Concrete and clay bees.

Just in case you weren't sure what the insects are, Royal Mail helpfully print Bees on the edge of the latest Concrete and Clay booklet. Concrete and Clay? That was a hit in the 1960s for Unit 4 Plus 2 which is the format of these books so it's what I might call them from time to time when the mood takes me.

The 1st reds are the now fairly familiar M15L MCIL coded stamps by Walsall. I do wish they'd credit the printers on booklets. The Bulletin just says ISP these days.

I don't think there's anything of particular interest about the definitives. The bee stamps, however, may be different to the usual sheet supplies as they have a design that overlaps the perforations, continuing just a millimetre or so into the background. As there is also a miniature sheet featuring all the set that is available too then it may be that that will have the same image printed with a similar extension. You may need to check but that hasn#'t got much to do with Machins which is what I am supposed to be writing about.

I would write more - if there were any to write about.

Zero in August

I swear someone at the Philatelic Bureau read my post last month about the lack of Machins in the magazine. There had been just one pane from a booklet. This month - the August issue - has NO MACHINS AT ALL!!

Yes, I am shouting. NO MACHINS AT ALL. Not even any in a box of assorted stamps that some kid is looking at. Or in an advert somewhere or on an envelope that someone happens to have been holding when a photograph of something else was taken.

This is bizarre.

So here is a nice 50p ultramarine I had hanging around, just to make some kind of point.