Machin Mania

Thank you, MBPC

2008-04-12T11:04:00.000-12:00

It's only April 12, and I've just received the latest edition of The Bookmark, the journal of the Modern British Philatelic Circle. I was especially pleased to receive it because the envelope was franked with all three of the new Machins, the reprinted 9p, and one of the new regionals, all issued just a few days ago on April 1. Just for good measure, it also included one of my favorite special stamps, the Ordnance Survey issue of 1991. (Since this is a Machin blog, I'll restrain myself and not go off on a tangent explaining why I like this stamp.)

Roy has written about the MBPC before, so I won't repeat the information here. However, I will add that the Circle has an extensive web site that is being actively enhanced. (Much more than my own web site!) There are extensive sections on booklets and booklet panes and special issues. There's a complete list of De La Rue printing dates. Most recently added is a cross reference between booklet panes and booklets - for each pane, it lists which booklets contained it.

The main parts of the site are available to members only.

The club also has extensive and frequent auctions. If you are interested in acquiring QE II material at favorable prices, the auctions will be very helpful.

The bottom line is that if you collect Machins and/or other Elizabethan GB stamps, then you should be a member.

You can visit their web site at http://www.mbp-circle.co.uk.

--Larry

Distinguishing ATN papers

2008-04-05T19:35:00.000-12:00

In my previous post about ATN Machins, I noted that collectors divide the papers into three categories - dull, intermediate and bright. This refers to the brightness under long-wave ultraviolet light.

(The first-class gold Machin is in a group by itself. It has always been issued on a very dull paper that became known as RMS, as I noted in the previous post.)

When I started working with the ATN Machins, I developed a pretty good way to determine the brightness of any stamp. Here I am going to tell you how I did it.

There are three different scenarios that you may find yourself in with regards to this identification:
1. You have a single stamp with no margin (or selvage/selvedge) attached.
2. You have a single stamp with some margin attached.
3. You have a multiple of stamps with a margin on which the printing date has been inscribed.

I'll take these in the reverse order.

Some years ago, printers started putting the printing date in the margin of each sheet of stamps, as shown on the block above. This is the actual printing date, not the first day of issue. These are generally collected as blocks of eight.

With one or two exceptions, De La Rue only used one type of paper each day, so the printing date identifies the paper. That is, it does so if you have a listing of all the printing dates and the paper used on that date.

Such a list can be found in the Machin Collectors Club's QEII Specialized Definitves Stamp Catalogue. There is also a list on the Modern British Philatelic Circle's web site, but you must be a member of the circle to access it. (If you collect Machins, you should be a member anyway!) And many dealers publish their own list disguised as a price list.

(Douglas Myall's Complete Deegam Machin Handbook identifies all the different papers that were used for each denomination, but it does not include all the printing dates.)

Date blocks are an easy way to identify the paper (no UV lamp needed!), but it is also an expensive way. You are more likely to be in one of the other two situations.

Considering that Machins have a very small area that is not covered by colored ink, and much of that white area is covered by phosphor bands on the vast majority of Machins, life is much easier - if you define your life by the ease with which you can identify Machin paper varieties - when you have a stamp with a piece of margin attached.

At least until you get the hang of it, shining your UV light on a single stamp may not be too helpful. What you really have to do is compare the paper with some known examples.

I gathered three marginal copies of the 4p Machin, one on dull paper, one intermediate and one bright. There was nothing special about the 4p - any denomination, or a mix of denominations, would do.

When I want to identify a stamp that has a margin attached, I put it and the three known copies in an arrangement so that all the margins are near one another, as I've shown here. The unknown is the 5p stamp.

I then shine the UV lamp on this group of four, and I can then tell which 4p paper matches the 5p.

Under UV light, the bright paper appears very light gray, almost white. The intermediate and dull papers are pale purple, with the dull paper being darker, and more purple, and the intermediate paper.

In my opinion, it's always easy to tell a bright paper, but it is sometimes hard to differentiate between intermediate and dull. The brightness is determined by the amount of optical brightening agent (OBA) added to the paper, and since this amount varies, the paper brightness varies over a range. It's hard to know exactly when dull becomes intermediate. (This is nothing new - identifying Machin papers has always been an inexact science.)

If you have a stamp without a margin, the comparison has to be done using the white border on the top or bottom of the stamp that is between the phosphor bands. Here I've shown how I arrange three stamps. The unknown stamp is in the middle, and stamps with known brightness are above and below. I cover the sides of the stamps so that the phosphor bands are completely hidden, because otherwise the fluorescence of the bands is so bright that I can't see the brightness of the paper.

Shining the UV light on the middle stamp allows me to compare it to the two known ones. I use bright and dull for my first examination. If the unknown stamp matches the bright one, I'm done. If it is closer to the dull one, then I replace the bright stamp with the intermediate stamp and then compare the unknown against intermediate and dull to see which is closer.

One important note. The comparison I've done above is with the papers that were used until spring of 2005. At that time, as I noted in the previous post, a new paper known as RMS was introduced. It is even duller than the pre-2005 dull papers. You'll probably need a reference copy of this paper as well, and you may have to modify the methods I've shown above accordingly.

I should note that my identifications were done with mint stamps. I don't know if the soaking process to remove a used stamp from paper will affect the brightness.

--Larry

New Deegam Web Site

2008-03-21T17:29:00.002-12:00

Since you are reading this blog, you know that the Machins are fun to collect. And you probably also know that you need some assistance in order to collect them to any depth beyond denomination and color.

Douglas Myall has been providing Machin guidance for over 40 years. His Deegam publications have been available for over 20 years. (The name Deegam comes from his initials, D. G. A. Myall.) His piece de resistance is The Complete Deegam Machin Handbook, an extremely thorough reference work that is available in book and CD-ROM format.

There are, of course, other reference works and publications, but many of us believe that Myall's work is the most comprehensive and easiest to use.

One of Myall's very helpful publications are his Deegam Reports, periodic updates that include new issues, new information about older issues, and various other topics. It also includes updates to the Handbook.

Deegam Reports are available to collectors who purchase the Handbook. Until recently, they have been delivered free by email or for a small charge for mailed, paper copies. (They are also distributed with the journal of the Modern British Philatelic Circle.)

Now, however, Myall has introduced a Deegam Publication web site at www.deegam.com. The web site provides a place for Handbook owners to download their own copies of Deegam Reports. Every Handbook owner gets a personal reference number (PRN) from Myall, and this number is used to download the reports. This distribution method replaces the emails, but paper copies are still available.

If you don't have the Handbook, the web site provides information about it and purchasing instructions. It also contains information about Deegam Profiles, which can be used to write up a Machin collection.

As a bonus, visitors to the web site can download a free copy of Myall's Priced Catalogue of Elizabeth Coil Leaders, 1954 to 1994.

The site is easy to navigate (just like the Handbook!) and will be of use to anyone who owns the Deegam publications or is interested in acquiring them.

--Larry

A Closer Look at the James Bond Litho

2008-03-21T16:58:00.001-12:00

Recently, I wrote about the James Bond Litho. That's what I called the first-class gold Machin printed by lithography and issued in a pane of 8 in the James Bond prestige booklet last January.

