Machin 1st Class ( gold ) Forgeries

Looking through some stamps this morning I came across a booklet of 12 x 1st class gold which are described as forgeries. A question I was asking myself is " where did these 1st class gold Machin forgeries hail from"?

I have read somewhere that it was thought at first that these were or could have been printers waste. Or alternatively may have been manufactured as a nefarious exercise at Walsall Security Printers. I have also read that Wallsall denied this hole- heartily.

I have found couple of reports that suggest they were manufactured either in Eastern Europe or China. How true this is I can not make up my mind. Report one states categorically in a court of law that they came from China

Report one

A counterfeit stamps dealer from Bordesley Green who sold them to newsagents and corner shops in the city was jailed for four months.


Majid Raza, 27, of Whitacre Road, sold more than 9,000 stamps with a value of £2,736, Birmingham Crown Court heard. In passing sentence on Raza, Judge John Saunders QC said: "I am afraid people have to know that if they deal in counterfeit stamps or coinage that prison sentences will almost inevitably follow."
He said "although dealing in bogus stamps was not on the same level of seriousness as passing on counterfeit bank notes, it was not far away and that people who did it were extremely difficult to catch".

John Dove, prosecuting, said "the West Midlands had been flooded with a vast quantity of fake stamps imported from China and normally distributed in booklets of 12 to newsagents and corner shops".


He said investigators acting on an anonymous tip-off found that a Yardley shopkeeper had 243 bogus stamps who said he had bought a batch for £400 and named Raza as his regular supplier. When Raza's home was searched police found bundles of fake stamps and a receipt book revealed he had sold more than 9,000 with a value of £2,736. The defendant admitted obtaining stamps from a cousin's shop in Erdington and selling them to other shops.

Report two

This account is from the website of stamp collector. co.uk

"These stamps are for sale and are listed as "Unknown source, although I have had it hinted to me that these are of Eastern European origin. The images (above ) show a Real Walsall booklet on the top row and the forged book on offer on the bottom row".

It continues: " The stamps are a very pale almost "grey" shade instead of the normal Walsall "deep brown", the matrix is complete and the Phosphor bands extend to the top of the booklet. The cover is very dull - no shine at all, the blind cut out is missing or at least only partly there. Lastly you can see the booklet is much wider than the "original" booklet at the top" .

I have also found a 3rd report on Larry Rosenblums website : This is just a portion of it.

The Philatelic Exporter, a UK trade magazine, reported last year that police raided a home and seized over £100,000 worth of counterfeit first-class stamps. The booklets now being sold to collectors were probably part of the same production, but that hasn’t been confirmed.

Of interest is the fact that the raid took place in a town close to Walsall, the home of Walsall Security Printers, one of the firms that prints Machin booklets today. In fact, the forged booklets include the name “Walsall Security Printers Limited” on them, just like the real ones. Coincidence?

You can read the full report here

If anyone has any more information on these stamps, the origin, or for that matter any reports on 2nd class forgeries, could you please comment to this post. Thanks in advance.

Roy

Post Office Training

Post Office Training School stamps
Part 4 – Into the Machins

A brief illustrated tie in article

from the early issues to the Machins

Overview of the types

In the first article, I provided an overview of the history of the training schools from 1920 and mentioned some of the types of overprints applied to the stamps. Before getting into the Machin series of stamps I thought it may be wise to illustrate the stamps in question so that the reader can see for themselves the various types.

As mentioned the standard overprint was two bars to the width of a low value definitive stamp. This was retained from 1920 through to 1980 and later, but there are exceptions. The early King George V material with one bar is presumed to be misplacement of the sheets when overprinting. By the time we get into the reign of King George VI, we find the use of the ‘SCHOOL SPECIMEN’ hand-stamp as well as the use of horizontal bars and by the time we get into the reign of Queen Elizabeth the use of these alternative types of overprint, although still scarce in relation to the standard bars do turn up more often.

As can be seen from the two 1935 Silver Jubilee stamps, it would appear that sometimes overprints were made using the same setting as for the low values, this giving four bars on the stamp. On other occasions it would appear that the setting was altered to give two bars, in keeping with the low values.

It is likely, (although I have not been able to confirm this), that the instructions were stated as two bars per stamp, and this in the early stages was not specified as it was only the low values that were being used.

Towards the end of the reign of King George VI we start to find the use of the ‘SCHOOL SPECIMEN’ hand-stamp and it is probable that these stamps were old stock locally overprinted for training use in the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The same overprint is known on the Wilding issues with all three types of watermark and again this may have been produced to supplement stocks whilst awaiting delivery from official sources, these later of which would probably have the standard two bars overprint.

There is no record of the issue of the ‘SCHOOL SPECIMEN’ hand-stamp to any offices, but I would venture to say that not only were several issued to offices around the country, but that this took place at some time around 1954, possibly a few years earlier allowing for the King George VI issues known but unlikely to be much later than this date.

By the time we get to the Machin issues of 1967, we find that although the two bar overprint was still generally being used, the bars are thinner than on the earlier stamps, however, the thicker bars do still appear, these being rarer.

Throughout the Machin period, (1967 onwards), other variations of overprint still appear, probably for the same reasons as before, to supplement existing stocks or possibly for use on special courses such as registration, special delivery etc.

This article concludes the history of the training schools and it is hoped that it provides some information on the overprint types used, their method of application and the reasons why some types are scarcer than others.

Any questions that the reader may feel needs an answer to, please post a comment to this blog and I will try and address them either directly or with a short write-up.

The next article will (I hope) deal with the first pre-decimal Machin issue and will include illustrations of this issue there - (This being the reason Machin stamps have not been illustrated so far).

