More 20 codes and some thin paper

 Here we have a few more 20 year codes and a couple of variations for the 1st Class red shade and its thinning backing paper.

M20L MTIL Much thinner backing paper

M20L MCIL Deeper red Queen's head from Sherlock book, also thin backing paper with very bright fluorescence

2p Dark Green with M20L MAIL

20p Bright green with M20L MAIL

M20L MBIL very bright fluor with a yellow tint

1st Class gets a deeper 'Royal Mail' red colour. Again.

I forgot to mention in my last article that as well as a new font on the booklet covers, there is a new colour for the 1st and 1st Large too. It's Royal Mail Red. I did think we'd had Royal Mail Red before. Maybe we did but, anyway, this is significantly darker than the red we've had to date recently and will be regarded as a new colour by pretty much all of the catalogues.

I'll list the new arrivals in a moment. First there are some more bits and pieces to deal with.

although not as obviously different, there are some deeper blue 2nd Class stamps. The 2nd Class with M16L MBIL and MTIL codes and the 2nd Large with M16L MBIL and MFIL codes.

The Royal Mail 1st Signed For stamp has the M16L date code, no security backing paper. The Special Delivery up to 100g stamp now also has M16L code and no security backing paper.

Recent sheet printings of the 1st and 1st large are in the old colour but the 1st Large does seem to be a deeper red than before and the 1st Class a pale red with a pale Queen's head too. Neither have security printed backing.

Now for the Royal Mail Red stamps. You can see how obviously different they are, and yet I failed to notice when they arrived individually

1st Large with M16L MBIL and MFIL codes

1st Class with M16L MBIL, MCIL, MSIL and MTIL codes.

Mr. Fat booklet fonts

I wonder what inspired the latest font charges in the booklet covers released this week? There is some resemblance to the Mr Men text but I can't imagine that's the reason. Maybe it's just the Royal Mail going for a younger look. Interestingly, the 1 on the Mr Men book is considerably fatter than on the 4 x 1st Large book.

Inside, things are not terribly interesting and I do think there is a big space crying out for some self-promotion in the 1st and 2nd Large panels. We've seen the space used in the past for some very tedious stuff and I'm not sure I particularly want to see Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada return with their £4315 for us at 55!! There's an opportunity for something that wouldn't cost a great deal to print and yet could reach quite a decent size audience and which could be better than a shiny white blank space.

I am assuming that the 1st and 2nd Large stamps themselves are the same as previous issues we have seen on the security backing paper. The 1st red M16L MCIL is new.

A paler shade of dark and 16 code surprises

Another pleasantly inexpensive month on the Machin front, I'm pleased to report. Not the most interesting, perhaps, but I did learn something. There are both MA16 and M16L versions of the MBIL (Business Sheet) 1st Large and 2nd Large stamps. The supplier lists them as both coming from Walsall which seems odd to me, with both being on the newer Security Backing Paper too. I'm wondering whether they're made a mistake there. Hopefully someone can advise on that as it really would seem most odd for the printer to have changed mid-production. When they start the 17 year code or maybe have a change of security backing paper that would seem a more suitable time to me to make such a change. 

The MA16 versions will be in earlier articles.

There is a new shade of 2p in a 'paler dark green' which is not really that much different to my eyes. The head is also stated as being in a darker shade of green, just to confuse anyone trying to describe this succinctly. 2p pale dark green with darker dark green head? That's a De La Rue one.

Also coming along from De La Rue are the Counter Sheet 1st and 2nd with M16L MAIL codes which I thought we'd already had but we hadn't!

Another space needed just to the left of the 20½p blue.

Not the most exciting of months but, mercifully, a rather cheaper one than most! The new arrivals are simply two Walsall items with 15 codes that are now on security backing paper, two Walsall 16 codes on security backing paper and two new 16 codes from DLR on normal backing.

1st red Walsall M15L MBIL with security backing

1st red Walsall M16L MBIL with security backing

1p maroon DLR M16L normal backing

20p green DLR M16L normal backing

2nd Large brt blue Walsall  M16L MBIL with security backing

1st  Large red Walsall M15L MBIL with security backing

1st large Walsall M16L MFIL with security backing

I imagine that the security backing will become a standard affair before long and there will be quite a few new entrants once the counter sheet stamps start to emerge and more booklets too. So this year may well see several examples of the same stamp with and without the backing text but, hopefully, next year will settle down and each will remain peacefully one or the other.

I had precisely one Post and Go Machin - a 2nd Class Small Parcel £2.85 denomination which looks attractive on the package but still doesn't make me regret not seeking to collect all these as mint. I do believe that a used collection of these items is worth following, though, as, unless I am extremely odd and others are getting piles of these every day, they will be comparatively scarce in years to come and an interesting observation of stamp life in the 20 teens or whatever this decade will be called.

On the subject of being odd, I must apologise to readers who wondered what I might have been drinking before writing recently about celebrating the Machin 50th. That will, of course, be in June 2017 and not next month as I had indicated!

I also write on the subject of Corgi Toys. Now they do have an important anniversary in July this year, marking 60 years since their first Corgi Toy models appeared. An Austin Cambridge, Morris Cowley, Vauxhall Velox, Rover 90, Riley Pathfinder, Hillman Husky, Austin Healey, Triumph TR2 and some commercial or utility vehicles came onto shop shelves in July 1956. Unfortunately, Corgi appear not to be doing a great deal to mark the occasion at all. I have seen a strange Milk Float to be released as a special item but that is it.

Actually, bearing in mind the huge publicity given to several companies recently in stamp issues, one marking the occasion might have been a nice idea, had I thought of it earlier.

Anyway, apart from you now needing to extend your 1st red pages even further and having to try and squeeze yet another 20p green on the page - just in front of the 20½p - it remains a fairly gentle time in the Machin world.

Some more 14 date codes and Korean memorabilia

We'll kick off with something very innocuous- the latest 6 x 1st booklet in the nice 4+2 format and its 1st red M14L MCIL definitives. These are not new - the Buckingham Palace and Commonwealth Games booklets had these too.

A bit quieter on the Post And Go front for me with just the two standard Philakorea overprints (which will go straight on sale as they hold no interest for me whatsoever) and an MA14 date Machin which is new and something I will hang on to.

The Philakorea overprint sort of sums up the good and bad about these things. It is delightfully amateur in that no-one seems to have bothered to check whether all the text will fit in the space to the left and that I find appealing but not enough because I then think "Who on Earth will ever see these in the first place?" Mad collectors who have time and inclination to go to South Korea to talk stamps. And dealers to buy a bundle of stuff to sell back to collectors. I simply don't see the point of them other than some event memorabilia and wish I hadn't added to the coffers of intermediaries with these two strips but I hadn't cancelled my Post And Go overprint orders in time. At least North Korea doesn't benefit.

Back to Machin definitives as we used to know them again and some strips with M13L MRIL are available. You'll most likely encounter singles on mass mailing where stamps are used. There's a number printed on the reverse of the backing every 10th stamp so it's usually a good idea to get two of these strips or, I suppose, just the two singles are sufficient.

MA14 codes now on the MBIL, MFIL 1st Large and MFIL 2nd Large stamps.

1st red M14L MBIL and MSIL, M13L MRIL and 2nd blue M14L MBIL singles.

Finally they must have used up all the 100g Special Delivery stamps, despite the gold Horizon onslaught behind the counter! Here is an M14L version of what has been MA10 to date.