Previously, I wrote a brief history of lithographic printing of Machins. In short, the first lithography Machins were ugly - flat and lifeless are the terms I used. By the late 1980s and 1990s, lithographic printing had improved to where it was pretty much equal in quality to the gravure stamps.

Imagine my surprise, though, when I took a close look at the James Bond litho and found that it looked noticeably better than its gravure counterpart. The two stamps are shown side-by-side above. The litho stamp is on the right, with a little of its margin from the prestige booklet pane. You can see that, overall, the lithographed portrait is sharper ahd shows more detail.

The gravure Machins look pretty good. The switch to electromechanical engraving and the use of a digital portrait improved the image significantly from the older versions. But this new litho version is another step forward.

To investigate further, I scanned the two stamps at 1200dpi. I also scanned the 50p sand, which is a similar color but doesn't have the metallic finish of the gold stamps. The result is below. The tiny cells of the gravure process are easily visible. The litho stamp, in contrast, is smooth.

Look at the earring. The detail of the litho version is much clearer than the gravure stamps. The same goes for the curls of Her Majesty's hair.

And that difference is probably the best way to identify this stamp, in the unlikely event that you find one commercially used.

I'm left hoping that we see more of these lithographed stamps in prestige booklets ... and that's something I never thought I'd be wishing for.

--Larry

The Reincarnated 9p

2008-03-07T18:48:00.000-12:00

As I mentioned previously, the 9p orange Machin is being returned to general circulation for use as a make-up rate stamp with the new rates taking effect on April 7. It can be used in combination with a second-class stamp (valued at 27p) to make the first-class rate (36p).

Royal Mail has confirmed that a new cylinder was made to reprint the 9p, but it will have the cylinder number D1, the same number as the previous cylinder.

If Royal Mail is allowing or requiring De La Rue to use number D1 for all cylinders of the same denomination/colour, why bother with a cylinder number at all? Is it just put there so collectors will continue to buy cylinder blocks, just like the new color name?

Speaking of color name, this new cylinder will have ORANGE in the upper left margin, continuing the practice started last year.

The previous cylinder was not a colour-specific, or colour-tied, cylinder, but this new one is. Royal Mail says this new one has a darker orange background and lighter portrait, which I think will make for a more attractive stamp.

We don't yet know if the value is placed in a slightly different location on this cylinder, a characteristic that will make this stamp easier to differentiate from its predecessor. Such a difference happened when the 46p was reincarnated last year. (By the way, the 46p was the first time that De La Rue reused the number D1 for a new cylinder.)

--Larry

A Brief History of ATN Machins

2008-03-01T19:54:00.003-12:00

For those of us in love with Machin Minutiae™, the years 2003 to 2005 were very exciting. During that period, De La Rue produced Machins with six varieties of paper and three types of gum, a veritable treasure trove of challenges for those of us who like to exercise our ultraviolet lamps.

These were the first ATN Machins, so-called because they were printed by De La Rue on the ATN press. (ATN is the abbreviation for Applications Tecnologies Nouveaux, the name of the company that makes the press.) The varieties weren't directly related to the press; they stemmed from the various papers fed into it. Roy described these Machins here, here and here, so I won't repeat those details. However, the history of the ATN Machins - why and how they came about - hasn't been told here.

The story starts with Harrison & Sons, the venerable (founded in the 16th century) printer that had been printing British stamps since, well, a long time ago. Harrison & Sons printed all low-value Machins from their introduction in 1967 until 1979 and produced most of them in the years since then except for a period in the mid-1990s.

In 1997, Harrison & Sons was acquired by Thomas De La Rue and Company, a larger company but a relative newcomer to the printing business (founded in 1813). At that time, Machins were undergoing conversion to the new, computerized printing process known as electromechanical engraving, or EME. However, the purchase of Harrison & Sons by De La Rue didn't have any direct effect on Machins.

Five years later, De La Rue went on the prowl again and came home with The House of Questa, a mere child (founded in 1966) in the printing business. Questa had been printing Machins since 1980, first by lithography and then, starting in 1998, by gravure.

Under the guidance of De La Rue, the youthful Questa put the aged Harrisons out of business and took over the Machin printing duties. Machin production was moved from Harrison's plant in Hy Wycombe to Questa's location in Byfleet and was carried out on Questa's ATN press. These stamps had a number of differences from their predecessors (that's a topic for another day), so collectors started referring to them as the Byfleet Machins.

However, De La Rue consolidated its facilities and soon moved the ATN press to a different plant at Dunstable. Having been burned by the short-sighted nature of their nickname, collectors started referring to these stamps as the ATN Machins, a name that doesn't depend on the physical location of the printing press.

But we still haven't gotten to the cause of the many paper and gum varieties, so here it is. It was Harrison's practice to buy unfinished paper from its supplier, Tullis Russell Ltd. (formerly named Coated Papers Ltd.). Harrison then added a coating to one side (on which the stamp was printed) and gum to the other side. This practice didn't change when De La Rue first took over.

When De La Rue combined the Harrison and Questa businesses, they decided to stop finishing the paper themselves. They told their supplier, Tullis Russell, to provide finished paper to them.

TR (as I will call them, with only a slight nod to the most famous TR on my side of the Atlantic, Teddy Roosevelt) apparently didn't have any experience in producing finished paper. And even though Harrison transferred their technology and some employees to TR, TR's production of finished paper was, shall we say, erratic.

There were three types of gums - shiny gum with a blue tint, dull gum with a pale yellow, or cream, color and a colorless, matt gum known as layflat gum (because it didn't curl the way some other gums did). However, I won't bother with gums here because if you have a mint stamp, it's pretty easy to identify the gum. If you have a used stamp, you don't care.

The real fun was with the paper, and specifically with the brightness of the paper under long-wave ultraviolet light. The unfinished paper used for stamps is dull under UV light. At times, printers have added an optical brightening agent (OBA) to the coating. The OBA makes the paper look whiter under normal light - making the stamp more attractive.

The amount of OBA added to the coating can vary. This variation isn't readily visible under ordinary light, but the brightness under UV light varies with the amount of OBA. Paper with a lot of OBA looks bright white under UV. Paper with a lower amount of OBA looks gray, sometimes with a faint purple color.

As I said before, there were six different papers used for the initial ATN printings. However, collectors break them into three categories - dull (very little or no OBA), intermediate (some OBA) and bright (lots and lots of OBA). There is only one intermediate and one bright paper. It is the dull category that has four different papers, some of which can be inferred by identifying the gum, but that's beyond the scope of this already long post. Roy's previous posts, linked above, have some additional information.

In 2005, Royal Mail gave De La Rue a single specification for the paper to be used for all Machins. This is generally known as RMS (for Royal Mail Specification). This paper was actually first used by Harrison and Sons in 1997 for the metallic gold-colored Machin issued to mark the Queen's Golden Wedding Anniversary. This paper is smooth on both sides, shiny, and thicker than other papers. Its coating has no brightener, so it is considered a dull paper. (It is one of the four dull papers mentioned above, but in the 2003 to early 2005 period, it was only used for the metallic gold first-class non-denominated Machin.)

Starting in the spring of 2005, De La Rue standardized on this paper. Some Machins that had previously been printed on other papers were printed on RMS when new supplies were needed. All newly-issued Machins were printed on RMS, so the fun and games ended. Well, almost.