ALLAN

Training Stamps By Allan Oliver ( part 3)

You may remember a few weeks ago Allan Oliver posted a short but detailed account about Training Stamps, in the account he promised a follow up. Here it is hope you find it of interest, I certainly do.


Post Office Training School stamps
Although this information has been requested in relation to the Machin stamps of Great Britain, it was thought best to start at the beginning with the King George 5 issues and work into the required period. This has been done as a great deal of the information from earlier periods relates to the more modern system, and thus an understanding of why things were done in a certain way at this earlier time will give the collector a better understanding of the system and the way it worked, or at least the way it was supposed to work. With regards to the historical details, I have left out details regarding the engineering school, telephone school and the like as these details to not relate to the use of postage stamps and although part of the overall story would in this context only clutter the details.

The post office training schools came into being in 1920 to train staff, [in different departments], post office procedures and it was initially a way of standardizing services by way of counter staff in main post offices, as well as those in smaller sub post offices. The other branches it was used to standardize were the telephone, telegraph and the mechanical engineering sections. The sorting and delivery section was originally part of the training done with counter staff, but this was changed, and the two sections were separated sometime between the start of the school and 1924. One of the main items used in training, and used by almost all sections at some time, was, and still is, the definitive postage stamps, both low and high values. At various times commemoratives were also used for specific purposes, as were postage dues. The stamps used by the training school were initially overprinted with two vertical black bars to each low value definitive stamp, and thus the high values and later the commemoratives have three or four bars to the width of the stamp when the setting was not changed. This overprinting was done for two main reasons, as follows: -


1. To alleviate pilfering so as not to be used on normal mail
2. To save the trouble of having to account for the stamps used.
Items from the schools' came out in various ways, many of these being against post office regulations and for many years it was considered illegal to have them in your possession. These rulings have been relaxed since 1972 with the introduction of decimalisation. It would appear that in general mint stamps are more plentiful on the market than used examples but this is not always the case with documentation used in courses or instructional pieces.


The first school was opened in 1920, and was situated at Roman Bath Street, London EC2. This school was established to train staff working in the post office sales and service, post office transport, sorting, and delivery of mail departments. Following the opening of the first school, many other departments opened schools with very specific areas of training. The telephone schools were first represented by the London school for manual systems, which opened in 1923 at the Clerkenwell exchange. The second telephone school, the London automatic school, opened in October 1931 and was sited at the Terminus telephone exchange. Next in line was the engineering school, which opened in 1924 at the King Edward, building. This school moved after six years, and in 1930 was in new premises at Dolis Hill.


In the years since the first schools opened, many changes have taken place, both in the schools and in the way that training has been given to staff. The counter and delivery of the mail aspects of training have been separated into counter training and postman/woman training. In London both of these were initially situated near to Kings Cross station, which was useful when training courses were arranged on the work of the T.P.O. The training for telephone operators has been discontinued by the post office with the take over of the telephones by British Telecom. The engineering school is still at Dolis Hill, and has expanded considerably both in size and in the type of work and training given.


From the start the training schools were designed so as to be representative of branch offices with all the necessary stores and equipment available in each of the classroom. Maps, along with enlarged copies of various documents that were in use, and actual items on display. When particular forms of documents are in use for training purposes, 'specimens' are distributed to the students. This is a feature of not only the counter school, but is a process used by all the other schools, as is the use of visits to other departments to demonstrate the connections between them. Since the early 1970's the policy on training seems to have moved towards training in the work place, and much more material is being found from sub offices as well as branch offices. Several other changes have taken place that reflect changes in society in general. Initially men and women were trained separately and by same sex instructors.

This is now in line with equal opportunities policies. The names of the classes have also changed along with the times. Originally there were three levels of class: - junior class, senior class and Supervising class. These now, throughout the service, reflect the work being done. The junior class becoming Postal or Service operative; instead of senior the words higher grade is used. I.E.: - Postman / Post woman higher grade. The supervising grade seems to have been maintained.

Maintaining the training schools is quite a large operation. It has many permanent (male / female) instructors, and other supervisors are co-opted for specific courses. Many department supervisors are used as instructors when courses make visits to specific departments. The other area most often forgotten is the vast number of personnel who spend their working day making up course material for practical instruction.


The counter and delivery training schools

The postal training school for counter staff, and also delivery personnel was as already stated, originally one school, which was sited in Roman Bath Street but was split into separate schools sometime in early 1924. It appears that in the years between 1920 and 1939, training for counter staff was organized in such a way as to be given in training schools at main post offices, as was that for delivery postman being held at main sorting offices for areas or regions.

Counter and Telegraph office

In 1929, at a meeting held in the post office, (papers 80,337/29 C.T.O. held in the post office archives), a suggestion was made ‘.... to employ a number of those who have attained a certain degree of telegraph proficiency in the C.T.O. school on part time B.O. training instead of on collecting &c. duties in the C.T.O.’ The clerks working in post office branch offices were employed to serve at the counter and also send telegraphs. Originally the sending of telegraphs was done by Morse buzzer, the message being received and hand written on to the telegraph form for delivery. This suggestion therefore, having been accepted, meant that training now continued with telegraph duties being taught at the C.T.O., which was now part of the London postal service. The counter duty training was now carried out at branch offices, with convenience to the student. By June 1931, this system was so well established that a memo was sent from the controller of the L.P.S., (London Postal Section), to the secretary. This is transcribed below.

The secretary

It is recommended that the manual B/139 should also make reference to the Training in the L.P.S. School and it is suggested that the paragraph should read as follows: -
"139. Training: - New entrants to the class of counter clerk and telegraphist (London Postal Service) are trained in telegraphy at the Central Telegraph Office. They are also given instruction concurrently in Counter duties, and are required to attend at Branch Offices for part of their training."

