Enschede 2 mm Varnish Under The Phosphor

 

Due to several complexities collecting and identifying the Enschede issues with varnish under the phosphor strips poses a problem for many people. Dated marginal stamps can help solve this problem as the stamps are catalogued and described in specialist lists.

This week a selection of Enschede dated pairs is now trending on that auction site we all love to hate.

AY, A2Y, A3Y and A2B phosphors are listed. I see a couple with 4 mm varnish but most of them are 2 mm. Blue, cream and white gums are also listed. All of individual pairs in the lots have been identified in the description of the listings which helps to make the Machin collectors life just that little bit easier.

This pic is just one of several lots that are available.

Whiling Away A Few Hours

It has been a busy couple of months, but I have found a little time in the schedule for stamping.

Buying a few bits here and there, sorting out the extras, scanning them and listing them on auction sites has taken a little of my time. I might mention this is another extension to the hobby. I quite enjoy it, It helps develop my own collection at a reasonable cost. 

Filling or should I say (trying to fill) customers wants lists has also wiled away a few hours. This is where sometimes I have to study in depth. It does me good as I re-learn lots of stuff that was pushed to the back of my dumpling. One instance there was one customer where had to supply some Machins with notched bars. During the research I found three different panes of 18p stamps with notched bar top left. (N1). 

These three panes actually created 16 specialist stamps in Deegam level 3. Twelve of them are what I would call individual key stamps with notched ,inset bars or short bars. I knew this already about these but the information was locked away in my head. It was somewhere between my last holiday and building a snowman for the kids. 

Don't you just love getting old?  😀

Cylinder Singles and blocks of six

 

I was recently in a conversation with a collector who was interested obtaining cylinder singles. As it stood I only had a few which were unfortunatly not quite what he was looking for. I suggested that he might pick up a selection of cheap cylinder blocks 2 x 3 of  which there are plenty. He could take the single or pair for his collection and use the remainder for either trade or postage.

I was then asked if I would post a selection of cheaper blocks (£1. 00 - £2.99) on my eBay site. As it happens I recently acquired about 100 early Harrison blocks of which most I already have in my own collection.

These blocks are mostly from 1971 -1976 and have a good variety of papers, perforation types, gums and phosphors. They are also in very good condition, no teared margins or creases and all have full gum.

I have scanned a couple of pages (below) to give you an idea of the quality. This mini collection is now in the process of being broken up and listed as single blocks of 6. Many have already been listed. The whole collection and a few others that I have spare will eventually be listed for sale.

Take a look at my eBay sales GBMachins see if there is anything you like. As I have already said you will not get better quality than this. I combine postage for multiple wins.

This is just a small selection, Click on an image to enlarge. I hope you like them. Many more will be added on the site over the next few days. 

1st Class Large Self Adhesive Forgery's

 

There are so many counterfeit stamps in circulation these days it is difficult to keep up. I have just received a small supply of these 1st class Large Machin counterfeit stamps which arrived in horizontal and vertical pairs. I presume they were originally on a sheet.

Although these are good enough to fool most of the general public they certainly do not fool the specialist Machin collector, or the post office for that matter.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCES:

1:  No year codes or source codes

2:  The ellipses appear to have straight sides

3:  There are nine straight lines of iridescent background text instead of thirteen wavy lines 

4: The Perforations appear to be sharp rather than the norm which are blunter

5: There are no phosphor bars or afterglow under UV light

6: They are on very thin backing paper, not card with no royal mail text.

Above is a scan of the item, and below is a scan of a genuine stamp, there may be more differences which I have not listed such as brightness of the paper.

If you would like a copy for your own collection I have listed a few of the extras on eBay, both singles starting at 95p and pairs buy it now at £2.25. I must stress these are sold as collectors items only and must on no account be used for postage.

Coil Strips On Cover

 

As we all know the Machin field is a vast specialised subject. Over the years my tastes and collecting habits have changed many times. When I was a much younger man I collected most Machin material, but as more and more stamps were issued, money was tight so I had to curb my spending and started to specialise in the more interesting cheaper material.

Obtaining multi -value coils on cover was pretty easy and a cheap method of adding used coil stamps to my collection.  Sometimes If I had a duplicate would float them off the cover and display a mint strip, used strip and cover envolope on a page. Of course with my collecting habits changing over the years. I now no longer accumulate used stamps. All my covers were sold or swapped for something else. Hindsight is a funny thing, but I wished I had kept them now.  

These covers are still obtainable for a very modest price (between £1 -£2). Here are just a few I picked out from the many that are on the market  today.

 

Enjoy your stamps and have a nice day. 

Extra Extension Holes

This week I have added to my eBay auctions half a dozen Machin cylinder blocks with extra extension Holes.  This is a nice example with two angled margins,  the extra hole is shown in row 18.

What are they and why do they exist? 

Originally these extra perforations were introduced by the the printers as a reference position to aid the location of bent or missing pins. If you would like to see more of these just  type Extra Extension Hole into your eBay search.

On certain values the EEH can be found in one of several positions. They are found in the left margin of the blocks.  Copies can be found either in row 18, 19, 20 or 21. I might add, they are all listed in specialised catalogues and are highly collectable.

The block above with one angled margin (also for sale) shows the extra hole in the position of row 19.