A New Machin for January 2011

Collectors of Machins will not need to wait until March for a new issue in 2011.

A New retail booklet, is to be issued on 11th January 2011. It will contain 2 x 1st class Thunderbirds stamps and 4 x 1st class gold security Machin definitives. It is presumed they will be printed by Walsall Security Printers in gravure on self-adhesive paper.

Although these booklets (to be ready in time) will no doubt be printed in 2010, the Machin definitives we assume will have a new security code C and MA11 for 2011.

More Details On The Latest Machin Cast

Douglas Myall sent me this note.

"This third one does not seem to be an original; all those were square. This latest one is oval and would be of no use as a photographic source of a rectangular stamp.

It looks more like the commemorative one made by Wedgwood. There were originally 100 of these.

The second square one sold last year is believed to have come from a former PMG."

Regards

Douglas

A 3rd Machin Cast Goes On Sale

Being off line for so long I missed this little gem which as far as I know has now been sold.

Staffordshire auction house Cuttlestones is set to sell a rare original Machin plaster cast of the Queen's head, as it appears on postage stamps and coins, at its September 10th Fine Art & Antiques Sale...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Press Release) – Aug 04, 2010 –

When, in autumn 2009, auctioneer Ben Gamble took a commission for an original plaster cast depicting the image of HRH Queen Elizabeth II by stamp and coin artist Arnold Machin RA, he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. Only a year before, Cuttlestones had sold a similar plaque for £15,700 to a London institute during the sale of the contents of the Machin family county house in Garmelow, Staffordshire.

The second plaque sold for an even more impressive £18,000 - and it seems that the success of these two sales caught the eye of the owner of another original Machin cast; now set to come under the hammer at Cuttlestones’ September 10th Fine Art sale. This time, however, there’s a particularly interesting personal connection to Machin, as Ben explains:

“They say that lightening doesn’t strike twice but in our case it’s struck three times! This is an incredibly rare item and was a personal gift from Machin himself to an artist friend who needed inspiration in terms of depth and shading, having been commissioned to create a similar bust of Lord Mountbatten. To assist Machin had presented this plaster cast of what, over the years, has become the world’s most re-produced image.

“We’re confident that this must be one of the last opportunities there will be to purchase an original cast by the artist himself and, once again, anticipate strong interest from Machin fans, philatelist and stamp collectors.”

With live internet bidding via www.the-saleroom.com, commission and telephone bidding options available, Cuttlestones is expecting global interest in this most iconic of images.

http://www.cuttlestones.co.uk/news/2010/040810.htm

Postage Rates May Rise by 12%

Hi Guys,

I have managed to get my hands on a computer for an hour so I thought you may like an update on my progress here in the UK and some idea when I may be back online.

On the 17th of this month I go in to hospital for the first part of my operation. A follow up op should be carried out soon after (I hope). Due to the nature of my condition I have been advised not to fly so it looks as though I am stuck here in the UK untill the doctors give me the go ahead. I have been informed I could be back in Spain before Christmas, but this is not set in stone.

Whilst online I thought you may like some news I have come across.

Be prepared to pay more for your stamps next year

Royal Mail may increase its prices by up to 12% across all regulated products and the cost of first class stamps may increase 5p to 46p, and there could be a 4p increase in the cost of a second class stamp to 36p.

UK postal regulator Postcomm, have announced the introduction of what it described as a 'lighter touch regulatory regime' which will give the Royal Mail greater commercial freedom. In addition, the removal of retail price controls from all packets and parcels weighing more than 500 grams.

Royal Mail will also be given greater freedom to compete in the pre-sorted bulk mail market, where the company has lost significant volumes to competitors. The changes follow a review of
prices and regulatory controls for 2011-12.

However, Postcomm warned that Royal Mail must provide greater transparency of its product costings, an area that the regulator been critical of in the past, and that Royal Mail should begin preparing new financial statements to reassure customers and competitors that there is no inappropriate cross subsidisation.

Postcomm also announced that once it has considered the views of interested parties, it is minded to accept Royal Mails request for price increases to help maintain its modernisation programme, required to safeguard the provision of the Universal Service.

Robert Hammond, head of Post and Digital Communication at Consumer Focus warned:

"Many customers will be extremely disappointed that stamp prices are likely to rise by ten percent next year, particularly as prices have already risen by double the rat of inflation in the last five years.

"Customers are being asked to pay for Royal Mails modernisation programme and will clearly expect to receive a more efficient, effectve and competitive service in return. Consumer also can be expected to bail out an inefficient Royal Mail forever. Royal Mail must earn the trust and loyalty of its customers."

Nigel Stapleton, Chair of Postcomm, said: This package forms the bedrock of a much needed new, lighter touch regulatory framework. We welcome the development of competition in parts of the postal market and where this is clear we want to ensure that Royal Mail is free to compete on a level playing field with its competitors. Our proposals form an important package of measures which need to be taken together; it would not be in the best interests of customers to grant Royal Mail this greater flexibility without appropriate safeguards to ensure it is properly accountable to all its customers, particularly in demonstrating that no unfair cross subsidies
exist.

In May this year Postcomm set out proposals for the introduction of the first phase of a new regulatory framework for the postal services market to replace the structure that has been in place since 2006. Postcomm said that Royal Mail still retained market power in major segments of the postal market and that well over half of Royal Mails revenue comes from these markets.

The Royal Mail still handles 99% of letter volumes over the final mile.