Controller
L.P.S. 19 June 1931.
Signed by K Clark.

Added to the bottom of this, is a hand written note, which refers to changes in the wording, which have been made by the secretary. The changes made are as follows :-
1. The words ‘given instruction’ changed to ‘trained’
2. The words ‘in the London Postal Service’ inserted after ‘.... counter duties’.
This addition is initialled by the secretary, W.D.S. (W.D. Sharp), and dated 25 June ‘31. (Papers held at post office archives Ref. 17881/29).

A further memo, to the secretary (held in post office archives ref. 84535/30), gives the date of starting these arrangements as November 1930. The memo is signed by E.J. Robinson, and dated 19 January 1931.
There are also papers of the London Postal Service, (Ref. 18049/31), which state ‘On the 9 January 1931 the secretary decided that, so far as the L.P.S. is concerned training in Morse should cease and be replaced by teleprinter working; and on the same date he decided that the probationary counter clerks and telegraphists destined for the L.P.S. should not be employed half daily on collecting duties in the C.T.O., as hitherto, but should be diverted to the L.P.S. for preliminary training in counter work.’ It was also stated ‘The period of teleprinter training is expected to be much less than that required for Morse training, viz., about 5 to 6 months instead of about 9 months. ... The probationer will be fit for a regular counter at the end of (say) 6 months’ training.’ There was also a note that the syllabus of training was recast. The 1931 document, which gave details of the recast syllabus, is reproduced in the appendix of the book we published on the subject and a link will be provided at the end of this write-up where anyone interested can download a free copy.
In the post office archives, there is a book dated 1934, which reviews the activities of the post office for a number of years previous to this date. The following is an extract from this book relating to training at that period.

‘The additional facilities offered to the public in recent years, and the development in the older post office services, have inevitably added to the complexity of the work of the counter officer. While the bulk of the work of the post office is performed in the background, the chief contact between the department and the public is across the counter, and the need for the systematic training of counter officers is fully realized.
A school for training staff in counter work was established in London in 1931. It provides for the thorough training of all new entrants to the class of counter clerk and telegraphist in the junior duties of that grade, and for further training to be given in the more responsible counter duties after a few years’ actual employment on the simpler duties at Post Office counters.

The training given is essentially of a practical nature, and the instruction is so arranged as to develop the interest of the student in their own work and to enable them to appreciate the relation which that work bears to other Post Office activities. Post Office counters of modern design, together with all the necessary stores, are provided in each classroom; specimens of all documents met with in the course of the counter duties, are supplied for use by the students, and, in order to demonstrate the connection between the counter work and the work of the other sections of the Post Office and to secure co-operation, they make visits of inspection to various branches of the Post Office, such as the sorting office, telephone exchanges, and Money Order and Savings Bank Departments.


The training of new entrants in the school consists of a series of sort lectures, each followed by practical work at the school counters where actual working conditions are reproduced. Each student in turn acts as a counter clerk, under supervision by the instructor, while another student acts as a member of the public. Dummy letters, packets, parcels, etc., are handed in and the transactions are completed in precisely the same manner as they would be under actual working conditions. Money is used, change is given and sheets of stamps are available so that the students may get accustomed to tearing of the stamps in the correct manner. A large number of cards bearing questions on Post Office services likely to be asked by members of the public in actual practice are prepared; and the students are asked these questions, as nearly as possible, under working conditions.

The students are also trained to find accurately and quickly from various books of reference any detailed information that may be required regarding Post Office services. Similar schools to the one in London have recently been opened experimentally at Liverpool and Leeds, and if they prove successful the scheme of training is likely to be extended to other large centres in the provinces.’

In the minute book for 1937, at the post office archives, minute number 14557 makes reference to a meeting where counter training establishments were to be set up in the provinces at Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Rhyl. These papers have not been stamped as destroyed but were not available.
As can be seen from the extract above, sheets of stamps were available, and thus cylinder pieces, items showing sheet numbers and the like were in existence. It should also be stated that special training money was used. Later examples of this have been seen, but again this strays away from the stamps issue.

Training school during the Second World War

With the previous experience of the use of female labour during the first world war, (1914-1918), an increased number of females were employed by the post office during the Second World War, (1939-1945). With the destruction of buildings on the home front services were disrupted and temporary and local buildings, and even tents replaced many post offices and sorting offices. The training was very much reduced on a formal basis but considerable personnel training was done on the job, and this it is felt had great implications on post office training in the future. It is probable that due to the hostilities of the Second World War and the blitz of many British towns, that the use of the training school was a low priority for staff during the years 1940 - 1943.

This would account for the very low use of the 2/6d brown, the 5/- red and the 10/- dark blue of the first issue of the King George VI high values with horizontal bars overprint from the training school. All three of these values were issued before the suspension of the training school, and by the time the school had resumed operations, two of these values had been replaced with new colours. The 2/6d was now in green and the 10/- was in ultramarine. This set is of extreme rarity and only a handful of each of the three values is known to exist. It would appear that, as training of staff became a priority that most postal areas or regions set up their own schools. This was done for counter training, sorting and delivery and probably many other areas requiring a uniform process. It would also seem that there was a definite intention to produce a work force that performed tasks in a co-ordinated way.

This can be seen by comparing training material from various areas or regions; which, although produced on a local basis; teach the same basic process. I.E. some regions go to the extent of having standard printed material while others have the same items, but produced by hand then copied. There would seem to have been a specific method of teaching in mind, but these differences may have occurred due to managers using their own budgets.

This is important when we get into the Machin period, as managers still have to work within their budget and the method used for additional items required, including stamps, varied from place to place. Some using a pen to ‘overprint’ extra stamps obtained, others using a hand-stamp and so forth.