There was one more tweak to the ATN Machins. After several Machins were printed on RMS paper, Royal Mail's quality assurance division decided that the colors were not quite right. Most noticeably the head was too pale. They decided that a new set of cylinders was needed, with the depth of etch varying for each color. Douglas Myall calls these "colour-tied" cylinders.

Pictured here are the first 2p on RMS paper (cylinder D1, printing date 22 April 2005) and the colour-tied 2p (cylinder D2, printing date 16 March 2006). The difference in the Queen's head is easily visible. On this value, the background color is also darker, but that's not noticeable on all denominations.

Several denominations were reissued with a colour-tied cylinder. All new Machins since the beginning of 2006 were, of course, printed with colour-tied cylinders.

That's where the ATN Machins rest as this is written. We'll see what other surprises Royal Mail and De La Rue have in store for us in the future.

--Larry

If it walks like a duck ...

2008-02-21T19:22:00.000-12:00

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck but looks like a bunch of Machins, then it's the Unofficial Mascot of the Great Britain Collectors Club. This beautiful creature belongs to Jerry Rodgers and has been adopted by the club ... or at least by the club's Machin-loving officers. It sat at the GBCC society table at Westpex in San Francisco in April, 2006 and single-handedly (single-wingedly?) signed up seven new members.

He's very well trained and immediately answers to his nickname ... Arnold.

--Larry

New rates, new Machins

2008-02-08T19:35:00.001-12:00

Royal Mail has announced new postal rates to take effect on April 7. The basic first-class rate increases 2p to 36p, but the second-class rate has a much larger (on a percentage basis) increase, a 3p jump to 27p.

The international rates also increase, though overall by a smaller percentage than last year. The basic rate to Europe rises from 48p to 50p and the first two airmail rates go from 54p to 56p for 10 grams and 78p to 81p for 20 grams.

There's more information about the new rates on my web site.

There will be only three new Machins, a smaller number than the five last year. (One of those was the 50p in a new color, so the rate change really only required four new Machins. I'm not counting the new printing of the 46p Machin which also occurred last year.)

There will be a 56p lime green and an 81p sea green for the new international rates. There will also be a 15p shocking pink to pay the difference between second-class letters (27p) and second-class large letters (42p). The difference between first-class letters and large letters is now 16p, and that is paid by the 16p Machin issued last year.

(It is interesting that shocking pink was picked for the 15p because the 16p is pink, the new non-shocking shade developed a few years ago by Jeffery Matthews. It will be easy to confuse the two values, I think.)

Royal Mail also notes that the 9p orange will be put back on general sale to pay the difference between the 27p second-class and 36p first-class rate. As has been common practice, the 9p was withdrawn from public sale last year when it was no longer needed, but it remains on sale to collectors from Tallents House. Royal Mail hasn't announced whether there will be a new printing of the 9p that is distinguishable from the previous one, as there was last year with the 46p.

There are two other items to note, although these don't have to do with Machins. First, there will be new regional definitives in 50p and 81p denominations, keeping the same designs that have been used for many years.

Second, Royal Mail has simplified the worldwide airmail rates for mail going to destinations other than Europe. Previously there were two zones, and letters weighing more than 20g were charged a higher rate for zone 2 than for zone 1. Starting on April 7, there is only one zone for such mail, and the new rates are in between the old zone 1 and zone 2 rates. More details about the zones can be found on the Great Britain Collectors Club web site.

--Larry

Update: Here's a glimpse of the new Machins.

The Machin Forum Returns

2008-02-04T20:20:00.000-12:00

The Machin Forum, started by Dave Arthur last May, was the site of many good Machin discussions. The Forum disappeared suddenly a few weeks ago. I was pleased to learn today that it is back at a new location. Join the Forum, and the Machin fun, at http://stamp-collector.co.uk/MachinForum.

--Larry

The Dilemma of the James Bond Litho

2008-02-02T13:26:00.000-12:00

Last summer I mentioned Royal Mail's announcement that all prestige booklet panes would be printed by lithography. This in turn would create new Machin varieties, at least for those of us who collect variations of printing method.

The first such Machin appeared on January 8 in the James Bond prestige booklet. The first-class gold Machin in one of the panes has been printed by lithography for the first time. Click here for a picture of the Machin portion of the pane, scroll down the page until you see the first day cover of the pane.

The gold first-class Machin first made its appearance in 1997, in honor of the Queen's golden (50th) wedding anniversary. (There were also gold 26p Machins, since 26p was the first-class rate and Royal Mail had not made the complete conversion to non-denominated NVI stamps at that time). The gold first-class Machins were all printed by gravure, by Walsall (in sheets and booklet panes) and Harrison (in coils and booklet panes).

The flame-colored version returned the next year, although the gold version popped up in booklet panes from time to time.

Gold returned permanently as the color of the first-class Machin in 2002, celebrating the golden jubilee of the Queen's accession to the throne. The gold first-class Machins were issued in self-adhesive formats printed in gravure by Walsall, Enschede and Questa.

The next year, the gold first-class stamps appeared in sheet format with water-activated gum. These were printed by De La Rue in gravure on the ATN press.

And so the situation remained until a few weeks ago when the James Bond booklet appeared.

Now, about that dilemma. I'm not referring to the dilemma of identifying the lithographic printing. That's not a dilemma, although it can be a bit tricky. There are some helpful links toward the end of the previous post.

The dilemma I have is where to put this stamp!

Let me explain. One of the cardinal rules of Machin collecting is that the only organization scheme that can handle any new stamp with aplomb is the Deegam system. This is the method devised by Douglas Myall and explained in his Complete Deegam Machin Handbook.

We've discussed the handbook previously here and here, so I won't go into too many details now. The essence of the system is that it is organized chronologically within denomination, so any new stamp simply gets the next higher number. There's no fussing with gum or printing method or anything else in order to determine where each stamp goes.

As my readers know, I have been a big proponent of the Deegam system for a long time. Most of my collection is organized according to his system, at least to the extent that it is organized at all.

However, a few years ago, I made an exception. When De La Rue first started printing Machins on the ATN press in 2003, first at their Byfleet plant and then at the Dunstable plant, there were many variations in paper and gum that appeared. Roy wrote about it here and here. This kind of thing is exactly what causes a Machin collector to salivate, and salivate I did. (I did manage to keep my saliva away from the Machins, in case you were concerned.)

I started to build a specialized collection of these stamps, including marginal singles (easier to determine the paper and gum with a piece of margin), date blocks (marginal blocks with the printing date inscribed in the margin - the date almost always confirms the paper and gum), and cylinder blocks. I put these in an album, which then grew into two albums. So this is a collection of Machins printed by De La Rue on the ATN gravure press, displaying the variety of papers and gums used during this period.

The rest of the Machins issued over the past few years have gone into another album organized according to Deegam.

And now the De La Rue litho stamp throws a monkey wrench into the works and leaves me with a dilemma. Should I put it in the with ATN issues? It doesn't quite fit there because it was printed on a different press and is not part of the story told by the other stamps, but it is a De La Rue issue, and all the other De La Rues of the past five years are there. Or should I put it with the other issues? It seems out of place there, too, because it is the only De La Rue mixed in with several years worth of Walsall, Questa and Enschede stamps.

So this lonely stamp, pictured above, is sitting on my desk (actually resting peacefully beneath my monitor), waiting until I decide where its home will be. Where do you think I should put it?