Postcomm said in areas of growing competition it intends to give Royal Mail greater commercial freedom and is proposing the following deregulation:

* Substantial deregulation of packets and parcels weighing more than 2 kilograms

* Retail price controls will be removed from all packets and parcels weighing more than 500 grams, and in parts of the pre-sorted bulk mail market

* Royal Mail will be given greater freedom to compete in the pre-sorted bulk mail market, where the company has lost significant volumes to competitors.

Postcomm also pointed out that the Hooper Report, published in December 2008 and updated in September 2010, highlighted the threat to the Universal Service if Royal Mail fails to modernise and tackle its long standing inefficiency. In 2007, Royal Mail quantified its level of inefficiency
compared to the other three largest European postal operators at 40%.

The pace of modernisation since then has increased but it is still behind plan and
securing its financial benefits has been made more difficult because of the
accelerating pace of decline in mail volumes.

As part of its May 2010 consultation, Postcomm proposed a roll forward of the existing price control, and Postcomm confirmed today its intention to proceed, giving Royal Mail the
flexibility to increase the prices it charges customers from April 2011 on average by 7%, which would mean it could realise up to £280 million in additional revenues.

More recently Royal Mail informed Postcomm that it requires additional funding for its modernisation programme.

Postcomm said that it understood the potential negative impact that price increases may have on customers and on the market, but said price increases would probably be required in 2012 given the reduction in mail volumes since the last price control review.


Nigel Stapleton, Chair of Postcomm, said: There is broad consensus that there is a risk to the Universal Service unless Royal Mail quickly becomes a lot more efficient. To help fund Royal Mails modernisation, Postcomm has allowed Royal Mail to increase the prices of stamped mail by double the rate of inflation over the past five years. Postcomm therefore welcomes Royal Mails decision to complete its modernisation programme as fast as possible but regrets that the company is unable to do so without making further demands on its customers.

Following a two-month consultation, and further due diligence of Royal Mails plans, Postcomm will make a final decision on Royal Mails application. Taken in conjunction with our decision to roll forward the price control for 2011-12, this could mean price increases of up to 12% across all
regulated products.

Take care all, and Larry, thanks for keeping us informed (again) with your Machin related posts since I have been away.

.....Roy

The Colors of Special Delivery

The dedicated Machins for Special Delivery services have arrived, as noted here earlier. These stamps use the silver and blue colors of the Special Delivery brand, not the standard Machin colors from the Matthews palette.

Royal Mail has identified them as such in the margins by using the color names SD Silver and SD Blue, as shown above.

Royal Mail started adding the color name to the selvage of Machins in 2007, at the same time they removed the printer's imprint. There was some discussion at the time, and it appears that there is no operational reason for printing the color name. The story is told on my web site.


We learned last year, with the release of the Recorded Signed For stamps, that Royal Mail puts only one color in the selvage, even if the stamp has more than one. These were the first two-color Machins issued as sheet stamps since the color names were introduced.

By the way, the flame color on the Recorded Signed For stamps is a Matthews color, but the yellow is not.


One more thing about these new stamps. Look closely at the front of the Queen's neck on the 100g stamp. There's a thin blue line at the edge of the neck. There are other traces of dark blue around the edge of the portrait as well. (Click on the image of the two stamps at the top of the page to see a larger version.)

It appears to me that De La Rue graphically cropped the Queen's portrait from the 500g stamp and used that for the 100g stamp. In the process, they picked up a few dark blue pixels that shouldn't have been there.

Anyone have an alternate explanation?

--Larry

Cambridge University Machin Colour Trials of 1969 - Part 1

[Note: This is the first of three posts summarizing articles written by Tony Walker, FRPSL, that appeared in The GB Journal, published by the Great Britain Philatelic Society. My thanks to Tony for permission to do these posts and to Mike Jackson, editor of The GB Journal, for the illustrations. Visit the GBPS web site to find out more about the society and how to purchase the journal back issues that contain these articles.]

Preparation for a new series of Machin definitives with decimal currency began in 1968, the year after the introduction of the pre-decimal series. The work was informed by two mishaps that needed to be corrected soon after the Machins were issued.

The first mishap was the loss of some of the desired three-dimensional effect in the portait used in stamps with a dark background. This was the portrait we now call Head A. A new negative was used to create a new version, now known as Head B. Head B eventually completely replaced Head A. See here and here.

The other mishap was the confusion between two very dark colours, the 4d olive sepia and the 5d royal blue. To resolve this problem, in 1968 the 4d was reissued in vermillion and the 8d, issued only six months earlier in vermillion, was changed to duck egg blue.

In 1968 Don Beaumont of the Marketing and Printing Section of the Post Office hired the Applied Psychology Unit of the Medical Research Council at Cambridge University to help him establish a palette of colours for the decimal currency definitives.

Sadly, much documentation from this effort has been lost, but with the aid of material held by the British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) and colour trials that have appeared on the market, it is possible to reconstruct what happened.

Trials were printed in 61 different colours, most of them denominated 8d, 1s or 1s 6d. The group of 61 included 11 colours that were used for pre-decimal stamps. Eight of the 61 colours are shown at the top of this post, and the complete set of 61 can be seen here.

The first step reduced the 61 colours to 40 based on these criteria:

- Some colours result in a weak signal from phosphor bands applied to the stamps
- Some colours vary unacceptably during the printing process
- Some colours are aesthetically unpleasing

The second step was to subdivide the 40 colours into 25 groups. The members within each group were similar to one another, but each of the 25 groups was distinctive from the other groups.

One stamp from 22 of these groups was used for further testing, along with three additional colours that were not part of the original 61, making a total of 25.

(To be continued)

--Larry