New Color Palette for the Machins

The November Philatelic Bulletin makes it official: the Jeffery Matthews color scheme for the Machins is being retired after over 20 years of service. The Bulletin says, “a broad revision of all the colours used for UK definitive stamps of 2013 is being finalised.”

Three new colors have been announced and will see the light of day in early January: Royal Mail red for first-class stamps, wood brown for the £1 and slate grey for the 50p. These are shown on the Norphil blog. However, we also know that the low values (1p through 20p) are being reissued in their existing colors with the addition of iridescent overprints. Presumably these will be on sale for at least few months before any color change is introduced.

Douglas Myall indicated something similar in his most recent “Deegam Report,” although he didn’t indicate that the changes would totally replace the Matthews palette. We can probably expect the next batch of new colors when the rate change values are issued in the spring. 

I don’t think we need to ask why. Two decades is a long time (even though there have been many Machins that were not printed in Matthews colors, including the current second-class blue that was first used in 1989, less than two years after the Matthews colors began appearing). Rather, inquiring minds want to know who and how. Hopefully, Royal Mail will release the full story after all the arrangements are complete.

Here’s a brief history of Machin colors:

Initial issue in 1967 - Not very much has been published on how the original colors were chosen, as far as I know, except to note that Arnold Machin was involved in the selection and, of course, the Queen indicated her preference of the olive sepia color used for the original 4d because it was reminiscent of the color of the Penny Black. 

Decimal issue in 1971 - The development of these colors has been very well documented, most recently by Tony Walker in a series of articles in The GB Journal, the publication of The Great Britain Philatelic Society. In the articles a couple of years ago, Walker detailed the evaluations and trials that led to the original 14 colors. 

1972 - 1988 - Color selection was unplanned and haphazard. Some colors were successful, others less so. The introduction of lithographic printing was one reason for a wide variety of shades appearing during that time.

1988 - 2012 - In 1984, Royal Mail decided to settle on a permanent range of colors that showed off the Queen’s head to best effect and were distinguishable from one another. Jeffery Matthews developed a set of 30 colors that were introduced over a five year period starting in 1988. He subsequently developed four more colors that appeared starting in 2000 and ended with the ruby £1 in 2007. 

As I noted above, exceptions to the Matthews colors started appearing soon after. The ones I can think of off the top of my head:

- Light blue and black in 1989 for the 1840 anniversary of the Penny Black. The black was used for first-class and discontinued after a year, but the light blue has remained the color of the second-class stamp until now (with a brief interruption in 1990 for a darker blue). 

- Gold for the first-class stamp in 1997 (for the Queen’s Golden Wedding Anniversary) and again in 2002 for the Golden Jubilee (and remaining in use into 2012).

- Brownish olive on a white background for the millennium first-class Machin in 2000.

- Diamond Blue for the Diamond Jubilee first-class Machin in 2012.

And now we enter a new phase in the Machin color story. I am eager to see what awaits us.

--Larry

Are the Red Machins Doomed?

Actually, it is more likely that the blue Machins would be doomed. That would happen if Ofcom, the current postal regulator, returns Royal Mail to a single class of inland letter mail. The December issue of Stanley Gibbons Monthly reports that Ofcom took a survey, and a majority of respondents were in favor of a single class of mail that offers two-day delivery and costs less than the current first-class rate. I believe the current first-class service offers next day delivery, and second class is two to three days.

The two-tier mail system was introduced in 1968 to help balance the post office’s workload. With only a single class of service, all mail had to be processed at the same time. After the introduction of the two-tier system, the second-class mail could be processed at night, after the first-class mail was finished.

Perhaps modern automation no longer requires such separation, and a single class of mail would be more efficient for the post office and, apparently, more desired by mailers.

I would guess it’s a long road from here to there, but if it happens, there would be a lot fewer Machins for us to collect.

--Larry

(I linked to the Stanley Gibbons site, but you cannot read the magazine without a subscription.)

Machin News November 2012

You may have noticed that this blog has been a little quiet of late, this is because I have been out of the country for 13 weeks on business and I have not had as many opportunities to access a computer.

I notice that during my absence Larry has kept the blog alive with a few posts and hopefully kept you entertained. As you can gather I am now back at my desk and will be until my next  holiday in February 2013.

Most of the news I am about to report on has been mentioned before on this and other blogs, so basically this will post will be an update on previous information with a little added news that has come to light over the last few weeks.

Firstly thanks to Douglas Myall I can confirm that next year there will be at least four Machin custom booklets to look forward to in the first half of the year.

(4 x 1st Machin + 2 x specials) London underground on 10 March; Classic TV on 26 March; Football heroes on 9 May and N. Ireland locomotives on 10 June. These Machins will no doubt have the 2013 code incorporated into the background and the letter C. The new colour for the first class stamps will be known as Royal Mail Red.

The latest news from Ian Billings is there will be  new 2nd class Machin Faststamp on the scene next year. This will will be available from Post & Go machines and will be printed blue, it will have a single phosphor bar.

They will be issued on the first day of Stampex 20 February.

