The Case of the Missing Pink

My friend and colleague, whom I'll refer to as TLB, is a GB expertizer for the American Philatelic Society. Naturally, most of the material he gets is from the Victorian era, which matches his area of expertise. Once in a while, however, he gets some modern items, and he asks me for help.

One such item was the pair of covers pictured above. The submitter wanted to know if the £5 stamp in the top cover was missing the pink color on the portrait. The normal stamp is on the lower cover.

The cover was sold as a changeling, that is, a stamp that was printed normally but was subjected to some influence - generally either light or a chemical - that causes a change in color. In spite of the fact that the cover was purchased from a well-established UK dealer who would not have let a missing color slip through his fingers, the seller was hoping he had a missing color error.

The dealer had already pointed out that the colored block at lower left had changed from gray to green and suggested that the changes to the stamp and cachet were the result of excessive exposure to sunlight.

In response to TLB's request, I checked the various reference works such as Deegam and Gibbons Specialised. I confirmed that no missing color error was listed for this stamp. I also noted that red shades are notorious for fading after prolonged exposure to light. As a result we concluded that the dealer was correct. The stamp was a changeling, not a missing color error.

And probably not worth what the submitter had paid for it.

An enlargement of the stamp is below.

--Larry

Up to 60g

In the Autumn 2010 issue of Cross Post, the journal of the Friends of the BPMA (the British Postal Museum and Archive), Don Staddon shows some essays for stamps similar to the NVI's shown above.

The ones above are the actual issued stamps. The one on the left is one of two issued in March, 2003. This one paid for overseas airmail outside Europe for letters up to 40g; a second similar stamp paid for letters to Europe. A third stamp was issued a year later for worldwide postcards.

Although introduced with great fanfare, these stamps underwent a name change, from "universal" to "international one-stop," and then slipped under the radar. They remained on sale, but there was little publicity about them and, at least for a while, they could not be found on Royal Mail's web site.

Last year, the two 40g stamps were replaced with 20g stamps using the same design but different colors. One of the 20g stamps is shown above.

There was no official explanation for this switch, but my theory is that Royal Mail switched to the less-expensive stamps in the hopes of increasing the volume of overseas mail. The 40g stamps probably overpaid postage for most letters (since there are lower rates for 20g letters going outside the UK and for 10g worldwide letters), but this may not have been known by postal customers who simply bought the convenient NVIs.

I think Royal Mail would rather accept the risk of a few 20 to 40 gram letters being underfranked in return for the higher volume.

Anyway, back to the essays shown by Don Staddon. He says they were printed by Walsall and date from the early 2000's, so probably from a time before the stamps were actually issued. They have three unusual characteristics:

- They are inscribed "up to 60 grams"
- The lettering is in italic style
- The worldwide stamp is in a pink color that has never been used for these NVIs

The first point is the most interesting. Royal Mail apparently considered issuing these stamps at an even higher rate than the actual ones. The 60g weight would have been equivalent to the first weight step for domestic mail at that time. Instead, they settled on 40g and ultimately lowered it to 20g.

The change from italic to regular type style was probably simply an artistic judgment, as was the choice of colors. Probably there were other color trials done around the same time.

So thanks to Don, we have a brief glimpse at part of the development of these NVIs.

--Larry

While we're on the subject, if you are not a member of the Friends of the BPMA, you should consider joining. Besides the semi-annual excellent journal, Cross Post, you get a discount at the BPMA shop and invitation to events available exclusively to Friends. And most importantly, you keep informed of and lend your support to the upcoming new postal museum.

Cambridge University Machin Colour Trials of 1969 - Part 3

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

Arnold Machin maintained a close interest in any changes in his design, so he was consulted by Don Beaumont about the 14 proposed colours for the decimal series. Machin was not satisfied with them on aesthetic grounds.

Machin created a new range of colors which was referred to as the 'Machin' set of stamps.

In their subsequent second report, the researchers noted in response that their selection criteria had not taken aesthetics into account.

Another range was produced by one of the researchers named Brown. Brown's set was based on the argument that the recognition of a color visually was retained in the brain for only two seconds. After that, the brain stores the memory by name. Therefore, a stamp that can be identified by a simple name such as 'red' is remembered better than one that is 'pinkish head on a dark green background.'

Both new sets contained colours that were not part of the original selection.

The researchers stated that it was impossible to construct a range of 14 colours that can be identified and described as a single word, especially when considering the other constraints such as compatibility with automated sorting.

It would, however, be possible to use different hues of the same color. 'Bright blue' and 'dark blue' are easily remembered, though the previous investigation showed that dark colours are difficult to identify quickly.

The researchers did comparison exercises (see Part 2) with the 'Machin' and 'Brown' sets. Those two sets gave similar results, but both produced more errors than the original set, and 80% of those errors came from the newly-introduced colours.

They came to several conclusions, including that it was probably impossible to design a range of stamps this size that is both maximally pleasing aesthetically and minimally confusing.

After the second report was submitted in September, 1969, a decision had to be made. Don Beaumont selected 12 colors and had trials produced showing the colours with their proposed values. He then consulted with others in the Post Office, and as a result he switched the colours on some of the values.

On the four colours shown above, the 1 1/2p, 2p and 3p were retained, but the gradated pink colour used for the trial of the 7 1/2p was now proposed for the 2 1/2p.

The full set of 12 is shown here. On this full sheet, note that the 7 1/2p is printed in two colours, gradated pale blue and gradated pink. This implies that in this late 1969 effort, several colours were trialled for at least some of the values.

The 12 decimal definitives were issued on February 15, 1971.

As we know, the 12 colours didn't last long. The 10p was changed from a large stamp to a small one and issued as a bi-coloured stamp (terracotta and orange-brown) in August, 1971.

Three new values, the 4 1/2p bluish grey, 5 1/2p deep violet and 8p red were issued in October, 1973.

To see the progression of colours throughout Machin history, see the timeline on Robin Harris' superb web site here.

--Larry

That was then, this is now

While going through some old files, I came across a clipping that someone sent me from a 1997 issue of Despatch Manager, a UK magazine for mailers. The small article notes the continuation of trials of self-adhesive coils in a box.

In the article, Royal Mail Product Manager Julia Brooksbank is quoted as saying, "Royal Mail has developed self-adhesive stamps for small businesses, but they will in no way replace traditional stamps, which will be as widely available as ever."

Times change.

--Larry