Machin-o-phant

Those of us who were in London in May for the Festival of Stamps Exhibition couldn't fail to notice the Elephant Parade. Over 200 elephants (statues, that is) were scattered around the city. After the parade was over, they were auctioned off to raise money to help save the Asian Elephant from extinction.

What has this got to do with Machins? Well, one of the elephants was all wrapped for mailing, and it was franked with Machins. The elephant's name was (appropriately) Frank. It was created by a graphic artist who goes by the name Leinz.

Unfortunately, I didn't see Frank during my visit. In fact, I didn't know about him until he was featured in the December issue of the Philatelic Bulletin.

You can see more pictures of Frank here and a video of his construction here.

--Larry