--Larry

Underprints, too!

2007-12-29T13:28:00.000-12:00

You can learn about nearly every aspect of modern philately by studying the Machins: papers, phosphors, gums, printing methods, and so on. About the only significant exception is watermarks. You'll have to go back to the Wildings for those.

The Machins can also teach you some things that you don't commonly see. One of those is underprints, that is, printing on the gum side of the stamp. This was done on several Machins from 1982 to 1986. (Five commemoratives were also underprinted, but they are beyond the scope of this blog.)

The first underprints appeared in the 1982 Christmas booklet. This booklet contained a pane of 20 Machins, ten 12 1/2p (second-class rate) and ten 15 1/2p (first-class rate). As an encouragement for patrons to buy the stamps and send holiday cards, Royal Mail sold this booklet for £2.50, a discount of 30p from the nominal face value of £2.80.

Royal Mail wanted to make sure that no one could buy the discounted stamps and then resell them at full value. The solution to this problem was to underprint the stamps with a blue star. This would identify the stamps as having been sold at a discount.

The booklet is pictured here. The pane is folded (which is the way it was sold) so that the outer three columns of stamps overlap columns five through seven. You can see the stars on the back of the stamps.

Christmas booklets in 1983 and 1986 were also sold at a discount with underprinted Machins, and two regular (non-Christmas) booklets were also sold that way, one in 1983 and one in 1985. The booklets, stamps, and underprints are described below.

By 1986, Royal Mail decided to discontinue the practice of discounting booklets. There was, however, excess paper with the underprints. Royal Mail decided to use up that paper for 12p Machins issued in sheets and 17p Machins issued in 50p booklets.

There's one critical difference between the underprints used to indicate a discount and the ones used up as excess. For the discounts, one image (either a star or the letter "D") appeared on the back of each stamp. You can see this on the XMAS booklet stamps.

When the excess paper was used up, the images and stamps were not lined up. Therefore the image appeared unevenly on the back of the stamps, and some stamps had only a portion of the image. I've seen this referred to as a "wallpaper" pattern. Shown here are the front and back of a pair of 17p stamps from the 50p booklet.

These underprints are pictured and listed in intermediate catalogs such as the Stanley Gibbons Concise and the Stoneham. They are noted (but not pictured or listed separately) in the Scott Catalogue. Roy pictures them all and has some additional information on his web site.

Here's a list of the underprinted Machins:

12 1/2p and 15 1/2p
Underprint: 2 overlapping stars, centered on stamp
Source: 1982 XMAS booklet (£2.80 face sold for £2.50)

12 1/2p
Underprint: double-line star, centered on stamp
Source: 1983 XMAS booklet (£2.50 face sold for £2.20)

13p
Underprint: double-line star, centered on stamp
Source: 1986 Christmas booklet (£1.30 face sold for £1.20)

16p
Underprint: double-line letter "D", centered on stamp
Source: 1983 counter booklet "Lyme Regis" (£1.60 face sold for £1.45)

17p
Underprint: double-line letter "D", centered on stamp
Source: 1985 counter booklet "Letters Abroad" (£1.70 face sold for £1.55)

12p
Underprint: double-line star, wallpaper pattern
Source: Sheet stamps

17p
Underprint: double-line star, wallpaper pattern
Source: 50p booklets (Pillar Box, Pond Life #1, Pond Life #2)

--Larry

The Double-Zero Machin

2007-12-22T18:52:00.000-12:00

These unusual Machins have caused a bit of a stir since they first appeared a few months ago. Certainly, they are not valid postage stamps, but it's not obvious at first what they are.

Of course, Douglas Myall has the answer. They were produced by De La Rue Security Print, the current primary printer of Machins. They were sent to other printers of Machins, including Joh. Enschede of The Netherlands and Walsall Security Printers in the U.K., for use in color matching. It is used during printing by comparing these labels with the stamps coming off the press.

Douglas Myall tells me that even though the printers get their inks from a specialist company (that presumably creates exactly the right color), it is possible for the color to change slightly during printing. The comparison of the printed stamps with these 00p samples is done by eye. There is some tolerance allowed, which is why there are shade differences in many of the issued Machins.

These zero-value labels (for that's what they are - they aren't really stamps since they don't serve as a receipt for the prepayment of postal services) were created after Royal Mail had De La Rue standardize on a dull (does not fluoresce) paper known as RMS.

The dark green color of this 00p Machin is used for the 2p Machin. There are two different printings of the dark green 2p Machin on RMS paper, one introduced in 2005 and one in 2006. The 2006 printing is usually called an "enhanced engraving." That's a story for another time, but the bottom line is that for some values, and the 2p is one of them, the shade of the "enhanced" stamp differs noticeably from its predecessor. The 2005 printing is cylinder D1 and the 2006 is cylinder D2.

With my untrained eyes, I compared this 00p Machin with the 2p Machins printed by De La Rue in 2005 and 2006. The 00p is not an exact match to either of the two actual stamps, but it appears to be closer to the D1 than the D2. This supports my theory (and it is just a theory) that the reason this group came onto the market is that it is the color group from the 2005 printings, and they were made obsolete by the 2006 printings. (We have to wonder if De La Rue created another set of these in 2006. Let's hope we find out someday.)

I would guess that the difference I see between the 00p and the D1 stamp is within Royal Mail's tolerance.

When these labels first appeared, they fetched up to £400 each. However, the supplies started to appear in dealers' stocks and the price settled to about £95 each.

Recently, Douglas Myall told me that Royal Mail has told dealers that these labels are considered Royal Mail property, should not be sold, and may be reclaimed by Royal Mail. I don't think, however, that individual collectors who purchased them are likely to be bothered. (At least I hope not!)

Finally, a question. Why bother? Why create a separate cylinder (or multiple cylinders) to print these labels? Why not just use actual stamps? Even if those stamps were to be distributed to the public, the loss of revenue would not be too great.

I have one possible answer, which is that these labels don't have phosphor bands, and maybe they are better for comparison for that reason. But is that enough of a reason to justify the expense? Or is there another reason?

--Larry

Update December 27: Douglas Myall notes that he has seen these zero-value labels in 34 different colors and speculates that there could be as many as four more. However, one of the four he mentions is ruby, which was not used until mid-2007 and probably wasn't yet developed when these labels were created in 2005.

Like clockwork

2007-12-22T18:40:00.000-12:00

Since 2004, Royal Mail has increased postal rates (or tariffs) annually during the first week of April. It will be no different in 2008. Royal Mail has just announced new rates effective April 7, 2008.

Accompanying the new rates will be a batch of new Machins, issued a week or two before the rates take effect. Even though non-denominated (non-value indicated or NVI) Machins are used for first- and second-class rates for letters and large letters, there will still be a need for new denominated Machins. Generally about four to six new Machins are required.

For those that collect them, there will also be a set of new pictorial regionals, two each for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

The rate increases are uneven. First-class letters go from 34p to 36p, an increase of 6% (rounded to the nearest percent), but second-class letters jump 13% from 24p to 27p. The situation is reversed for large letters. The first-class rate increases 8% from 48p to 52p, but the second-class increase is only 5%, from 40p to 42p.

