known as with the previous booklet ( Financial Times ) is, the panes printed on ACP have Dextrin gum where as the panes on FCP have PVA gum.

Another first with this booklet was the inclusion of a centre label on the Multi value pane, this label depicts The Lion of Scotland.

Here is a direct link to the page where you can view the whole series listed to date .