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Monday 30 April 2012

Second Class Forgeries

I had almost forgotten about these until I had a letter from Roger who brought them to my attention. Roger obtained a block of 4 and wanted more information, which I passed on to him via a page on Larry's website

Here is a rundown of the text sent by Roger extracted from a photo copy from a Dealer.

A MACHIN MYSTERY


In early to mid 1994 a mystery Machin 2nd class stamp appeared. These stamps looked very noticeably different. The colour is very much richer and the surface shinier, similar to PCP2. They are also printed on a different paper and the gum is almost invisible with a matt finish, a type of gum not previously used on any British stamp.

A new type of phosphor has also been used, the stamps appearing to be missing the phosphor to the naked eye but with a different reaction under the ultra violet lamp. The perforations for the record are the normal elliptical type.

The stamps,  panes of 10 come from a Red Bar Code Booklet (above) with the appearance of being printed by the House of Questa. There were many rumours that it was possibly some sort of trial which was released in error. However if they were a trial why bother to print phosphor on them?

Many dealers obtained supplies in good faith ( -anyone know where from?- ) and they were sold openly to collectors through their shops, mail order and at stamp fairs and exhibitions.

A London dealer also serviced a number of First Day Covers postmarked at Windsor with the new variety plus the normal and also some complete booklet panes. They were postmarked on 16 June 1994.

Several dealers contacted the Post Office to ascertain who sold the stamps to which they received any response until the Investigation department investigated and confiscated various stocks in the hands of the dealers also offending them. The PO have stated that they are forgeries but have not released any further information.

Many of the specialist Machin Dealers still believe that they were printed officially or unofficially by the House of Questa. Questa strongly denies this. However, why would the forger set up such an elaborate costly operation utilising the new security elliptical perforation & not flood the market to capitalise. The PO investigation is still continuing and we await an announcement in due course.

The purpose of this story is to inform you of the facts and as and when we know the outcome and if we are able to obtain supplies we shall be pleased to let interested customers know accordingly. Please send a stamped addressed envelope marked Machin Mystery.

However, we do have a few postally used copies for sale at £25.00 each.

Or a much more comprehensive history of the Machin Mystery we refer you to the February Stanley Gibbons Monthly where there is an article written by John Deering which explains more fully this interesting saga.

I am still not convinced are they forgeries? So do a lot of other people, If you have any more information on this oddity please let us know via the comments dept.

4 comments:

Ian - Norvic said...

I was lucky enough to get one of these on a Christmas card (oh so long ago) but as usual I didn't really look at the Christmas mail until mid-January.

Fortunately the sender had distinctive writing (no return address on the envelope of course) so I called her and asked her to scout round her usual post offices in the Enfield area and buy a book of stamps at each.

Some corner shops were no longer selling stamps and seemed reluctant to discuss them! But she did send me some, one of which was the oddity. I asked he to go back and get some more but to no avail.

So I have a complete booklet and a single on contemporary cover. One of life's gratifying discoveries!

Anonymous said...

Was it not around this time that the House of Questa "lost" a quantity of stamps due to a theft?

Some of my local convenience stores were selling cut panes of ten 1st class stamps which were neither folded or showed signs of being removed from booklet covers.

Anonymous said...

The easy way to detect a complete booklet is the inner covers ommitted the troublesome glue spots of the era.

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