The counter training school

Originally male and female staff were trained in separate classes in a formal school which provided classrooms equipped as post offices. Gradually this changed, through classroom training with mixed male \ female staff, to training on the job in actual post offices. This appears to have coincided with the Second World War period when the post office policy changed to employ both male and female operatives. After the war period, 1946, the post office undertook to train their staff for main post offices and sub offices.

This changed at a later date when the post office also undertook to train licensees and their staff that ran privately owned premises, such as newsagents, which had post offices counters on the premises. The training throughout has entailed all forms of service provided by the post office over the counter. This has been the case since the start of the school, and over the years many variations of forms have been used. I.E.: - Certificate of posting - Registration / recorded delivery - payment of allowances (pensions) - Licence payments - savings, and payment of bills and taxes.

With many of these services over the years, there have been modifications to both services and forms used. There has also been a need for a method of payment realistic to that met with in the working situation. This has produced several types of paper money, cheques, postal orders, and credit cards. Some services introduced, over the period of the counter school, link with mail delivery services and fall into a category of use by both training schools. I.E.: - Registered / recorded delivery. Many of these require receipts for charges and labels and stamps show these services. Again much of this does not concern the Machin collector so will be skipped.


The Sorting and delivery training school

This branch of the service was one of the last to accept both male and female staff. The changes started to take place in the early 1950’s following rethinks in the employment policy of the post office. Prior to this the delivery of mail was seen as a totally male province. The school originally set up in 1920 in Roman Bath Street, at the time was a one off of its type. The use of training was soon recognised and further schools were opened to cover a region or area. Later this was extended to allow some courses to be done in the workplace, and sorting offices were the target buildings used. Again, this happened from the 1950’s onward, but again recently a combination of school - workplace, and then school again has been used.

The courses have also been changed over the years and at present; as has been the case in the past, start by targeting the grades of worker. I.E. Postman/Post woman; Postman higher grade, (this to include females), then more recently to produce courses to target specialist workers. These specialist courses include driving, sorting, (via specialist machines); this to be combined with the engineering school.

Specialist services are also targeted such as registration, special delivery, redirection of mail and charged mail, COD, postage due, customs etc. Many of the services overlap with the work done in the counter training schools, and as such identification of the course on which an item was used is best done on complete covers used with the specific hand-stamp.

Telegraph issues

At one time it was the procedure to cancel stamps put on to telegraph forms, to pay the charges, to be punched prior to use. This practice, it is believed, started at about the same time as the training school. It’s known that the practice continued almost to the time of the introduction of decimal stamps. Stamps punched with similar holes to those used on the telegraph forms, have been seen on training items.

These items include covers, used for registration, and redirection of mail for change of address standard forms. These are known with the punched holes applied to the stamps before being put on the forms and alternatively, punched after, through the forms. Almost all issues from the time of introduction of training schools, through to the introduction of decimal stamps, can be found with these punched holes.

The most common of these holes is virtually identical to those punched in stamps from voucher booklets for advertising. The second most common group are the circular punched holes and the third group, is a miscellaneous group of punched holes which are different to all the others, but very few have been seen to be able to confirm them as new groups. It is possible that they are an extension of the shaped-hole type.


Overprinting, Damaged stamps, Inverted watermarks and Ghost bars
Many of the stamps overprinted for use in the post office training school are found to be damaged, either by creasing or tearing. It would seem likely that these damaged sheets or part of sheets come from waste items from stores, which have been written off. (See section on imperforate stamps below). These are likely to be used for training courses with their respective overprints. The residue of sheets from printings for coils and booklets are also possibilities for use with overprinting.

It is likely that much of the overprinting of bars was produced by the use of rollers printing the black bars of various widths. The clear sections between the printed bars, as well as the creation of variations of overprints, being achieved by spacers placed between the print rollers. The wear on these spacers and rollers would be the reason for bars that vary from the vertical. Smaller pieces than full sheets could also cause this by slippage and variation of grip by the print rollers due to irregular sizes.

This is shown by pieces found which illustrate the points above, i.e.: - block 4 of the half penny orange of King George VI, a tete-beche strip 3 one penny photogravure King George V with one stamp inverted and one penny block showing bar slippage from top to bottom. This is probably the reason for the existence of some inverted watermark stamps, especially on the earlier issues. Residue and damaged sheets from booklet printings would be included with other sheet stamps for overprinting. It is also possible that the slippage or pressure on rollers would be responsible for some stamps showing ghost bars on the overprinting. The other possibility is off setting of bars from wet overprinted sheets put on top of each other.

Imperforate stamps

Imperforate stamps can be found with training school black bars overprints. The four pence of King George VI that is from the original issue in grey green colour are from sheets specially prepared to illustrate to staff what imperforate stamps look like. Copies of this stamp un-overprinted had previously been purchased through a post office. The other stamp occasionally found overprinted and imperforate was possibly an oversight when overprinting damaged sheets and appeared at the school. This was the 2 ½d pale blue from the 1941 King George VI issue, and was seen by the author, in its original form, an irregular block of 35. A stamp dealer later cut this into pairs for re-sale. The only other imperforate, also from the King George 6 period is the 6d from the definitive issue. Only 9 copies exist, originally a block 3x3, from which a strip of three has now been removed and is in the authors collection.

Familiarisation

From the introduction of commemorative stamps, many of them have been used to familiarise staff as to their size, colour and in some cases special use, such as exhibitions etc. The main group of staff that this applied too were those using these items on a day-to-day basis, i.e. staff at exhibitions and special post offices to do with commemorative events.
Almost all the commemoratives issued between 1924 and 1948 were produced in different sizes for each issue. All of these issues except the 1925 Wembley and the one-pound PUC, of 1929, have been found overprinted for use in the training school. It therefore seems reasonable that the large stamp for the PUC issue should exist overprinted but as the 1925 issue were the same size and design as the 1924 issue and for the same exhibition, these were probably never used.

A set of labels in the colours of the proposed decimal issues were produced for use by both the training school and post offices, to familiarise staff at all levels with the changes that would be introduced with the new decimal stamps. These in the context of the Machins provide an interesting link between the pre-decimal and first decimal issues.

This concludes the historical information on the training schools that I feel is need for a better understanding of both the subject in general and the Machin design that I will cover in the next article. I hope that the information presented here proves useful to those who collect these stamps and should any additional details be required I will be happy to supply what I can.

The next section (4) will deal with the stamps themselves, and as such should be of more general interest to all levels of collector. I will check this posting on a regular basis and post replies for all to see – as this is the way we all learn a little more.

Note: Thanks Allan, we look forward to your next instalment

Roy

Castle High Values 1997 Enschedé Printing

Looking for stamps for investment?

According to one UK dealer the 1997 Castle High values, designs from photos by Prince Andew, set of 4 values - SG 1993/96 (Enschedé Printing) is believed to be "the scarced set of of all the George VI and Queen Elizabeth high values "- presumed "to be short lived with minimal usage".

"Issued in 1997 and suddenly replaced early in 1999 with Mini Machins - most Post Offices were still using the previous Harrison Printings, so very few fine used copies, especially the £1.50 value (see photo above) came into circulation".

Similar to the Harrison Printings SG 1612 -1614 these have slight differences to the design - namely The Harrison stamps in the word "Castle" the "C " has a top serif and the tail of the letter points to the right, the "A" has a flat top and "S" has top & bottom serifs.

Enschedé: Re-engraved. The "C has no top serif and tail of the letter points upwards, "A" has a pointed top, "S" has no serifs.

The Queens head ( said to be a Machin design) is in optically variable ink which changes colour from gold to green when viewed from different angles. This is printed by silk screen process in silhouette. The Enschedé stamps also have one elliptical hole on each vertical side of the perforations (15 x 14)

I have not checked the price in recent catalogues but the 2004 Concise prices are as follows:

£1.50 = £07.50 mint, £4.00 fine used

£2.00 = £08.50 mint, £2.25 fine used

£3.00 = £25.00 mint, £3.30 fine used

£5.00 = £25.00 mint, £10.00 fine used

Walsall web site

Thanks to Robert Bostock, writing in the latest issue of 'The Bookmark' Journal of the Modern British Philatelic Circle for the tip to visit the Walsall Security Print web site at www.wsp.co.uk. There are a number of interesting images of Machin production, as well as images of other stamps they have produced.

--Larry

Nelson Mandela and Machins

Staffordshire teacher Peter Mason, aged 64, spent eight working days and used more than 3,000 stamps to create the 3ft by 3ft pixellated portrait of the former South African president.

Close examination of the picture reveals Mr Mandela’s jail number, 46664, from his years on Robben Island.


The shirt itself is made up of South African stamps. In the background it looks as though he has used Machins.

These stamps appear to be 1st class flame NVIs , Millennium 1st NVIs and Blue 2nd class NVIs

The picture is rather small to pick them out, but if you go to the Birmingham Mail web site it is a little larger. Can you pick out what denomination the green stamps are? Also to the far left it looks like he has used black and gold stamps in the design, are these also Machins?.



Mr Mason, who lives in Hednesford, near Cannock, with his 60-year-old wife Jane, said: “As I work part time as a teacher, a lot of my students have been studying Mandela in humanities and I thought his 90th birthday would be a nice time to do this as a tribute. He has also used postage stamps to create portraits of missing toddler Madeleine McCann, Princess Diana and Gordon Brown.

Douglas Myall

In my last post, "Phosphor Shifts" we mentioned Douglas Myall and his award winning publication The Complete Deegam Machin Handbook.

It may be of interest to inform you that Douglas actually reads this blog. Although he has not left any comments on site to date, he has informed me by email that he finds the site " exceptionally interesting", so much so he has linked to us from his own website.

I will not go into to much detail about his site as some time ago Larry wrote a piece regarding The new Deegam website.

I and many other specialist collectors rate Douglas's work very highly and I can say without any doubt his hand book is always the first place that I go to for research. I am also pleased to now add a reciprocal link from the links section of this site.

Deegam publications are written by Myall who has been studying and writing about Machins for more than 40 years. He was a founder and life member of the GB Decimal Stamp Book Study Circle and the British Decimal Stamps Study Circle, now merged into the Modern British Philatelic Circle. He has written a regular column in Royal Mail's British Philatelic Bulletin for many years and has been voted favourite author in their reader poll for the last 11 years.

If you or anyone you know have a Machin orientated web site and would like to exchange links with us please email me with the URL.

Phosphor Shifts

When De La Rue stamps first started to be printed on the ATN press at Byfleet ( now Dunstable) there was a lot of confusion amongst collectors to what actually qualified as genuine inset phosphor bars and short phosphor bars . Stamps were being sold on sites such as eBay with perforation shifts (either left or right / top or bottom) which were not the genuine article, they only gave the impression of a phosphor shift.

I can understand why this happened (and still does) as catalogues do not give enough information on this subject. The majority of specialised catalogues just state that "all short and inset bands must be clear of the perforations", which to my mind sends out a wrong message that any shift that is clear of the perfs is good enough to qualify.

