Rare stamps!!

I actually got some stamps on an envelope in the mail this morning. The fact that it was from another dealer in Machin stamps says it all really. Are we the only people who are now using these? Is this 'collecting' lark merely a sort of self-perpetuating affair where Royal Mail know that we're the only people buying them and just produce all sorts of variations for the fun of it and watch contentedly as people like me write articles encouraging you to acquire this or that?

Oh well, for the benefit of those who are still awake and wondering what is new out there, here are the latest developments and issues.

The first is a 2nd Large DLR with M14L date code. Then there's a book of 12 Walsall 2nd CB showing M14L MTIL which will doubtless be the most frequently found stamp on post this year so not exactly worth a fortune but needed nonetheless if you're going to keep that collection complete.

Next we have three more DLR items. A 10p, 20p  and 1st Large showing M14L.

Now there's is something surprising. A new Post And Go print showing both Euro 20g and World 10g which are now the same price but it must have been confusing for people wanting to send something 9g to somewhere that wasn't in Europe. To be honest, I get confused by the rates and weights anyway and really do wonder whether this idea of NVIing everything is that bright after all.

It all started with 1st and 2nd and then E came along when we had a perfectly adequate 34p stamp (or whatever the rate was at the time). I suppose it did mean that we could buy stamps and carry on using them after a rate change and got a little bit of satisfaction from the fact that spending all that money in advance had saved us a few pence later. So those made some sense and it always seemed pretty reasonable to buy an Airmail envelope (actually, maybe that was where it started now I think about it) and just pay whatever the latest price was for the flimsy sheet of blue paper.

The latest flurry of activity around these rates and weights, though, seems to be heading for confusion. They are trying to hang on to six for the 'collector's strips' as all sorts of problems will develop if there are numbers like 11 or 5. The NCR machine putting values on the labels seems to be going back to the original idea of a stamp but just adding the value at the end instead of us having to buy a range and make up the rate ourselves.

For now, though, the Post And Gos continue apace with these two overprint issues, 'The B.P.M.A. on Flags and Machin olives. Both these have the new dual value although here in Type 4 font at the same point size for both lines, unlike the NCR Type 2a font with its different sizes.

The Machin Post And Gos here all have an MA13 date code. I imagine there must be a lot of that year's backing around so it could be some time before we see MA14. The NCRs below are the 'normal' basic set which I think I have featured before but that may have been with no date code or a strip I had earlier. the Worldwide 10g and 40g values will exist as these were still in being when the first NCRs appeared and will be worth hanging on to.

Of course, there is still no mention from some dealers of the other NCRs - the ones with the actual values printed that I have written about recently. I am still none the wiser as to whether they are indeed likely to be a myriad different denominations for those. I am pretty sure there will be - a similar range to those we see on Horizon labels seems logical although perhaps the 'Signed For' denominations and one or two others can't be included because there would need to be some paperwork kept behind the counter and if someone had to queue up afterwards to hand that over it defeats the purpose of the automatic machines.

So far, I have to say that by far the most common labels I am seeing on post are the Horizon gold ones. They're awkward to collect but do seem to be the range that is surviving. I will write about them in an article soon.

Palace News

While I wait for what I fear will be a massive bill and several envelopes full of Post And Gos of all sorts I thought I should update you with the latest expense - the Buckingham Palace prestige book with its tradional Machin pane. You do have to wonder what will happen to the World should a prestige booklet not be issued with a pane of eight Machin definitives (or some with a few Regional pictorials thrown in) and a strange label in the middle serving no useful purpose at all.

There are several pages of fine-looking pictorials with different stages of the Palace's development over the centuries and some internal views too. It's all quite interesting and well produced. Here's the pane that matters, though; the sole reason I buy these things.

Three new stamps here, obviously. Each of the 10p, 20p and £1 definitives has M14L MPIL code and they are gummed and printed by Enschedé.

There is also a booklet of two pictorials with four 1st Class definitives. these are the first appearance of M14L MCIL and come from Walsall.

More MA13 codes, fish and new Regional shades

Here's some freshwater life you won't find on your envelopes. These are the Post Office Presentation Pack editions. Not that you'll see that many of the 'real' ones printed by people on machines in Post Offices either. They'll be illustrated when I get them so you can see the differences which I expect will be the same as for Freshwater Life I and II but you never know.



Another Post And Go issue you may easily miss. This is the Union Flag with a Coronation overprint and with MA13 in the background. These were available only, to my knowledge, at the Stampex Exhibition earlier this month. As it seems unlikely that the same issue will be available with that overprint and in that typeface again, these could be pretty rare.

Two new Regionals appeared from May. They're not Machins, but I like them. All the Regional pictorial designs are getting pretty ancient and I am quite surprised they've lasted as long as they have. These two are Cartor reprints and the olive has become distinctly sage and the Scottish 88p much deeper.

