Pre Decimal Papers

Anthony Betteridge recently wrote to me and informed me he had taken up an interest in Machins again after 40 odd years in the cold.



After all this time I thought Tony deserved a mention on Machin Mania. Welcome back to the wonderful world of Machins Tony.




After 4 decades, out came his old albums and stock books of Pre Decimal Machins, which I know for certain contained full sheets, cylinder blocks and I presume booklet panes and singles. All were still in good order and in mint condition.

It is only fair to assume that after all this time he had forgotten most of what he learned in the late 60s, and he wanted to know about the different papers of the day. Mentioning especially the 10d (drab) value.

Now I am no expert on these stamps, so I consulted one of the specialist catalogues to gen up. Here is what I found out.


There are 4 different papers (not counting the high values) which you can determine with a simple test which is by placing the stamps under a UV lamp.

First issues had MCP (Milky Coated Paper)

Second issues BCP (Bluish coated paper)

Third Issues OCP (Original Coated Paper)

Fourth issue PCP (Phosphor Coated Paper)

10d stamps are known on BCP (November 69) and OCP (1970) (both from sheets cyl 1)

I hope this helps