I prefer the Deegam criteria for these listings as it is precise and plain. In his handbook Douglas Myall has tried to educate collectors and dealers that a perforation shift only gives the illusion that stamps have a phosphor shift. Only perfectly centred stamps qualify for listing in his handbook. Due to Douglas's research the editor of the MBPC (Modern British Philatelic Circle) has now adopted this same policy.

Douglas writes " The test is: if the perforations had been where they should have been, would the phosphor still have missed them. If the answer is yes the shift will qualify for listing in his handbook".

In short Douglas also writes "To be clear of the perforations the gap between the edge of a phosphor bar and the centre of the perforation hole MUST be .45 mm (half the width of a hole ) or greater, as a phosphor shift to that extent is permitted anything less will not clear the perforations".

Please note: Not all phosphor shifts are errors. Certain printings exist from se-tenant and barcode booklets where the phosphor alignment was placed away from the perforations purposely, these as single stamps are still known as inset or short bands but the actual booklet panes are classed as interrupted phosphor. Perhaps myself , Larry or even Robert Bostock (hint hint Robert) could make this the topic of a future post.

Do Royal Mail Listen to Customers?

Lest We Forget - 6 November 2008
90th Anniversary of the Armistice ending World War I

Sorry I know this is not a Machin post, but I thought as Regional Pictorials were in the news this may also be of interest to some. I know these are not everyone's cup of tea but a lot of Machin enthusiasts do collect them.

It has been written that in response to criticism that the Poppy stamps were not available for ordinary social correspondence, without buying the miniature sheet in previous years. Three (different) poppy 1st class stamps from 2006 - 2008 will be issued se-tenant in normal sheets.

A Miniature sheet featuring the new special Poppy stamp (The third) will also be issued on the same day, 6th November 2008. This sheet will be printed by De La Rue Security Print in Lithography.

In the new design faces of soldiers are superimposed on the single poppy, difficult to see in this image (sorry) the background of the sheet will show rows of war graves. The miniature sheet also includes a block four 81p country definitives, one for each of the countries of the UK.

Surprise-Surprise ! There will also be a Commemorative Generic Smilers Sheet.

Self Adhesives You Just Want To Lick

I thought you would like to have a look at this Greetings Retail Booklet. It was issued on 13 May 2008. Consisting of 2 x 1st. class 'Ice Cream' stamps which look good enough to lick ( as issued last year for the Beside the Seaside set ) and 4 x 1st. class gold Machin definitives.

All the stamps in the booklet are self-adhesive. Printed by Walsall Security Printers in Gravure on OFNP/SA paper.

Note the Ice Cream stamps issued last year were in sheet form and did not have self adhesive gum, so I guess some people did actually lick them.

Machin News & Royal Mails 2009 Stamp Issues

Some people are very lucky. News of a second class PiP business sheet has emerged which is completely imperforate, it also has the Matrix intact.

Thanks to Ian Billings Norvic Philatelics

Royal Mail preliminary stamp Issues for 2009.

Now we all had a moan regarding the amount of issues produced and planned for this year (2008) . Some collectors even signed a petition which was sent to The management of Royal Mail complaining about the amount of stamps issued. As suspected it looks as though the complaint to R M has fell on deaf ears.

We have a preliminary total of roughly 25 issues, 4 of which will be Prestige Stamp Books, 7 miniature sheets. Four sets of 10, one set of 8 , one set of 7 and 3 sets of 6. You can add to this new definitives for the price increase in April, various retail stamp booklets, Christmas Stamp Booklets and Smilers Sheets.

It is no wander collectors are deserting Royal Mails new issue service like rats from a sinking ship.

The details to date are

13 January Design Classics (10) +Prestige Stamp Book
22 January 250th anniversity birth of Robert Burns (Miniature Sheet)
12 February 200th anniversary birth of Charles Darwin (6+Miniature Sheet) +Prestige Stamp Book
26 February Celebrating Wales (Miniature Sheet)
17 March Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution (8)
21 April Kings & Queens 2 (Tudors) (6+Miniature Sheet)
May "Treasures of the Archives" Prestige Stamp Book
19 May Endangered Plants & 250th Anniversary of Kew Gardens (10+Miniature Sheet)
16 June Mythical Creatures (6)
July Olympic Disciplines (handover) (10)
18 August Postboxes (Miniature Sheet)
1 Sept Fire Service (6)
17 Sept Royal Navy Uniforms (6+Prestige Stamp Book)
8 October Best of British (10)
3 November Christmas (7+Miniature Sheet+Smilers sheet)

Casa Machin

It was some time ago that I promised some people I would write about my move to Spain.

My house on the Orihuela Costa is now officially and aptly named "Casa Machin"

The design also aptly named is 2THE PEDRO" similar to that of the ones on left in the picture (although not the actual one). We live 20 metres to the right of this community pool which is shared between 100 residents of the urbanisation.


It is as you can see a full sized swimming pool, for our convenience this also has an outside shower, the pool is completely surrounded by a slip free tiled sun deck / patio, with scented shrubbed borders. Also provided for our leisure the sun deck and grounds are equipped with benches a BBQ and patio furniture.


The actual house is now (after installing a third room) a three bed roomed quad villa. It is situated in the area of Playa Flemenca on the sunny Costa Blanca coast.


The villa itself is well equipped having two floors and a large sun terrace on the upper level. Downstairs there is a fully fitted American style kitchen, an open plan living/dining room, a twin bedroom adjacent to a Bath / shower room with WC.


Up stairs on the first floor there are a further two bedrooms, one master double bedroom and a twin bedroom which at the moment houses my office. All bed rooms have fitted wardrobes and as all rooms have as standard cool marble tiled flooring.

The 1st floor also houses a second shower room and a large private sun terrace equipped with deck chairs a drinks table and sun loungers.


