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More details have emerged on the new values to be released 31th March in line for the postage rate rise on April 6th. Are you ready to be confused?Each sheet of stamps features a two box grid with a marker dot in one of the boxes identifying the position of the sheet on the printing plate. Unlike the Machins with security features (stamps which have four or six identifiable printing positions) these stamps have only two possible positions (left and right). The stamps are printed in sheets of 200. The box grid always shown on the left hand position of the sheets for both left and right hand markers.
This is where I become even more confused, as I have already seen pictures of the actual stamps to be issued and they definitely do not have kiss and die cut perforations of the self adhesive type.
Dave states "All are self-adhesive but NOT ALL will incorporate the slits including the low-value 17p. Again no Printer name included but will be Cylinder D1 and the colour bar is retained."
Ian Billings has shown us these actual stamps on his website and I also have a scan received from a close friend of the actual 22p value (stone). Before I send you over to Ian's site to view these I will add a link to the image I posted earlier. Use your back button to return to this page.
Make up your own mind : Are these of the self adhesive type or not? It looks like to me as though they are not. Perhaps future printings will be? Check out the two reports I mention and use your back button to return here. Then please add your comments they will be greatly appreciated.
(Thanks in advance.....Roy)
5 comments:
You cannot trust the images, and often the information, in Royal Mail's Preview leaflets. Witness the terrible colour reproduction of the England 56p.
I haven't scanned my blocks yet but the system seems to be as follows:
England 56p and 90p both come from two panes (both mine are from the right side).
Scotland both56 & 90p have the blob in the left side, and the right side is 'greyed-out' presumably indicating that the Scotland stamps do not exist from that side.
Wales 56p has the blob in the left and 90p in the right.
Northern Ireland both values are from the right pane.
I've been told (not by Royal Mail) that the
Scotland 56p is paired with Wales 90p
Scotland 90p is paird with N Ireland 90p, and
Wales 56p is paired with N Ireland 56p.
The four definitives I have all are from the right pane.
Whatever the images may SEEM to show in Preview (and somebody phoned me about this earlier today), these are NOT self-adhesive they are, as announced earlier, normal sheets of 200.
Many Thanks Ian.
These changes are coming fast and furious. Hard to keep abreast of them.
Roy
The Royal Mail images also show two colour cylinders for the 17p and four identical colour cyilnders for all the regional stamps. I suppose that's rubbish 'n' all?! I don't mind the fact that there's only one cylinder block to collect for the regional stamps, though! Anything to save a bit of cash! And would the depicted format of cylinder blocks of four be the new standard block? Or would the Bureau still sell blocks of six? A block of four does seem to include all the information needed on a cylinder block. Again us collectors saving money here! This surely can't have been RM's intention!
:-)
Following Adrian's comment I had another closer look at Dave's images of 'Preview'. It really is sad, and a total waste of time.
The cylinder number is on row 18 on both Machin and country definitives, the positional grid is on row 20. Therefore blocks of 6 are still the way to collect.
What hasn't been mentioned is that along with the sheet number and printing date there is now a bar-code. This ink-jet printing starts at row 15, with the country stamps having the country name printed alongside row 17.
Thanks for that! Shame though, about the regional cylinder blocks! Maybe we should all come down hard on Royal Mail and demand the cylinder numbers be moved to position 19! I remember in the late 1980s the Dutch PTT giving in to collectors and moving the cylinder numbers for the Beatrix definitives to the corner so that collectors could just get one corner marginal copy to have a positional cylinder stamp. But somehow I don't see that happening here! What with collectors wanting blocks of six with an extra bit of margin on the top (which basically means getting a block of eight, just to discard the top two stamps), I don't see them opting for something as compact and still nice as this:http://akphilately.blogspot.com/2006/08/netherlands-beatrix-i-know-we.html#links
:-)
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