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In the previous Machin News we mentioned that the 23 Aug 2011 was the date for release of a self adhesive customised booklet entitled Classic Locomotives of England.
I can now show a mock up of this booklet.
top: 1st class - 2p - 68p , middle: 5p - label - 5p, bottom: 68p - 2p - 1st class.
For those of us that obtained the Castles miniature sheet back in March 2005 which was printed by Joh Enschedé Security Print ,these may be of importance to you as this 2011 reprint may be printed by Cartor.
There is a very interesting comment attached to this post, so I decided to investigate a little more to determine if there was any more information on the web. Ian Billings has wrote something on his website which I repeat here. I hope Ian will not mind.
The Prestige Stamp Book is also designed by Robert Maude and Sarah Davies. Preliminary information has a note against pane 4 "(intaglio)", but the printing process is described as "Lithography, except pane 1 which is gravure", and the printer is identified as Cartor Security Printing.
However, we know that Cartor do not have gravure capability, so pane 1 will probably be printed by Walsall, especially if self-adhesive. Pane 4 will be intaglio, as was the 2005 Castles miniature sheet, which was printed by Enschede. We await the final product with interest to see who printed which panes!
Thanks Ian.
Royal Mails pre publicity pictures of this booklet show pane one as the Machin pane with the stamps described above, but a comment from Robert which is attached to this post informs us it IT will be the fourth pane which will contain mixed Machins with conventional PVAl gum.
This comprises of eight stamps printed by lithography:
Four 5p + two 1st class (top left and bottom right), two 76p (bottom left and top right), with the three-quarter portrait of George V by Bertram Mackennal in the middle.
The price is given as £9.97 for a total face value of £9.02.
Thanks Robert.
6 comments:
As the previous discussion over the gravure pane in the Morris prestige book established that Cartor specialise in sheet-fed offset, I doubt they would be able to print in itaglio either. The intaglio/litho panes in the George V book were by Enschedé even though the overall responsability for the book was Cartor's (and even then, it's likely the book was actually assembled by Walsall).
Cartor cannot, as Anonymous correctly surmises in his comments, print by intaglio.
However, Cartor recently entered into a joint venture agreement with the French State Printing Works (known as ITVF until 2006, or since then referred to as ‘Phil@poste Boulazac’) whereby it will sub-contract intaglio production to them. This enables Cartor to offer this printing process to its client base, although not for the first time as ITVF has been used in the past by them on a New Caledonia MS from 1999 and possibly for other issues.
The joint venture probably came into effect after the 2010 PSB (with its intaglio panes printed by Enschede) was issued, so there is a possibility therefore that ‘Phil@poste Boulazac’ will be the printer of the upcoming PSB intaglio pane, which would add a new printer name to the ranks of British stamps, although they did print the wartime Jersey Views issue.
That said, my money is still on Enschede printing the new intaglio pane, as the 50p die will already have been engraved.
Royal Mail have now announced the make-up of the Aerial Post prestige book. Regarding the Machin pane:
The fourth pane of mixed Machins comprises of eight stamps printed by lithography: four 5p, two 1st class (top left and bottom right), two 76p (bottom left and top right), with the three-quarter portrait of George V by Bertram Mackennal in the middle.
The price is given as £9.97 for a total face value of £9.02.
Is PVAl gum a water soluble one? (and does this mean the Machin pane won't have security features?)
The press release for the Aerial PSB shows the following:
Featuring four unique panes of stamps, the prestige stamp book tells the story of the origins and extensive organisation behind the first UK aerial post, and the events of the day – 9 September 1911 – through to the final day on 26 September. It is designed by Robert Maude and Sarah Davies and written by Peter Lister, President of the British Air Mail Society. The four panes are:
A three-stamp aerial post pane, featuring a £1.10p stamp flanked by two 1st Class stamps; a second three-stamp pane with a £1 stamp flanked by two 68p stamps; a four-stamp pane of 50p Windsor Castle stamps, re-issued from the 2005 set of high-value definitives stamps, and printed intaglio.
The fourth pane of mixed Machins comprises of eight stamps printed by lithography: four 5p, two 1st class (top left and bottom right), two 76p (bottom left and top right), with the three-quarter portrait of George V by Bertram Mackennal in the middle. The main background image is a detail from a 1911 poster advertising the Coronation Aerial Post.
I'm not sure whether that actually means that the Machins are on pane 4, or just that it is the fourth in their description.
I don't believe they will be litho, I think they will be self-adhesive gravure by Walsall. I may be misguided by the presence of the MacKennal portrait on the centre label which is exactly the same as the one in the London Festival of Stamps booklet - which was self-adhesive.
Royal Mails publicity department tend to get a lot wrong these days.
Not only are the images often mock ups, but the information supplied is flawed and inaccurate.
Looks like we will have to wait for more information.
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