2nd Class stamps - yours will be unique, 1 in 20 million

 

A surprise in the post this morning - this new 2nd Class stamp. I had noticed a bill for a new 2nd Class stamp issued by the Philatelic Bureau some time ago and, whilst wondering just what was in store, I concluded that it might just be some minor change. Instead there is is this much larger item.

The label comprises two images, the traditional 'stamp' and a type of QR code matrix. To preserve the impression of the 'stamp' being a 'stamp' there is a wavy line incorporated in the design to make a printed 'perforation' between the two main images. I have to say that this looks odd and will only fool those applying the label to a blue envelope. But never mind. So what on Earth is this all about?

It seems a little OTT for just security but I understand that the code for every stamp is unique, with the QR code revealing (to anyone with a QR reader app on their phone) a string of digits which only that item will have. This will certainly make forgery less effective as the idea is that equipment at sorting offices will record the use of the string of digits and reject any further use through some form of intercommunication across the nation. I hadn't appreciated how much money must be being lost through forgery for such a lot of extra security printing measures to be justified. My guess is that the string of digits might be used in future to track an item's progress or, more mundanely, provide detailed data of items source and destinations for Royal Mail.

The backing sheet also contains the wavy lines of text in a similar style to that used across the self-adhesive range.

The stamp image has the same security features as we are familiar with, with an M21L MBIL code indicating that this one is from a Business Sheet which, I imagine, is the code used in most forgeries. Perhaps we will also see this available at counters and in booklets, together, naturally, with 1st Class items in similar vein to be seen before long.

A new page required in the album. That was not expected. I thought there might be development of a picture theme to replace the Machin head and it is interesting to note that the separation of the main code element from the stamp design does leave it quite possible for other designs of the 'stamp' to be substituted. I cannot see this device being rolled out to other than the NVI issues, however.

I would tell you more but I have not received a Philatelic Bulletin for some time, where I would imagine details have been provided. I had to turn to Norvic's Philatelic Blog for help and there you will find chapter and verse in fine style.

UK Postage rates over the years

I have updated the charts I last published in 2017 as we approach the latest increase in UK postage rates. 1st Class rates will start at 76p and 2nd Class 65p from 23 March. You'll see just how good an investment NVI stamps have been, especially those bought in 2006 or thereabouts!

Acknowledgements to http://www.wolfbane.com/rpi.htm for the RPI data. The UK rates I have recorded myself for many years.

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.

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!

Stamps you'll see on envelopes and labels you can buy in museums.

The 1st amethyst in a slightly deeper shade from HM The Queen's 90th Birthday Concrete and Clay booklet by Walsall. Apparently, it also has much brighter fluor. I must buy a lamp one day as I am clearly missing out on all the additional differences there. It would also have helped me considerably in the 1980s. Remember All Over Phosphor, Phosphor Coated Paper, PCP2 and variations on these themes? I tried to distinguish by holding stamps at various angles to see which were shiniest, not to much avail. That's when I finished up subscribing to a dealer's standing order and just trusted whatever he sent, carefully writing AOP or PCP1, 2 (or even 3 I believe) below the Hawid mount on the page!

The 1st amethyst also has the security backing paper by the way.

A 2nd blue from the books of 12 by Walsall with the M16L MTIL code that is new to the lists. This also has security backing paper. 

A new printing of the Scottish 2nd Centre Band Saltire by Cartor now has a grey Queens's head instead of silver.

From the Great War: 1916 booklet pane come the four National stamps that are similar to those in the Football Heroes booklet from 2013. These have what are termed vignetted phosphor bands instead of the solid type of 2013. These all have a duller fluor than the earlier issue. All from Cartor.

Post And Go collectors will have had another expensive month or two with four strips from the World Stamp Show in New York and a mere nine Battle Of Jutland overprints. I am so glad that I gave up on these. As a collection I am not even that sure they look particularly attractive. One possibility might be to have just one label for each issue, type or change instead of the standard strip of six or whatever is dished out by the machines. The idea of getting each value with a different image is bad enough when that leads to thirty six labels having to be purchased but should the system progress to having a wider range of denominations added then life will become impossible and all but the very rich will have to have something other than everything.

I get lots of parcels each week in connection with my Corgi Toy catalogue project and occasionally these feature the new NCR type label with an amount and service printed on an olive or blue Machin background. These I do find interesting but, strangely, are not regarded as worthy of our consideration by many, if any, of those who might supply us with regular issues. In my view these are far more like 'stamps' than these endless streams of labels issued almost entirely for sale to collectors and exhibition or military museum visitors.

Unless you are an avid collector of military memorabilia or have a specialist collection on the theme of Exhibition or Museum Issues I am pleading with you more general Machin collectors simply to say 'Enough is enough' and cancel those standing orders for strips of six of this or strips of six of that henceforth. Draw a line in the album. By all means get one example from each new issue that you believe has come from a machine with some reasonably likely postal purpose but the cessation of guaranteed demand for the overprints, in particular, might dissuade the Powers That Be from continuing with them other than for very limited interests of a non-philatelic nature. Maybe you can start collecting the NCR types instead and, who knows, they might even prove rather more representative of Britain's stamp future in the collections we pass on to our grandchildren.

No 12 across or definitives in the Philatelic Bulletin

This looks like a new font for the two 2nd Class Post And Gos, which I'll call IVA for now as it is pretty similar to the type IV with the bold smaller text for the code being the most noticeable. It is interesting to note how the text is getting ever smaller and the old style type 1 looks terribly out of place now. Odd that these are on an old backing but I am advised that these come from 'Enquiry Office' machines which had an office name line before but that's now removed. Not that I'm much the wiser.

From the same source, here is an error where the print has overlapped the edge but not, apparently gone on the backing paper or maybe it just rubbed off the shiny surface there.

Another '15' date code, this time for the 2nd Large stamp by Walsall and bearing MA15. Quite why they insist on that structure when everyone does M15L on other issues is odd but I shall not worry about that too much.

What is, perhaps, more worrying is the lack of any Machins in the July 2015 edition of the Philatelic Bulletin. Apart from two booklet illustrations where a block of four 1st Class Machins are shown with two Special issues in the familiar booklet format, and they're only shown as illustrations of the special issues, there are not even any illustrations of Machins. That, I think, is a first. The issue is almost entirely taken up with war items which, whilst appreciating their importance at this time, I do feel is being slightly overdone now as we will no doubt soon be getting previews of the November Remembrance stamps as well.

As well as no Machins, there were also no Post And Gos incidentally. Not a good issue for definitive fans.

The crossword also lacked a clue for 12 across. I don't usually do the competitions but this week, for some reason I cannot really figure, I completed both the stamp identification and worked out the answer to what was being spelled out by various squares in the crossword solution. The missing word was C_A_G_ which could have been CRAGGY or CLANGS but I decided it was more likely to be CHARGE or CHANGE and opted for the former, adding my own clue 'None for entry' designed to match the fact that there was no clue to there being no charge for entry to the competition. It was a bit forced but did produce a response from a nice lady at the Bulletin to complement me on completing it. Apparently the clue should have related to a solution CHANGE so I had guessed the wrong one but still feel a little hopeful that my first entry in probably 40 years may get me something. More news on that later. Prizes really are very modest.

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.

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.