The first M20L code, a change of printer and some poor design

The Philatelic Bureau have sent me these issues which arrived today. 

I am guessing that the 1st Signed For and 50p stamps have now been printed by Walsall and that is the reason. They both feature M19L codes too which makes them new in my book anyway!

The other item is the first M20L item - the 1st Royal Mail red MCIL from the Tomb Raiders' Concrete & Clay book.

I seldom pay much attention to these 4+2 books but recognise they're a good idea in getting the latest special stamps out there to most of the population who probably wouldn't see them otherwise. Designers normally make a reasonable job of them but this time they're a mess. The stamps feature one font in the inscription but the extended identifier for the book shows something completely different.

The stamps themselves sit uncomfortably in thick white borders interrupting a background illustration which I can only assume someone selected at at random or for most obscure reasons which may make sense in game terms but look awful. I don't know which is worse; the bluish background against the predominantly green and grey stamp or the sadly clashing shades of green grey and brown on the other panel. The stamps themselves illustrate two types of digital art, but they sit uncomfortably next to each other.

I usually only keep the books which have an example of a different Machin stamp so most of them get used for postage and I shall be quite happy for these to go the same way later this year. I do hope the 1st Class stamp doesn't turn out to be a one-off for some reason. 

Ships, a Morris Minor van and two new Machins

This week sees the Merchant Navy prestige book and a new 6 1st book of the 4 Machins +2 special issue type. The special issues stamps are interesting in that the prestige book has an Enschede pane with the Royal Mail Ship stamps gummed but the small book has a Walsall self-adhesive version.

There is also a nice pane of four stamps in greyscale which I think are just illustrating the Merchant Navy (the others being part of Post Office transport). The four Merchant Navy stamps have no text at all, just the 1st denomination. As I write this, I cannot quickly recall another issue, other than definitives, that have had no descriptive text but that is more likely to be down to poor memory than an indication of anything significant.

I shall give that more thought before I am inundated with comments highglighting something terribly obvious.

Anyway, that's about as much attention as I have ever paid to special issues - on to the Machins. The 5p is new in several respects. Its gummed with security features. OK, so far, similar to Dr Who and Football book panes - except this is Enschede, not Cartor and Dr Who was M12L anyway. But there is another difference too - for the first time I have noticed, the ellipses in the perforation are near the top, not the bottom.

The 5p also looks a duller, more grey shade. The 50p is the first gummed version in the slate colour. So lots of new entries for this pane.

The small book is as expected - M13L MPIL codes and what I assume must be type 2a slits. We've seen these before.

 

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!

3 January 2013: New colours and England, Wales regional changes

An early start for new definitives in 2013! In fact, I think this is the earliest ever issue in a year and bearing in mind that Royal Mail's Tallents House staff will have had a Bank Holiday on 2 January I bet they were jolly pleased to have this lot to deal with on their return!

We have a smart colour for the 1st Class NVIs and you might be forgiven for thinking at first glance that the printers have used up their stock of diamond blue ink for the new 50p but I am assured that it is slate grey. The £1 also gets a new colour, imaginatively called wood brown. Then there are a further five items Machin collectors will need as the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p and 20p self-adhesives now have different slit security features and a 12 code included in the overprint. These are De La Rue items. Of course, there are also three Walsall booklets too for the usual 12 x 1st Class, 6 x 1st Class and 4 x 1st Large stamps and you'll need the London Underground booklet which emerged just a few days later on 9 January! That contains 4 x 1st Class plus two from the London Underground set. As if that wasn't enough to start off the year, England and Wales had a change of printer for their 1st and 2nd self adhesive pictorials on 3 January. The British Philatelic Bulletin's November issue promised a listing of all the new issues for 2012 but I have yet to see it. Despite having three pages devoted to Post and Go (which really does seem to be being pushed quite heavily) in the January issue I can find no mention of the regional issues at all so I cannot yet confirm more details and will have to look elsewhere for any differences.

I am also grateful to the 'Machin Nut' for the following information regarding codes found in the 1st and 1st Large red self-adhesives.

1st red self-adhesive with '12' code, code T 1st red self-adhesive with '12' code, code B 1st red self-adhesive with '12' code, code C 1st red self-adhesive with '12' code, code S 1st red self-adhesive with '12' code, code R 1st large red self-adhesive with '12' code 1st large red self-adhesive with '12' code, code B 1st large red self-adhesive with '12' code, code F