 

As for Machins - you can now look out for a 10p tan, 1st red and 1st Large red, all three from De La Rue counter sheets with MA13 and no code letter and 2nd Large blue with MA13 MBIL from Walsall business sheets. My lists have been updated with these items.

Dr Who and a few more Machin discoveries

So here are the four Walsall litho printed (despite what Royal Mail say about gravure, according to B Alan) Machins from the Dr Who prestige book. As I said in my last post, the 87p value does seem unfortunate but then the chances of anyone ever getting a genuinely used one of these was pretty remote anyway! 

 

The 1st Tardis has made a number of appearances: as part of the prestige book pane of Machins, where it appears gummed, in the prestige book version of the miniature sheet with four aliens, in the miniature sheet issued separately , in a booklet of 4 with two featuring Doctors and in a Smiler sheet attached to labels of various aliens over the years. All these others are self-adhesive. The Smiler sheet version is illustrated above, although I am sure all will be slightly different.

The MA13 codes are appearing now and have been seen on 2nd Class Walsall from Books of 12 so bearing a T code too. There have also been the new 1st red with a 13 code - more about them when I get them.

It will be interesting to see how scarce some codes will be. I suppose a value printed or reprinted just before a rate change would be a candidate as there will just be the single run of that one. Stocks running low near the end of a year in which a not particularly popular stamp hasn't been reprinted (e.g a MA11 code still in use at the end of 2012 and  having to be reprinted in December 2012) and a small run is made.

A 1st Large Diamond Jubilee 2B, inset left band. This cost £17.50 so I'm hoping it proves scarce!

Another expensive addition - A 1st Diamond Jubilee "B with bright fluor and iridescence short at the bottom. £9.00.

Another 1st Diamond Jubilee from the Classic Locomotives / Machin book of 6 with iridescence short at the top. £5.00

Still MA12 but code T from a book of 12 showing short phosphor bands at the bottom. £11.00.

Wide blue band on London Underground 1st commemoratives. £8.50.

Re distribution!

I have sung the praises of B Alan Ltd. before and it was a pleasure to re-enrol on their distribution service. They talk about Machins in my language - losing me sometimes on some delicate detail about some printing but for the most part explaining where new items come from and most I would have missed. I am also pleased to have the account number H111 which is particularly appropriate!

The first distribution arrived a little while ago and, as well as duplicating Royal Mail's standard bits and pieces had some interesting additions.

First up is the Christmas 1st class that is issued to staff as a 'thank you' for their extra work over the period. This year some will have received sheets with the matrix still present and without rouletting on the reverse. Not Machin, I know, but I am coming to the view that the small Christmas issues are definitive and will be adding them to my catalogue as B Alan have done.

They make a distinction between Post and Gos and Post and Gos with overprints, making the reasonable point that the overprints effectively turn these into 'commemoratives'. I am happy to go along with that and may well stop bothering with even the declared low number of overprints to be authorised. Another change to my catalogue in a category I'd only just created!

The Machin Post and Gos are also now coming with the new font, making another six to acquire if you are collecting each denomination.

The Christmas issue, using the Robin is from an earlier Birds issue but reprinted so it is a separate collectable item for Post and Gos, in particular as it has the new type 3a font with the left alignment and stronger face. This has the BPMA overprint. I need one without that.

Birds III Worldwide 40g (scarce)

1st Robin with different font spacing and alignment?

Robin with blank denomination

There have also been found some Birds 1 Post and Gos with the Worldwide 40g denomination - offices believed to have had an old roll left over when by all rights they should have been used up well before the new rate was introduced! These are very scarce and, at £215 for the set of six designs, not a cheap item.

For Machin proper definitives there is, of course, the following - look for the different codes if you'd thought several were all the same!

DLR with date code 12:

1p maroon 2B

2p dark green 2B

5p ash pink 2B

10p light tan 2B

20p light green 2B

50p slate grey 2B

£1 wood brown 2B

DLR NVIs

1st Large red 2B

1st red 2B

Enschede NVI

Enschede

1st red 2B code R and 12

Walsall

1st red 2B code C and 12

1st red 2B code T and 12

1st red 2B code S and 12

1st Large red 2B code F and 12

1st Large red 2B code B and 12 with short bands at bottom

1st red 2B code B and 12

Specialist items

A 19p Harrison in deep yellowish-olive CB has been found in strips of 5 from a coil. That means an extra space being required in 1993 issues!

DLR 87p orange 2B code 12 with short phosphor bands at the bottom

This is from a 30/3/13 printing and scarce.

Wal 1st red 2B code 12+C with short iridescent overprint at top

Wal 1st red 2B code 12+C with inset right phosphor band

Regional

Lastly, like me, they include the pictorial regionals as definitives and we have:

England 1st lion 2B with a grey head, not silver, printed by Cartor

Wales 2nd leek CB by Cartor

Coil strips

Enschede 1st red 2B + inkjet number

coil strip of the Harrison 19p deep yellowish olive

Quite a lot to sort through and, by now, there should be variations of many appearing with date code 13! Just in case you had thought of settling down for a while!