Snippets And Speculation

With a multitude of summer visitors I have been a little busy of late and have been unable to keep this blog up to date (sorry about that). August looks to be another busy month for me as it is the main holiday month for my family, and I have been told that several members of this massive family are due arrive over the month in a steady stream. Not that I am not looking forward to seeing them, but hopefully September will be a little quieter and I may be able to post here on a more regular basis.

Today I start with a picture of the cover for Prestige booklet Centenary of UK Aerial Post. Issue date is 9th September 2011. As far as I know no one else has shown an image of this cover as yet.

Rumours (again) that the Machin Definitive Centenary Mini sheet could be the last time we see a new issue of Gold 1st class before the "new" diamond jubilee definitive makes its entrance on February 6th 2012.

Not so!

On 25th October 2011 several (in fact 5) 'New' Self adhesive Retail Stamp Books will make an entrance . At this time no one knows what sort of code the stamps will have. After the revelation that The Machin Centenary Mini sheet will possibly have a new code its anyone's guess.

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON ANY NEW CODES WE WOULD LOVE TO KNOW.

The new booklets will be listed as

6 x 1st-class gold retail Book (with FSC logo & 2012 special stamp programme): £2.76 (see image below)


The other booklets are described as

12 x 1st-class gold retail Book (with FSC logo): £5.52

12 x 2nd-class Retail Book (with FSC logo): £4.32

4 x 1st-class gold Large Retail Book (with FSC logo): £3.00

4 x 2nd-class large Retail Book (with FSC logo): £2.32

Rumours of Secret Codes

If you are a regular reader you will recall that sometime in May we had a short debate about a possible future change in the background codes.

I wrote "I was intrigued to read a note from Brian Sinnott who implied that there may be a change of code for Machins appearing in custom retail booklets in the near future. I had heard a whisper of this sometime ago, but dismissed it.

This debate is still going on today. Rumours are around that the change of code will still happen in the near future. The first to appear with a noticeable affect is reported to be on the miniature sheet of Machin definitives celebrating the centenary of the birth of Arnold Machin O.B.E, R.A. Issue date is expected to be the opening day of Stampex, 14 September. Machin birth date was September 30th 1911.


We were correct in the assumption that the sheet will consist of 10 stamps,and speculation was also correct is they may be 10 x 1st class gold. Once again thanks go to Ian Billings for the image above.

I stated that they will not have security slits but will have a security code. The code however will not be as thought (MA11 or M11L). Thoughts are, that as it is an Arnold Machin sheet there is a distinct possibility that a new special code "AM" could be used.

Your thought are welcome.

NO BETS ARE BEING TAKEN on this but I have been given odds on if I wish to lay one off :-)

10% Above Face

It has been suggested that the reason Royal Mail now charge 10% above face value for Prestige Stamp Books could be due to the complexity of the cylinders used for to apply security features.

I personally think that it is much simpler than this, and put it down to just plain old fashioned greed.

Royal Mail know that these booklets are only purchased by collectors , they know exactly how many are purchased and exactly how much extra with these sales they will bung into their coffers.

If it was anything to do with security features, all custom booklets would have a premium attached to the price. I also tend to think it is a disgrace that they have been allowed to get away with this price hike.



Ian Billings ON HIS BLOG has now made some more information available regarding the next Prestige booklet to be issued. It seems the thoughts are that the Machin pane will be pane 1 and it WILL be printed in gravure. Ian also has an image which I have reproduced here.

Whilst you are visiting Ians site you can also read up (and see an image) on his thoughts about the Arnold Machin Centenary issue! I tend agree with him what a boring way to commemorate such a important anniversary. I wander if the advisers who decide what issues to release actually collect stamps. I doubt it very much!

Mind the Gap

Do you remember when the new self-adhesive security Machins first appeared in February, 2009? In retrospect, we can look back fondly on those days. We were preoccupied with whether the stamps really could be soaked off paper.

We looked at the die-cut slits in those first De La Rue issues. There were four U-shaped slits, two at lower left and two at lower right. On each side, one was inverted over the other to form an oval with a large gap between the top and bottom halves. Life was simple.

But simple is not the way of the Machins. Less than a month later, gaps started appearing at the top and bottom of the slits. These stamps became known as Type 2, with Type 1 referring to the original stamps without top and bottom gaps.

Then the top and bottom gaps became very small, and those stamps were labeled Type 2a (shown above). And then we got stamps with a gap in the bottom slit but none in the top, and these were called Type 3.

And recently it has gotten worse, with more variations in the size of the top and bottom gaps.

So Douglas Myall, who started the nomenclature and put it in the public domain for everyone to use, has decided to simplify the system. In his Deegam Handbook, there will be three Types:

Type 1 with no gaps at top and bottom
Type 2 with gaps of any size at both top and bottom
Type 3 with a gap of any size at either top or bottom but not both

Here's a diagram of the various types, with a line through Type 2a, requiescat in pace.



(Type 3 with a gap at top has not appeared yet, but it may.)

It remains to be seen whether others who use the Type notation follow suit. I should point out that Stanley Gibbons does not list slit types in the Specialised Catalogue.

For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of examining the gaps closely, there are some nice images on the Norphil blog here and here.

Meanwhile, for those of us who use the Deegam system, the security slits are now as simple as 1,2,3.

--Larry

Doctor Blade Flaws

Most specialised catalogues do not list doctor blade flaws, I do not know why.

To my mind some of these flaws are as good as or near to an error as they can get. Pricing them on the other hand can be a bit of hit & miss. Stamps with flaws are only worth what someone is prepared to pay to acquire them. I priced mine up at around £25.00 each. Sorry about the poor quality of the scan (left).

I recently sent an example of this 10p booklet with a nice horizontal flaw to Larry as a thank you for a certificate he sent to me me.

I still have several different types of this particular booklet in my collection all with various degrees of a green over inked doctor blade flaw. I wrote something about my extras way back in 2007.

This pressed me into looking for more examples on the net. I could not find any of this type listed. Perhaps the bundle I purched had the only ones. (about 20 diffrent)

I did sell a few examples a few years back so I know for sure that someone else now has copies in their collection.

Whist I was on the net I did find a booklet with a doctor blade flaw catalogued at £35.00 and priced at £21.00. Not sure where the catalogued price was obtained.

This is described below.

SG Booklet FH15 with pane UMFB46. Charles Dickens No 3. David Copperfield. Error with white line through Queens face on second row, doctor blade fault. Imperf sides, new phosphor.