The area south of Alicante, near the resort of Torrevieja has a population of 80,000 of which just over half are Spanish and the other half are a mixture of home owners who have re located to enjoy the Spanish climate and relaxing way of life. British, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians, Dutch and French are among the many residents.


The area has over 2.5 million million visitors per year and it has been estimated that the peak seasons bring the population count to around 650,000. The Costa Blanca has a consistent climate all year round. Winter months are the coolest with average temperatures from 12-16 degrees. The summer months bring temperatures between 28-35 degrees. Spring and Autumn offer perfect conditions for a golfing holiday, or even a short break from the cold weather in the UK.


Airports servicing the region are Alicante Airport (El Altet), which is approximately 40 K and Murcia Airport (San Javier) which is 30 K from the resort. A car is essential to explore the the region, and visit the local markets, beaches and sites of interest.


The town of Playa Flemenca close to Cabo Roig where the villa is situated is approximately twenty minutes drive south of Torrevieja. Within the area there are numerous bars and restaurants and a local beach which is ten minutes walk. The resort caters for all types of sporting activities these include jet skiing, snorkeling and 3 excellent golf courses, and in addition is less than an hours drive from the resort of La Manga (left) , holiday destination of top sports personalities and celebrities.



Torrevieja itself is a typical Spanish holiday town boasting hundreds of tapas bars and restaurants, along with an international marina, and excellent shopping facilities. If one would prefer to venture further afield, the cities of Alicante, Murcia and the old Roman city of Cartagena all offer superb shopping facilities


San Pedro is just a short distance away , which has a number of sandy beaches and salt lakes, or a drive north of Torrevieja to visit Guardamar, a thriving town and a large white sandy beach. There are several other blue flag beaches in and around the Torrevieja area including one in the town of Playa Flemenca itself. La Zenia, La Mata, Cabo Roig (below), Los Locos, Campoamor and El Cura are just a few to mention. All are serviced with many restaurants and bars within walking distance of the facility.





Local daily markets are extremely popular with locals and tourists. All are recommended and are well worth a visit. Goods on offer vary , from leather goods, textiles, food and craft stalls.

MONDAY: San Pedro, Santa Pola, Orihuela and Elche
TUESDAY: Alicante, Altea and Orihuela
WEDNESDAY: San Miguel, La Mata and Guardamar
THURSDAY: Alicante, Rojales and San Javier
FRIDAY: Los Montesinos and Torrevieja Town (the largest with 1200 stalls)
SATURDAY: Santa Pola, Playa Flamenca, Elche, Almoradi and Alicante


As a holiday destination Spain is not just for soaking up the sunshine. If you are a golfer, you will be pleased to know within a 3 mile radius of our villa there are three superb international 18 hole golf courses, Villamartin, Las Ramblas and Campoamor.


Villamartin, probably the best known of them, was opened in 1972 and it is remembered most for hosting the 1994 Mediterranean Open which was won by Jose Maria Olzabal. It is a par 72.

Las Ramblas is a few minutes drive away and was built in 1991 by the owners of Villamartin. This course is arguably more challenging than its predecessor. Also a Par 72.


Camoamor is worth a look even for non-golfers. The spectacular views from its first class restaurant and bar are excellent and it is a popular venue for lunch. The course was opened in 1989 and is a longer course than the other two. The individual green fees for all courses start at 42 Euro.

I Know "Lucky Bugger", I hear you all saying. Well you did ask!!!!

No New Machins For The 50th Regional Anniversary

Country Definitives 29 September 2008.

To mark the 50th Anniversary of the Country ( Regional ) Definitives a Prestige booklet will be produced. I do not have details of the printer at this time. If you have this information could you please enlighten us?

For those of us who were hoping for Machins, its bad news I am afraid no new Regional Machins will be issued .

Information from John who is the regulator of the group Stamps of Great Britain http://groups.msn.com/StampsofGreatBritain/homepage.msnw

All stamps will be 1st class and the panes will depict :

Pane 1 :

3 x stamps of each for Northern Ireland, Wales & Scotland in the old designs for 3d., 1/3d & 6d.

Pane 2 :

3 x stamps of Scotland for 3d., 1/3d & 6d. & 3 x 1st class Lion country stamps

Pane 3 :

3 x stamps of Northern Ireland for 3d., 1/3d & 6d. & 3 x 1st class Field country stamps

Pane 4 :

3 x stamps of Wales for 3d., 1/3d & 6d. & 3 x 1st class Dragon country stamps.


Also on the same date to mark the 50th. Anniversary , there will be a Miniature Sheet issued. This sheet will also consist of the original designs of the 3d. stamps issued on 18 August 1958 and the 6d & 1/3 stamps issued in the September of that year, but this time. 9 x 1st class stamps, 3 of of Scotland, 3 of Wales and 3 of Northern Ireland. This miniature sheet will be printed by De La Rue Security Print in Gravure.

Do you collect Decimal Regionals, be it the Country Pictorial Definitives or reproduction Wildings? If so give us your views , your thoughts on these issues would be greatly appreciated.

Royal Mail Site Gives More Information

Thanks Larry for the tennis results. A fore gone conclusion really, I should have had a bet, a mixed double maybe....he he, those sisters are something else.

The Grand Prix is televised today, I have my beers on ice for that one so this is definitely a short item. Back to your suggestion and getting back to Machins, well not exactly Machins but GB Stamps.

I read this from biker R-I and thought you might find it of interest. "After nearly a year of emails back and forth Royal Mail have agreed to start uploading their informative Previews to their website.

The page came online last week and has the Preview for the forthcoming Air Displays uploaded."

The link is:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1?catId=32300674&mediaId=77500733

When you get there, click on the link advanced collector, this is another new page which gives some information on several subjects.

