"R" You Ready For This?

Way back, at the beginning of the year we were promised that there would eventually be a new security (slit) stamp derived from a coil or roll. These were then cancelled from the program, only to be reinstated without the publicity.

Well I can now inform you, if you do not already know, that a roll of 10,000 stamps has now been purchased by a main stream Machin dealer and they are now available in the philatelic market place.

These stamps were first reported by Larry on the Machin Forum with a link showing us they are available at this time on eBay, coil strips 5 x 1st class and coils 5 x 2nd class were reported, but the seller is only parting with them (at this time) if you purchase 2 of each strip.

Ian Billings has also informed us via his blog that these are completely different from the known security stamps.

They have a security letter "R" in the semi hidden background text. This will be known as code R and the text spells out Royal Mril. R presumably = roll.

Ian informs us that " the rolls have sequence numbers every 10th stamp", and suggests "so the way to collect will probably be in strips of 3/5/10/11."
I suggest, perhaps the best way to buy them is in strips of 12 (if you can get them). This would give you a coil of 5 without a number, a coil of 5 with a number and a numbered and unnumbered single.

If you wish to purchase in this manner, Ian continues " We will, however, have some strips with and without serial numbers, and single stamps will also be available. We'll be writing to regular customers about these in the next couple of days, and will also welcome enquiries from other collectors." See Ian's post here: