Machin Portrait Graces UPU Book

The Universal Postal Union was founded in 1874 to coordinate international mail exchanges. (Anyone who has studied postal rates and practices prior to the formation of the UPU knows how badly it was needed.) It has headquarters in Berne, Switzerland.

The Postal Union Congress is "the supreme [legislative] authority of the UPU" according to the web site. It now meets every four years, with the next meeting in October, 2012.

Collectors of British stamps have at least passing familiarity with the Postal Union Congress because of the five stamps issued by the British Post Office in honor of the 1929 Congress held in London that year. The stamps include the large, engraved £1 stamp picturing St. George slaying the dragon and, of course, the image of King George V.

At some time, the postal administrations started compiling books containing copies of all stamps (and sometimes postal stationery) issued since the last Congress. Above is the front cover of the book prepared by Royal Mail for the 19th congress held in 1984 in Hamburg, West Germany.


The books have text that describes the subject matter of the stamps as well as dates of issue and printing information. Stamps in early books were hinged to the pages, but now mounts are used. Definitives are included, and I also illustrate the page containing the major varieties of Machins issued between 1979 (the year of the 18th Congress) and 1984. Regionals and postage due stamps (called "To Pay Labels" by Royal Mail) take up another two pages.

These books are given to delegates, and many of them find their way onto the market. They show up at stamp dealers from time to time. Rushstamps in England usually has a selection, but their prices are generally too steep for me.

--Larry

I will be traveling for the next two weeks, so it is unlikely that I will post anything. However, I have some interesting posts planned for November, so do come back then.

The 4d olive sepia Machin with Head B and Gum Arabic

It wasn't long after the Machins appeared on June 5, 1967 that they started the unceasing evolution that endears them to us.

One of the first two significant changes was on the back of the stamp, and the other was on the front.

The first Machins appeared with gum arabic, a natural product from acacia trees in Sudan. Paper with this gum tends to curl, so the gummed paper was passed over a fracture bar to break up the gum. As a result, it has a glossy, sparkly appearance. It is generally abbreviated GA.

Because of concerns about reliable supply, in January, 1968, Harrisons and Sons started using a synthetic gum, polyvinyl alcohol. It is less shiny, or matt. It is usually abbreviated PVA, but Douglas Myall uses the official abbreviation, PVAl, to avoid confusion with polyvinyl acetate (PVAc), which has been used on some airletter flaps.

The change to PVA was permanent, but gum arabic was used for Machins again briefly in 1972/73.

There is, of course, a long story about the colors and appearance of the various gums over the years, but I'll leave that for another time. Roy's page on Machin gums is here.

The second change involved the portrait. Most of the original Machins had a version that became known as Head A. In February, 1968 Harrisons began using a second image that was derived from a different photograph of Machin's plaster cast. This version, known as Head B, had a more three-dimensional, lifelike appearance than Head A.

Head A is on the left in the images above, Head B on the right.

Head B replaced Head A and remained in use after the conversion to decimal currency. Head B was also the basis of the digital image that was introduced in 1997.

There are a number of differences between Head A and Head B. The one most commonly used by collectors to differentiate the two is the base of the portrait. On Head A, the base is flat, and the fold that starts at the back of the Queen's neck at the top of the corsage (dress) extends to the bottom of the portrait. On Head B, the base is rounded, and there is a visible amount (about 0.5mm) of corsage below the end of the fold.

There are variations of Head A and Head B, as well as several other heads. Again, that is beyond the scope of this post. Roy's page on Heads A and B is here, and Robin Harris' page is here.

Okay, back to the 4d. When it was issued, it paid the basic inland letter rate, so a large quantity of the stamps was used. This denomination was converted to PVA gum in January, 1968, and to Head B in April, 1968. So, the first stamps were Head A with gum arabic, then came Head A with PVA, and then Head B with PVA. In theory, there should not be any Head B with GA.

However, in the summer of 1968, Harrisons apparently used up a roll of GA paper to print the Head B version of the 4d. It was printed from cylinder 14, which was then in use, so it is clear that the stamps resulted from the use of the wrong paper.

Douglas Myall notes that fewer than 100 copies are known today. The only six known cylinder blocks are all no dot and were all purchased on the same day at the same post office. If indeed a whole roll of paper was used, there may be more copies lurking out there, though no doubt most were used for postage.

Today this stamp sells for well over £1,000, when you can find one. Although it resulted from the printer's misstep, catalogs treat it as a regularly issued stamp, thus the unfilled space in my album.

--Larry

Much of the information herein came from Douglas Myall's Complete Deegam Machin Handbook. If you have a copy, Myall has a brief note about this stamp in item 51 of the file guidec95.pdf in the archive folder. My thanks to Douglas for reminding me of this.

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