"Advanced Collector brings into focus the stories behind the stamp issues – news, history and, thanks to our new comment area, plenty of debate as well. Written with the serious collector in mind, we produce regular features, including the Specialist, which tackles an issue and invites collectors to give their own feedback."

There are 3 to date, Bonding with books, 2007 stamp poll, and another entitled Inky business. A forth one is planned . " Next month we look at stamp separation – which incorporates perforating, rouletting and die-cutting of stamps"

Cornflakes for Breakfast

When I woke up this morning Machins in particular were the last things on my mind. Here in Spain, at Playa Flemenca it is Market day (Saturday). I was looking ahead to the mornings agenda, strolling down to the front and having a cool beer, buying some fresh fruit and browsing the stalls for bargains.


My afternoon was also planned out, my intentions were to watch the qualifying round for poll at the Silverstone Grand Prix, another cool beer, then lounge around (more beers) while I watched the Williams sisters battle it out at the Women's final at Wimbledon, then join forces for the attack on the Doubles trophy.


However all good plans do not seem to work out no matter how much one plans their day. I had a mail delivery from the UK (which was a few days late arriving) so decided to open the envelopes first. Some run of the mill stuff, a delivery of a win from eBay and a rather big envelope from Scotland with contents ranging from some early vending, counter and GB window Booklets.


Now I am distracted and have Machins on my mind. Breakfast, I thought to myself, then off too the market. A bowl of cereal, coffee and some fruit juice and half hour later Machins are still on my mind, so unintentionally its back to the envelope delivered earlier that morning. Now I do not know why, perhaps because I had cornflakes for breakfast, but my attention was drawn to the barcode booklets in particular, of these I selected the ones known as The "Kelloggs Overseas Rate booklets"

First issued 28 Jul 1992, Printed by Walsall Security Printers Ltd, Contents 2 x 39p amethyst, Perforation 3¾ x 14, ACP/PVA. Sold at philatelic counters for 78p. The barcode reads 100661. These booklets were originally a joint promotion between Kelloggs and Royal Mail, which the general public could receive by saving coupons from packs of Bran Flakes, which then in turn could be redeemed for a free booklet.

Of interest TO ME this booklet (above) only contained two x 39p stamps with cylinder W2, whereas the normal post office booklet issued 19th September 1991 contained four, the only cylinder available for the 1991 booklet was W1 W1 W1 W1. This one has cylinder W2. Another differing fact with the Kelloggs booklets is that there is no large letter 2 at the left of the front cover and the Royal Mail logo is displaced to the left to compensate.

Of the other booklets in my parcel, were the booklets x4, plate numbers W1 W1 W1 W1, there were also two different perforation types which pleased me. Type E3 which is normal (below) and type E3 blind at base. I mentioned Blind at base booklets some time ago.

Now the real reason for ordering these booklets in the first place other than differences above was the actual stamp content, (you will notice that these stamps are imperf top and bottom) these differ from the cylinders used. The actual stamps are also of interest just cos I read this. A quote from the Deegam Handbook

" Stamps from DP183 (W2 pale shade) are deliberately a much lighter shade than those from from DP176 (W1 dark shade). Walsall use more than one plate to achieve the separation of the head from the background that gives the relief effect of the design. In general some print the head only, some the background only and some both. Of the four plates used to print DP176, two printed a dark colour, one a mid colour and one a pale colour, of those for DP183 one printed the dark colour, two the mid colour and one the pale colour".

OK Douglas, I am not blaming you but that's my day over! Now can anyone tell me about the tennis?

Post Office Training Stamps (2)

Allan Oliver has posted this reply to my original post "Post Office Training Stamps": Many thanks ALLAN


First to introduce my self. My Name is Allan and along with a GB collection from pre-stamp to circa 1951 there are a number of side-line collections. The items form a joint collection with my father and are housed in two locations, London and Shropshire. After reading this item on Training School Stamps I thought a few notes may be of use for collectors. Machin stamps with overprints have been around in bulk since at least 1980 when we started forming our reference collection.

The influx since circa 2000 seems to have happened when a number of training schools were being closed followed some years later by this material being offered for sale. As a brief run down of the history - the training schools started in London in 1920 and soon spread to other large cities and towns, followed by smaller areas also having training schools established. At this time the stamps used were those in general use and these were overprinted with black bars.

In the reign of King George 5 every basic stamp is known, both definitives and commemoratives with the exception of the 1925 wembley set, the £1 black of the PUC and the £1 green of the seahorses. From King Edward 8 through to Queen Elizabeth 2 every stamp is known with a training school overprint of some form, be it black bars, (horizontal or vertical), application by pen, hand-stamped SCHOOL SPECIMEN or similar etc. To return to the decimal Machin issues, those with printed bars are the general supply sent to the training offices on request.

The idea of the overprint, as it has always been, is so that the training schools do not need to account for the stamps and also so that any in the public domain can not be used to pay for postage. The overprinting by pen was done at offices where the supply required for a course could not be order in time and these were transferred from the main office, overprinted by hand and used. This problem had been about since the reign of King George 6 when a number of offices were supplied with a hand stamp reading SCHOOL SPECIMEN which they used to overprint additional required items. This was used for a limited number of stamps at each operation but remained in used for a very long time, explaining why items appear well into the 1960's and maybe later.

In short Machins with printed black bars are not fakes and in our experience, turn up more often than those with the pen type overprint. There are also a number of ways in which this material came onto the market legally and more details can be supplied should they be required

Allan has offered to follow this up with a more detailed post on Machin Training Stamps, which I look forward to very much. He also has a complete history of training stamps published on the web which he will leave us a a link to.