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Other recent news that has come to light is that the De La Rue sheet stamps with new security features have a new phosphor layout. " All stamps on the sheets issued to date have interrupted bands ( left, right, top and bottom) these are clear of the perforation tips, the matrix has also been removed on the the sheets."
This news implies that a slight phosphor shift in any direction in any position on the sheet will produce inset and short bands, either left right top or bottom.
Original Post
Always first with Machin related material is that man Ian Billings. On his website he has written more news of the three mixed self-adhesive retail books to be issued this year. These are the booklets of 4 x Machins and key stamps from the Design Classics set.
We mentioned the first booklet and produced an image which will contain the Design Classics stamps depicting the Telephone Kiosk and Routemaster Bus stamps recently. British Design Classics Issue date 10th March.
Following up: ( update above) I was surprised to read that in his write up of this booklet Ian informs us that "The Machin definitives for this issue WILL have security features ".
This may have been written before the news came to light that the other retail Books and business sheets to be printed by Walsall Security Printers have been delayed to 31st March 2009. Perhaps Ian could verify the above statement for us?
The delayed Walsall booklets and business sheets (31st March 09) are listed below
6 x 1st
2 x 1st
2 x 2nd
4 x Large 1st
4 x Large 2nd
100 x 1st
100 x 2nd
50 x Large 1st
50 x Large
If the Mixed retail booklet will have security slits etc then does this mean this will be the first slit security Machin definitive stamp to be issued that will be printed by Walsall? If Ian's information (above) is correct, it would seem so.
Ian has also listed two mock ups of the subsequent booklets to be issued: These are the Mini-car booklet to be issued 21 April, and the Spitfire & Concorde booklet to be issued 17 September.
These pictures (left) are of a reduced size, so if 
you wish to view the these in an enlarged size please visit the norphil website. www.norphil.co.uk/ . Whilst there you may like to read up on information about special issues, pictorial regionals, postmarks and covers. You may also like take advantage of the many great offers he has listed. Ian is a member of the IPDA and several other philatelic associations. So you can deal with him in confidence.
4 comments:
I think it would be strange if these mixed booklets will have security stamps. How many of these are actually sold and used? Assuming that all other formats of 1st Machins have security slits, would these booklets alone be used in enough quantity to allow significant reuse?
Maybe creating the slits isn't a very expensive process, though apparently every penny counts these days. Or maybe Royal Mail is just being consistent and putting slits in all 1st Machins regardless of format.
--Larry
Regarding the phosphor shifts on the new stamps, see http://norphil.blogspot.com/2009/02/inset-bands-on-most-security-machins.html
I suppose it saves some money on the phosphor, but I question the cost of creating a cylinder to interrupt the bands in this way. Most of the variations I have found are not listable according to generally accepted criteria but it won't be long before they all are, I reckon!
Update on Pete Bradley's comment.
I checked with my sub-postmaster on Saturday morning and the high-value security stamps have arrived.
Yes, in a small village in rural Norfolk, we have the £1.50-£5 values, so if I were Pete I would go back to each of the offices and ask them what they have had in. These should be available for sale on Tuesday.
Apology & Correction!
I was trying to do two things at once and we all know that blokes can't multitask!
Pete didn't say that he couldn't get the high-values from POs - I don't even know whether he has tried.
(But the rest of what I wrote stands)
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