Autographed Machin Album

I started collecting Machins in the late 1970s. (I was a very precocious five-year-old.) I looked around for an album and purchased one offered by a British dealer, Urch, Harris (later purchased by Stanley Gibbons). The front page has an image of the Machin portrait and Machin's autograph, pictured above.

There are a few pages of description and identification information. The main pages have only a large silhouette of the Machin portrait. Nice and simple, like the stamps.

The album includes spaces for singles, booklet panes, multi-value coils and gutter pairs. Pre-decimals have their own section, as do Machin regionals. Within those sections, the stamps are organized by gum.


The only other organization is phosphor coated papers separated from stamps with phosphor bands. Within the sections, the stamps are organized by denomination. You can see that on the page I show here.

At that time, getting two copies of the 1/2p left band (a single and a complete pane) was a challenge for me, but those spaces are now filled. The only gap now, sadly, is the 4d olive sepia OCP/GA with head B, and this one I will likely never fill.

Urch, Harris published supplements every year, and for a while I dutifully purchased them. However, after a few years, I discontinued updating the album.

I have no intention of disposing of the album. Even without the autograph, it is a reminder of my early Machin collecting days. And the autograph makes it special.

I know Machin signed some cards and covers, which we featured previously, and he donated the proceeds to charity. This is the only commercial philatelic item signed by him that I know of. Does anyone know of others?

--Larry