The rate for 20 gram letters to Europe increases 4% from 48p to 50p, and the rate for 10 gram letters to the rest of the world also increases 4% from 54p to 56p.

With this rate change, Royal Mail has gotten rid of the two zones for overseas mail going to destinations outside Europe. Zone 1 includes the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, the Indian sub-continent and most of Southeast Asia including Hong Kong. Zone 2 covers the rest of the world. The rate for zone 2 is currently higher than for zone 1 for any item weighing over 20 grams. Starting in April, there will be only one "rest of world" rate that will actually represent a small decrease for destinations that were part of zone 2.

You can find the new rates on Royal Mail's web site. For now, click on "Tariff 2008 prices" on the main page, but that reference may change.

I think it is very considerate for Royal Mail to publish the new rates more than three months in advance of the effective date. It certainly helps customers predict their postage costs. Compare that to the United States Postal Service, which didn't post its latest rates on its web site until the effective date of May 14, 2007. (The rates may have been available earlier through other communication methods, but the web site was full of Star Wars promotions rather than useful postal rate charts.)

--Larry

A note on catalogs

2007-12-07T05:24:00.000-12:00

In response to my previous post, Dennis asks about which catalog to use for more details about Machins. It's an important subject but not one that has a simple answer. I'll post a few of my thoughts here.

Charlie posted a note about Douglas Myall's The Complete Deegam Machin Handbook. I think it's the most popular with readers of this blog as well as on the Machin Forum. It's my favorite, too. While the print edition is very costly (I think now one has to buy the basic handbook and a supplement), the CD-ROM version is, I think, £40 post paid. (Don't quote me, get the latest ordering information from Myall at deegam@btopenworld.com.) Also, you get free updates by email, and you can trade your CD for an updated version at any time for half price. (Don't lose your original; you must return it to Myall.)

Granted, the CD isn't as convenient as a physical book in some respects (though it is more convenient in others, I think). However, the price may make it all worthwhile.

Another alternative is the Machin Collectors Club's Queen Elizabeth II Specialised Definifives Stamp Catalogue. It is available from the club for £36 plus £10 postage to the U.S. I personally don't recommend it because of its very awkward organization scheme, but there are many collectors that do use it. Unfortunately, I can't think of a way to get a look at it before buying. I intend to review the catalog on my web site one of these days, but that day won't come for several months, I suspect.

There's also, as Charlie notes, the Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Specialised volumes. You have to buy two, one for pre-decimal issues and one for decimal issues. The latter hasn't been updated since 2000, making it not very useful. Hopefully a new edition is coming soon.

Another possibility is to use one of the intermediate catalogs. They aren't as detailed as the ones I mentioned above, but they do go beyond the basic listing in the Scott catalog. The two intermediate ones are The Stoneham (produced by the Machin Collectors Club) and Gibbons' Concise.

I reviewed them on my web site, though I didn't concentrate on their use by Machin collectors. Of the two, I would recommend the Concise for Machins, again because I don't care for the Stoneham's organization method.

The bottom line - if you are serious about Machins, scrimp, save, cut corners, do whatever you have to, and get the Deegam.

--Larry

More on the Connoisseur

2007-11-29T18:57:00.000-12:00

I promised you more on the Connoisseur, so here it is.

The first edition of the Connoisseur was published in 1977, just as the decimal Machins were starting to get complex. There was definitely a need for it. Douglas Myall hadn't published his handbook yet. I don't remember if Alan Wilson's catalog (the predecessor to the current Machin Collectors Club catalog) was available at that time. Gibbons had its specialized catalog, but not everyone cared for it. The British Decimal Stamps Study Circle was trying to publish a catalog but was never successful at it. So the Connoisseur filled a need and, as far as I know, enjoyed some success.

As you can see on their web site, annual editions were published through 1982, but then they started falling behind. New editions were three years apart through 1995, and then they gave up, except for a supplement in 2001.

However, two things have managed to keep the Connoisseur alive. The Connoisseur is published by a dealer, B. Alan, Ltd. B. Alan also published a new issue bulletin called "Variety Club News" (fondly known as VCN) and included in that were Connoisseur numbers for new issues. I don't know if B. Alan is still publishing VCN, but apparently new Connoisseur numbers are still being assigned.

There is also a Connoisseur album that has been updated through 2002, according to the order form available on the web site. Collectors who purchased the album have a motivation to continue using it, with its accompanying catalog. (The album is very nicely done - and rather expensive.)

All that said, however, there's the question of whether the Connoisseur, if brought up to date and made available online only, would be successful.

There are several factors to that. First, is it possible for an online-only publication to succeed with stamp collectors? Second, now that the Deegam Handbook and the Machin Collectors Club Catalog exist, with Gibbons still alive and kicking, is there room for yet another comprehensive Machin catalog? One dealer told me that the number of customers using the Connoisseur numbers has dropped off in recent years.

Another way of asking that is what does the Connoisseur bring that these other publications are lacking?

It's too soon to say, but I'll toss in what I think are one positive aspect and one negative one.

The positive one is that the sample chapter that is available for download on the web site is full of useful information about the stamps. The chapter covers "Non-Standard Design Machins and Decimal Definitives with Security Features", a group that includes the 1990 double-heads (with Queen Victoria's portrait added), the Millennium Machin, the Pricing in Proportion Machins, the decimal Wilding reissues and others. Each section is well-illustrated and contains an extensive description of the issues listed.

The negative aspect is the organization of the catalogue. That's a subjective judgment, and I know there are many opinions on that topic. My opinions are based on the organization of the older editions, and it is possible that the new version will be different. I will, of course, not make a final judgment until more chapters are available, but here's what Connoisseur did in the 1980s.

When the first edition of the Connoisseur was published, all low-value Machins had been printed by Harrison and Sons. In 1980, the British Post Office began to use other printers for a handful of values.

So Connoisseur was divided into sections. One was Machins printed by Harrisons. The other was Machins printed by anyone else. Worse yet, the organization of these two sections was different. If I recall correctly, singles and cylinder blocks were listed separately for Harrison stamps but combined for the other printers.

As the 1980s moved into the 1990s, the number of stamps produced by these other printers grew. From 1993 to 1997, Enschede printed the whole set of low-value Machins, leaving only a few stamps for Harrison. The division between "Harrison" and "everyone else" no longer made sense.

I suspect that the Connoisseur has rectified that situation by now. But I'm still concerned. Look again at the title of the posted chapter. It includes "Non-Standard Design Machins." In that group are the special Machins issued last year for the new Pricing in Proportion scheme - the ones that have the big numeral and small Machin portrait of the Queen.

But what if our worst nightmare came true and the full set of Machins was issued with that new design? Would it still be "non-standard"? Or would the PiP design become "standard" and the classic design (if I may call it that) become "non-standard"?

With the Machins, and with any current postage stamp series, there's a risk in assuming that what is true today will remain true in the future. Basing the organization of a catalog on today's truths can lead to problems with tomorrow's.

I look forward to seeing what B. Alan will do with this new edition of the Connoisseur. The site for the online edition is here.

--Larry

Connoisseur Catalogue goes online

2007-11-08T18:18:00.000-12:00

I haven't had much time to post lately - and still don't - but I wanted to let you know that the Connoisseur Catalogue has announced that it is going online. The Connoisseur has had trouble keeping current; the last full version was published in 1995! The publishers hope that they can do better by going online.

