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Friday 2 June 2017

The Machin Definitive 50TH Anniversary Prestige Stamp Book


I was so impressed with the way Ian Billings dealt with his portrayal of the 50th Anniversary Prestige booklet mainly by his showing the interleaves in all there glory.

Rather than just link to his page I have decided to copy some of the work. I do not normally do this but as this is a Machin Blog and it is a prestige occasion of 50 years I feel I must add it here for prosperity. My images are of a reduced size so if you wish to read the information on the actual pages you can do so by visiting Ians blog on the link above where they are of a larger size and more ledgable.

Firstly I must thank Ian for the use of his images (I hope you do not mind) and also thanks to Richard West for his brilliant  work in describing the essays and stamps portrayed in the booklet. A true masterpiece that I am sure Arnold Machin would be very proud of.


The booklet retails at £15.59. Worth every penny in my opinion. Starting with the cover above (It is a shame that the design was flawed by the binding) but saying this it is a little gem in its own right.

I am showing you the actual stamp panes first, I will continue to show the interleaves and the back cover after.


Pane 1


Pane 2


Pane 3


Pane 4


Pane 5


The interleaves


Page 1


Page 2


Page 3


Page 4



Page 5


Page 6


Page 7


Page 8


Page 9


Page 10


Page 11


Page 12


Page 13 (inside back cover)

The rear cover continues with more images of values that have been issued over the years


The Miniature sheets are little gems in their own right. 50 years of a Design Icon Below and the Machin Definitive Golden anniversary Celebration below that. Credit deserves praise.Well done Royal Mail. 

Not all praise though, my only real criticism is there was no need for a limited edition medal prestige booklet, pure greed on your part!!



I am not a fan of post & go stamps / labels but they are a part of the celebration so they will get a mention. A nice touch adding different colours and the coinage head. A lot of philatelists collect these so there must be an attraction, and they do represent the time line of Machin design. 



I am not so sure about the booklet of six self adhesives with the added  label. I guess the none collecting community will actually see and use them. Some may even be tempted to buy other products. All in all a 50 year celebration only comes around once in a lifetime.




A nice job, now the question is WHAT DO YOU THINK?

5 comments:

Sir_Loin said...

On the whole, I think it's a decent commemoration for the 50th anniversary of the Machin with the only major let down being the 6 x 1st class booklet which is about as inspiring as the 40th anniversary 6 x 1st booklet. What would have made the issue even better in my opinion would have been to add the iridescent overprint on all the Machins instead of just the 1st Red and £1.00 Ruby. So even though they are designs through the years they would have been brought up to date with current security measures. Perhaps that's just me though?

Anonymous said...

Look at the pattern of perforation holes of the prestige book panes. I know the pattern is often inconsistent, even within multiple copies of the same book, but this one looks very strange.
--Larry

Roy said...

The booklet panes and leaves are from different booklets. Ian comments on the stitching on his blog. Also very strange.

The_shandydrinker said...

I agree with comments about the 50th 6x1st booklet being desperately boring and uninspiring.

And if you have deeeeeeep pockets, this might be interest to someone :)
2017 MACHIN 50TH LIMITED EDITION PRESTIGE BOOKLET - ONLY 500 ISSUED - eBay item number: 352087607459

The Resistance said...

Many collectors can not afford the high priced Prestige Booklets. Thank you for showing all the pages of the 50th Anniversary. In the beginning I was going to boycott it, because of the high cost, but then I relented & decided to buy one copy for nmy Machins collection.