Thanks Ian

1st class stamps in 2013,  2013 the year codes are M12L and MA12 (Large stamps). As new stock is introduced later in the year these will revert to M13L and MA13. Dates of printing known so far are 19/09/12 for the small 1st and 24/09/12 for the 1st class Large. 

The 1p - 20p make up values to be issued In January will be printed with an iridescent overprint. The cylinder numbers used are D2 / D1 for the phosphor and iridescent overprint. Printing dates seen are: 1p 17/09/12, 2p & 5p 12/09/12 , 10p & 20p 13/09/12. 50p and £1 stamps have D1 /D1 D1.  Printing dates for both values ( to date) are18/09/12.

The new 50p and £1 Machins will have cylinder numbers D1/D1 D1. Printing dates are 18/09/12 for both values.

There will also be a 10,000 coil version of the 1st class Royal Mail Red and 2nd class Blue . According to reports the 1st class will be available from 03/01/2013 to Royal Mail customers in strips of five.

How many of you ordered the Douglas Myall birthday cover? For those that did not I can show you (once again thanks to Ian) a  picture of what they look like. This is number one of ninety. By the way Douglas on behalf of all Mahinites world wide we wish you a very happy birthday and hope that you have a wonderful day.

Until  next time Its goodbye from me.   Roy 



Is This Scarce Machin Really Free?

A seller on eBay recently offered three lots like the one pictured above. They were offered as the coil strip with a “free scarce 25p Machin from the Reader’s Digest coil.” There is nothing dishonest or deceptive about the listing, but I wonder whether it is really possible to offer something for free in an auction like this.

The coil is common, so let’s say it would fetch £2. The 25p single normally sells for about £5, so let’s say it would fetch £4 in the auction. The lot is therefore worth £6. Would I expect to bid £2 and really get the 25p for free? No, I don’t think so. 

In an open market like eBay, bidders would consider the value of both the coil and the single when bidding. Another bidder would look at it and figure if the lot as a whole was worth £6, it was worth a bid of at least £4. 

I’m not complaining. In fact, I bought two of the three lots, for more than £2 but much less than £6. I actually looked at it more as purchasing the 25p Machin, with the coil strip as an extra bonus. Even though I thought the listings didn’t make sense, I am pleased with my purchases.

Now, about that 25p. The 25p salmon pink was first issued in October, 1993. That was after Royal Mail introduced the elliptical perforations as a security measure. Since 25p was the first-class rate, the stamp was issued in sheet, booklet and vertical coil format. All of these had the standard elliptical perfs.

In early 1996, the stamp was issued as a horizontal coil at the request of Reader’s Digest. I guess they got tired of using four stamps when one would do. Anyway, for a horizontal coil, the stamps are printed sideways. According to the Deegam Handbook, Royal Mail was afraid that the elliptical perforations would have caused the web to break when under tension during the slitting and reeling process. So, no elliptical perforations.

This is the only version of the 25p salmon pink without elliptical perforations. I don’t know that I would call it scarce, as the vendor did, but it does carry a small premium, as I’ve noted above. I would guess that a commercial cover with the stamp on it would be even more valuable.

--Larry

Celebrate Douglas Myall’s 90th Birthday

Douglas Myall, well-known to Machin collectors for his Complete Deegam Machin Handbook and numerous other contributions to the field, will reach his 90th birthday on December 17. The Machin Study Group of the West Toronto (Canada) Stamp Club is going to honor Myall by preparing a personalized postage stamp picturing Myall and a cacheted cover postmarked on December 17 with the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada’s “125 years of Canadian Philately” cancel. 

Covers are available from the Study Group at $2 each (Canadian dollars) and single picture postage stamps at $1 each, plus appropriate postage. The covers can be addressed and mailed directly to you (with additional postage as necessary to addresses outside Canada), or unaddressed and sent in a separate cover.

A very limited supply of stamps and covers will be available, so if you are interested, please reserve them soon. 

To reserve them, contact Vijay Vijayakumar at machincollector@gmail.com or Garfield Portch at garfield.portch@gmail.com. Be sure to indicate your country of residence so they can give you the proper postage costs.

--Larry

P.S. A Myallstone was just reached with the publication of Deegam Report #100. (That's Douglas' term, not mine!)

2007 Love Booklet

Way back in 2007 I blogged about a new  Valentines Love Booklet"

A booklet of six stamps, five definitives and a Love Stamp, as the 2005 Smilers pictorial definitive but with a slight difference.

The smilers stamp had no ellipses and vignetted phosphor bands where as the booklet stamps have ellipsed perforations and solid phosphor bands, thus conforming to the other five 1st class defintives in the booklet.

I informed readers that this will be catalogued as a different stamp and a space will be needed in all stamp albums. If you want your copy of the Love Booklet get it now whilst stocks are still available. I am sure this will be a short order for Royal Mail and the price will increase in dealers lists over the coming months. 

I expect this ( provided RM do not repeat the exercise next year) to be on a par with the self adhesive submarines booklet which now changes hands at £30 - £40 plus.

I can now inform you that this booklet (TODAY) is actually catalogued at 30.00 GB Pounds. I wander how many people took the advice at the time?

I am glad now that I squirrelled a couple of dozen of these away.