I'll have more to say on this later, but for now, take a look at their web site and sign up for email notification if you would like.

--Larry

Become a Friend of the BPMA

2007-10-31T18:39:00.000-12:00

Many of us were saddened when the National Postal Museum closed at the end of 1998. I was lucky enough to have visited it twice. It was pure heaven for a GB collector.

The organization behind the museum floundered for a while, but then it was merged with the Postal Archives. The new organization was (and is) called the Postal Heritage Trust. A while later, the Trust decided that its name wasn't very friendly, so they adopted the public identity of the British Postal Museum & Archive, known as the BPMA. The BPMA has a web site here.

Bear with me, I'm getting to the Machins in a moment.

Back in 1985, an organization called the Association of Friends of the National Postal Museum was formed. It was a voluteer group that supported the museum and provided some benefits for its members.

That organization has now become the Friends of the BPMA. The Friends have a web page here that describes the benefits of membership.

One of those benefits is an excellent journal called Cross Post. The cover of the latest issue is shown above.

The journal is a full-size (A4, I think is your term), full-color magazine with articles about a variety of topics relating to British philately. And, in general, each issue has at least one article about Machins.

The Autumn 2007 issue has two, in fact.

One is titled The Machins in use by Michael H. Lockton. It is an overview of how to collect Machin postal history. It is well illustrated with over a dozen covers.

The other is Delving into the unknown by Don Staddon. Don is a long-time volunteer at the BPMA, working primarily on modern material. He is also an author of many articles about the Machins. In this article, he describes and illustrates some unissued material that is archived at the BPMA. Most striking, to me at least, is a sheet of booklet panes containing one 3p, two 14p and one 19p Machin each. These were printed in April 1988. These were intended for 50p booklets.

The actual issued panes had two 19p and one 14p Machins, along with a label. Staddon doesn't explain the reason for the change, but my guess is that first-class mail is used more frequently than second-class mail, and Royal Mail decided that have two first-class stamps was better than having two second-class stamps in the booklet, even if it resulted in a 2p discount to the buyer.

Also pictured are a 21p Machin proofed in a sand color, one of the then-new Matthews colors. That stamp was never issued, but the color was used for the 28p later that year. There's also a 16p Machin in a shade of violet that was never issued and a 10p light tan Machin printed from cylinder 22 that was never distributed (only stamps from cylinder 21 were sold).

And, as a bonus, there's even an article titled Carrying Mail within the United Kingdom, and it pictures Machins used on a post bus ticket.

The previous issue of Cross Post, Spring 2007, included an article by Douglas N. Muir, Curator, Philately, discussing his research on the genesis of the Machin head. This article complements his book. There's also an article on British Stamp Vending Machines by Glenn H. Morgan and Graham Eyre, and it includes the machines that have vended Machins for the last 40 years.

So I urge you to consider becoming a Friend of the BPMA. You'll get this excellent journal. You'll be able to take advantage of other benefits, including special events for members and a discount on BPMA shop products (including Muir's book). And you'll be helping the BPMA, and perhaps one day soon we'll have a British National Postal Museum again.

Membership is £15 annually for UK residents and £20 annually for us folks overseas.

I joined the Association of Friends of the NPM in its founding year, and I've been a proud member ever since. Won't you join me?

--Larry

Machin for the Queen's Diamond Wedding Anniversary

2007-10-14T17:53:00.000-12:00

Ten years ago, Royal Mail issued four commemorative (special) stamps in honor of Queen Elizabeth's golden (50th) wedding anniversary. Royal Mail also introduced metallic gold Machins as I noted in a previous post. The gold stamps were withdrawn at the end of the year, but they reappeared in 2002 to mark the 50th anniversary of her accession, and they have remained on sale since.

This year, Royal Mail is celebrating the Queen's diamond (60th) wedding anniversary with a total of 10 commemorative (special) stamps, six in sheet format and four in a single miniature sheet. However, Royal Mail haven't issued a diamond-colored Machin. Or have they?

Now, I hear you asking how there could be a diamond-colored Machin because diamonds are colorless, or at least white.

You may recall that there was, in fact, a white Machin, the embossed Machin in the 1999 Profile on Print booklet. The booklet pane containing four of these Machins is shown above. The stamp is completely white except the service indicator, which is printed in grey.

However, the British Post Office learned a long time ago (in the 1850s) that embossed stamps are not practical, and they are probably too expensive to produce for general use. So reintroducing an embossed Machin is out of the question.

Another possibilty would be to include a bit of diamond on each Machin. After all, Austria put some small crystals on postage stamps a few years ago. (Click in the upper right corner for English.) A tiny bit of diamond should work just as well.

However, now that I think about it, the hardness of the diamond might cause problems for the mail processing equipment. That idea is not too great, either.

There is one other consideration. Not all diamonds are white. About 1 in 10,000 gem quality diamonds have impurities or structural defects that give the gem a beautiful color. There are pink, bue, red, green, brown and yellow diamonds. In fact, there's a beautiful display of them in the Natural History Museum in London. There's another display in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

The star of the show at the Smithsonian is the Hope Diamond. It is a lovely bluish color.

In fact, there are two reasons why the Hope Diamond is an appropriate one to consider for the Queen's 60th anniversary. First, it is believed that King George IV owned the diamond for many years prior to his death in 1830, so it probably belonged to the Royal Family in the past.

Second, according to the Smithsonian article, when the diamond was examined in 1988, it was decided that the color was "fancy dark grayish-blue". Eight years later, the color was changed to "fancy deep grayish-blue". What could be more philatelic than that?

And guess what! There just happens to be a grey-blue Machin, and it's the £5 highest value!

So there is, after all, a Machin that celebrates the Queen's 60th anniversary. It's a shame that Royal Mail isn't taking the opportunity to promote this association. They could put a small diamond in the upper left corner to mark the occasion, creating a new variety that Machin collectors would have to have.

Just think of how many £5 Machins could have been sold to accompany the celebration. Someone missed a big opportunity.

--Larry

Unusual Machin Items Available

2007-10-14T17:50:00.000-12:00

I don't usually promote individual stamp dealers, but I'm making an exception in this case for two reasons. First, the items offered are unusual and worth knowing about. Second, and more importantly, the dealer has made his price list available at no cost on his web site, so that everyone can have information about the items.

The dealer is Mike Holt, and he is currently offering three very interesting groups of items:

1. De La Rue and Harrison Trial printings, used to test papers and phosphor bands.

2. Giant Machin Heads, printed in color at A4 size, used for checking the head prior to an actual print run.

3. Uncut booklet cover proofs in columns of four or five.

Visit Mike's site at www.mike-holt.com and look for price list 35. You can download parts of the list as PDF files.

--Larry

Are you confused?

2007-10-04T18:44:00.000-12:00

I'm sure those of you who are reading this are not confused, at least about Machins. However, it seems that many of Royal Mail's customers are easily confused. During the last few years, Royal Mail has had to reverse some decisions or make changes that were justified by reducing confusion on the part of customers.

First - the 'E' non-denominated stamps

After the success of non-denominated (NVI) stamps for inland mail, Royal Mail extended the practice to stamps for letters to Europe, probably by far the most frequent destination for overseas letters. For the service indicator, Royal Mail chose a capital letter 'E'.

The 'E' Machin, shown above, was introduced in 1998, and other 'E' stamps followed, including commemoratives and country definitives.

Six years later, Royal Mail withdrew the 'E' stamps and replaced them with denominated versions. According to Royal Mail, customers thought the 'E' stood for the euro currency, and no doubt they therefore couldn't figure out how to pay for those stamps since euros are not used in the U.K.

The euro was introduced in January, 2002, so apparently Royal Mail put up with a couple of years of confusion until they gave up (or gave in) and switched the stamps back to denominated versions.

Of course, the universal (or international one-stop) stamp that says "Europe" on it remains available (apparently it is not confusing), but this is used for letters up to 40 grams and is an overpayment if used on a letter weighing under 20 grams. So we have the odd situation that the second weight step is payable by a non-denominated stamp but the first weight step is not.

Second - the large service indicators for Pricing in Proportion

Last year Royal Mail introduced its Pricing in Proportion scheme which based the cost of mailing on size as well as weight. As most of you know better than I, there are three types of items - letters, large letters and packages. I sometimes call the smaller items "standard letters" so that there is no, well, confusion about what I am describing.

Royal Mail decided that there would be non-denominated stamps for the first weight steps for both standard letters and large letters, and for both first-class and second-class service for both these items. That would mean a total of four NVI stamps.

Royal Mail introduced large stamps for this purpose - Machins that were the same height as usual but wider, yielding a horizontal orientation. In addition, the service indicator was enlarged and moved to the upper left and the word "Large" was placed on the lower portion of the stamp. The second-class blue stamp to the left is one of the two that were issued, the other being a first-class gold version.

All well and good, so far. However, the problem was that Royal Mail also redesigned the NVI's for standard letters so that they, too, had the large service indicator at the upper left. The size of the stamp remained the same as before.

The new stamp is in the middle of the trio above. Its predecessor, the original NVI design, in use since 1989, is on the left.

Royal Mail apparently figured that the mail users would understand "large stamp with the word Large for large letters and smaller stamp for (small) standard letters."

Apparently this was not easy to understand. Earlier this year, Royal Mail said its patrons were confused. They thought that the large numeral on the small stamp meant that it could be used for a large letter.

So, on June 5 of this year, Royal Mail began replacing the big numeral/small stamp with its predecessor, going back to the original design for standard letters.

I call this "back to the future." And perhaps it taught Royal Mail a lesson, because there was no good reason to change the existing NVI's in the first place.

Third - similar colors for 50p and 1st NVI

In 1990, the 50p Machin was changed to the Matthews color sand, from its previous similar ochre color. The 50p is one of the basic denominations that stays on sale, so this stamp remained available.

In 1997, Royal Mail changed the color of first-class Machins to metallic gold in honor of the Queen's Golden Wedding Anniversary. Both the then-current 26p and the 1st NVI were changed. At the end of the year, the gold stamps were withdrawn.

In 2002, Royal Mail again introduced the metallic gold color, this time to honor the 50th anniversary of the Queen's accession. There were no longer any denominated stamps for the first weight step of first-class service, so it was only the 1st NVI that was affected. This color has been in use since then.

Earlier this year, after five years of having both the sand color and the metallic gold color co-exist, Royal Mail changed the color of the 50p stamp to light grey. The reason given was that the color of the 50p was too much like the gold color of the NVI.

Both stamps are shown above. The scanned images do look very similar. However, the gold stamp is metallic - very shiny - and the real NVI stamp looks very different from the 50p.

At least I think so. However, apparently, the stamp-using public does not. The only question is whether it really took people several years to become confused, or whether Royal Mail simply procrastinated when faced with the need to change the color of the 50p.

So there we have it. Confusion reigns among the stamp-buying public. Caveat emptor.

--Larry

Matthews Mania

2007-09-22T17:37:00.000-12:00

I've thought for a while that the current definitives - those with what we might now call the classic design - should be called Matthews and not Machins.

After all, there are three design elements of these stamps - the portrait, the denomination or service indicator, and the color. For most of the current stamps, Jeffery Matthews has designed two out of the three.

And Royal Mail agrees with me. For some definitives, Royal Mail has given the credit "Designed by J. Matthews based on a portrait by A. Machin" or something like that. In one announcement of new definitives, Royal Mail didn't list a designer but credited "Colour palette - Jeffery Matthews".

Those of you who have been collecting Machins for some time have, I'm sure, at least heard of Jeffery Matthews. Those of you who are new to this wonderful collecting area should know about him.

Arnold Machin developed the original design during 1965-67, and the first of his stamps was issued on June 5, 1967. He then did some work for the high values - the requirements were a little different for the recess printing (also known as engraving or intaglio) used for the high values than they were for the photogravure low values. He also created a modified head that could be used in a small size on commemorative stamps.

It must not have been long after Machin completed his work that Jeffery Matthews, an artist who had already designed two sets of British commemorative stamps, was brought in to work on the definitives. His first task was to design the emblems used on the regional Machins issued in 1971 at the time of decimalization. He has continued to work on the Machins right up to this year.

Here's a summary of what Matthews has done for the Machins:

- Designed the emblems for the regional Machins. He actually did that twice. The first time, he designed them for photogravure printing. Later, when Royal Mail brought in new printers, the regionals were then printed by lithography. So he redrew the symbols so that they would look good regardless of the method of printing.

- Designed the large-size photogravure high values that were issued starting in 1977. I didn't know this until I saw the Thematica souvenir sheet pictured at the top of this post. At least, I'm assuming that it means Matthews designed the issued stamps, though it doesn't specifically say that. I will find out.

- Designed a new typeface, or font, for the denomination. The font originally used for the decimal Machins was too big for denominations such as 20 1/2p. Matthews designed a new, narrower font that is now referred to as the "Matthews font." It was implemented gradually, starting in 1983.

- Designed a new color palette for the Machins. Machin himself helped choose the colors for the original 1967 issue. A lengthy study was done to develop the colors for the initial decimal issue in 1971. However, with many new values needed in the inflationary 1970s and 1980s, the British Post Office got sloppy with the colors. Matthews was assigned the task of developing a new batch of colors.

He initially developed a group of 30 colors. These were gradually introduced starting in 1988. A few other colors were used as well. In the late 1990s, Matthews was asked to produce an additional three colors. These were grey-blue (first used on the 40p in 2000), orange (first used on the 9p in 2005), and pink (first used on the 16p in 2007).

Most recently, he was asked to develop a new color for the £1 Machin in honor of the 40th anniversary of the design. He chose ruby, since the gemstone ruby traditionally marks the 40th wedding anniversary. His ruby £1 was issued on June 5, 2007.

- Designed the "double-header" issue that celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Penny Black (Britain's and the world's first postage stamp). After trying several different designs, he decided to follow Machin's idea of simplicity and just added Queen Victoria's portrait behind that of Queen Elizabeth II. The stamps were in use throughout most of 1990.

- Designed the horizontal format that was used for initial tests of self-adhesive booklets and coils.

- Designed a miniature sheet that highlights his color palette using eight stamps and two labels. The sheet was issued in 2000 as part of the celebration of Stamp Show 2000.

- Designed the two commemoratives that honored Arnold Machin on the 40th anniversary. One stamp shows a portrait of Machin and the other pictures the first Machin, the 4d olive-sepia. He also designed the souvenir sheet that contains these two commemoratives, the new ruby £1 and the old mauve £1. (He did these in collaboration with Katja Thielen of Together Design, though he developed the concept of the stamp-on-stamp design and also the miniature sheet.)

In 2000, Douglas Muir, Curator, Philately of the British Postal Museum & Archive, revealed that an extensive effort was made in the 1980s to replace the Machin portrait. Matthews played a key role in this effort, along with his son Rory (and had it been successful, we might really be using "Matthews" on our mail), but it was ultimately unsuccessful. The full story is described in Muir's recent book, A Timeless Classic: The evolution of Machin's icon.

So the name we collectors give to this series remains the same, and I think that is appropriate. After all, regardless of the color or the font, it is the portrait and the overall simplicity and elegance of the design that make the stamp what it is, and those characteristics are the work of Arnold Machin.

--Larry

Note: I, with my colleague David Alderfer, had the privilege of interviewing Matthews during The Stamp Show 2000. If you'd like to read it, you can find it on the Great Britain Collectors Club web site.

Fun with Wikipedia and Google

2007-09-21T18:56:00.000-12:00

As I was doing research for my next post, I made an interesting discovery. There is an article about Jeffery Matthews in the French version of Wikipedia but not the English one.

Matthews is the subject of my next post, so I won't say more about him here. And I would guess that nearly all of you are familiar with the Wikipedia, the web encyclopedia that anyone can edit. (Before you say anything, I know about the problems with Wikipedia, ranging from factual mistakes to slanderous articles, but I consider it a very useful reference site, and I always double-check anything I read there if it is something I need to be certain about.)

So while I was checking out Matthews, I looked at the Machin-related articles. There are some in both English and French, though they are different. In the English edition, someone went to a lot of trouble to put in a list of Machins, including swatches of color that indicate the color of the stamp. On the other hand, the French article about the Machin series is considerably more comprehensive. And although there's no English article about Matthews, there is one for Douglas Myall.

If you want to look for yourself, here are the links.

English version:

Machin series

List of Machin stamps

Arnold Machin

Douglas Myall

French version:

Jeffery Matthews

Machin stamps

Arnold Machin

So by now you are asking where Google comes in. Well, I can read a little French but there's a lot I don't understand. So, just for fun, I thought I would use Google's language tools to translate some of the French pages. The translation is, shall I say, a little uneven.

Some of the funny translations:

"Arnold Thing" because Google translates the word "machin" as "thing." (And you'll notice the inconsistency, sometimes Machin's name is properly left as it should be, and other times it is translated.)

"Royal Email"

"Island of Man"

Go ahead and try it.

And if you would like to start an English language entry for Jeffery Matthews, go right ahead!

--Larry

The Hedgecoe Mystery

2007-09-08T19:13:00.000-12:00

Last April, Roy posted an entry about Professor John Hedgecoe. Hedgecoe has been a slightly controversial figure in the history of the Machins.

Hedgecoe first came to my attention in 2001 when he won a suit against Royal Mail. Royal Mail had denied that Hedgecoe played any part in the development of the Machin. Hedgecoe claimed he did participate and therefore Royal Mail’s statement was libel. The court agreed with Hedgecoe and Royal Mail settled for an undisclosed amount of money.

The question for us collectors is exactly what role Hedgecoe played. Unfortunately, this question is not likely ever to be answered with certainty. However, more information has come to light since Roy’s post – specifically in Douglas Muir’s book, A Timeless Classic: The Evolution of Machin’s Icon. Also, Hedgecoe was interviewed in the July, 2007 issue of Stamp & Coin Mart magazine, providing some additional information.

In the interview, Hedgecoe claimed his important role was based on two things he had done: taking the photos of the Queen on which Machin based his plaster cast and taking the photos of the final cast that were then used to create the stamp.

The first claim is partly true. Hedgecoe’s photographs were used by Machin, but they were not the only ones. Machin started working on the stamp before Hedgecoe took his photographs. Most of his initial work was done using photographs of the casts that he made a few years earlier for the decimal coins (and those were done based on his own sketches created during four sittings with the Queen).

As Machin was developing his design, some members of the Stamp Advisory Committee and some artists, including David Gentleman, thought that a design based on a photograph, rather than a sculpture, should be seriously considered. None of the existing photographs of the Queen was considered suitable, so Hedgecoe was brought in to take new photographs. David Gentleman then produced some designs based on Hedgecoe’s photographs. One of the photographs and some of Gentleman’s designs can be seen here on the British Postal Museum & Archive’s web site.

After further evaluation, it was decided that Machin’s approach was the best. However, Machin was working with photos that had the Queen wearing a tiara. Hedgecoe’s photographs were taken with the Queen wearing a diadem, the same one that Queen Victoria wore on the stamps of her reign. It was decided that Machin should change his design to include the diadem, and he used Hedgecoe’s photographs as reference material when he did so.

Hedgecoe’s photographs, then, did play an important role, but they were certainly not the sole photographs used by Machin.

Hedgecoe’s second claim, that he took the photograph of the cast that was then used for the stamp, may also be partly true. Machin himself, in his memoirs, says that the photograph used for the stamp was taken outdoors, outside the office of Harrison and Sons, the printer. That photograph was taken on a “misty autumn” day “using a mahogany Victorian camera and a photographer with a black sheet over his head.”

In the interview, Hedgecoe claims that any photograph taken outdoors would be too dark, and it was his photograph, taken indoors, that was used.

Muir notes that the first batch of Machins had two different portraits, one for stamps with a solid background and one for stamps with a gradated (gradually changing from dark at left to light at right) background. Therefore, there must have been at least two final casts and at least two photographs that were used. It is possible, but not known for sure, that Hedgecoe took one of the two photographs.

Muir did extensive research on the history of the Machins, and sadly he could not verify which photographs were actually used for the stamps and who took those photographs. Unless some document is discovered in the future, we will never know for sure.

I very strongly recommend Douglas Muir’s book to all Machin collectors. The image at the top of this post is the cover of the book. You can buy it directly from the BPMA. There are also two related displays on the BPMA web site, Elizabeth: Queen and Icon and Timeless and Classic: Elizabeth Queen and Icon.

--Larry

Royal Mail’s Harry Potter Bonanza

2007-08-31T19:22:00.000-12:00

Linn’s Stamp News reports in its August 20, 2007 issue that Royal Mail took 340,000 advance orders for its recent Harry Potter issue. This breaks the record of 300,000 orders set earlier this year by the Beatles issue.

As I stated previously, Royal Mail is maximizing its revenue from stamps and related items, so it is jumping on the bandwagon of popular topics. Apparently, their efforts are a huge success.

It’s a fair guess that nearly all of the advance orders included the set of stamps at £2.38 and the miniature sheet at £1.70. That’s more than £4 right there. Many no doubt included the generic (Smilers) sheet of 20 at £7.35, bringing the total to over £11. And then there are the stamp cards, first day covers, and presentation pack. And each of these orders includes a postage and handling fee.

I think it’s fair to guess that the advance orders totaled a minimum of £2 million, and there will be more sales over the next 12 months.

With a bonanza like that, does anyone really think that a petition signed by less than a thousand people will get Royal Mail to change its stamp issuing policy?

--Larry