1st Class Post And Gos in blue bring some cheer to a boring month

At last, some fun amongst the Post And Gos. I was too late to stop some more annoying overprints coming through the system but those shown here ought to be the last (and are all available for sale). The fun is the quite remarkable printing of the normal 1st Class etc values on blue backing which should be reserved for 2nd Class and 2nd Large. It's easy to see how this arose - someone putting the wrong roll in whatever section of a machine handles the 2nd Class issue - and I am surprised it hasn't happened more often. It is a lovely strip to have, though, and whilst I can see it being repeated it should remain quite a valuable error.

The other strips shown above are a Machin strip with MA13 and the new font and a strange pictorial overprint as well as text for the BPMA Inland Airmail 1934. Heavens that's just an 80th anniversary and of something quite obscure too.

The second class Machins are the first with MA14 date but also the IIA font. More noticeable, though, is a remarkable shift of phosphor up or down the stamps so that there is a massive break bang in the middle! This will have happened when the roll was printed and registration is miles out as the break would normally be positioned very carefully between the stamps. There are quite a few examples of short bands at top or bottom where the registration for phosphor printing has gone a little bit awry but this is really impressive. I don't normally collect phosphor or overprint errors but it seems that these are the first examples of MA14 and that's why I got them. In theory, they could be the 'normal' ones if properly registered stamps don't come along. I doubt that'll be the case, though, so it's nice to have these. The others are the first 2nd Class to have overprints as the obscure 80th gets on to these too. Odd in many ways.

A couple of pictorials with overprints also sneaked through to give my dealer plenty of income for his Christmas shopping. These are pretty but pretty tedious NMRN extensions for Remembrance and Trafalgar Day. I like the idea of using the Poppy label for remembrance at this time but I don't feel it is right to be associated just with The NMRN. few people will know what The NMRN is anyway, I'm afraid. I will have to look it up to get it right and can only recall RN being Royal Navy.

So there endeth the Lesson for Post And Go overprints and pictorials.

Not a great deal more this month: a stamp with a numeric value appears after a long time - the 2p with M14L from De La Rue, a pale red 1st from Walsall business sheets M14L MBIL, a bright red 1st Large from Walsall MA13 MFIL and a 2nd bright blue with an almost illegible M11L MTIL recently discovered.

New and old date cØdes appear

From Edinburgh today comes a somewhat less than inspiring bundle of 'new' items. The coil strips look exciting - strips usually are - but the 2nd Class is M12L MTIL which I featured in a February post. There may be something different that I haven't noticed and the first one did come from a specialist source. It would seem a bit unlikely, though, that it has taken the Philatelic Bureau staff six months longer to realise that this is out there. Then, of course, there's that 2012 date code! What is that about - or has this strip been around for two years and they've just realised?

My guess is that there's something else different. I just don't know what it is yet.  The first class is different, I am pleased to report. It is M13L MTIL which I haven't seen before, despite that being a 2013 code!

There were also five new booklets issued today. They have a new telephone number or something on them but what we're really interested in is the stamps and, yes, there are four that you'll need.

MA14 MFIL

MA14 MFIL

M14L MTIL

M14L MSIL

M14L MTIL

The 1st Class M14L MTIL has been around before but the others are all new.

I have always found it odd that everyone use MA14 or whatever on the Large issues but M14L on the normal sizes. There were some oddities in previous years but generally all the Large ones have an MAØØ type code and others the M1ØL style.

Overwhelmed with overprints on Post and Gos

 

We start with no less than three new BPMA Post and Gos. A 'Series A' issue with code MA13 in the old values from mid February. Then the updated 'Series B' with MA13 and then the same 'Series B' on Flag type labels. These last two were only available from 24 March 2014 so you can see how few will have been produced with the old set of values, making these two strips particularly scarce.

Next we have two 85th Scottiosh Congress issues - one on the plain Machin labels and the other on Flags. These are both 'Series B' and also were issued after the rate change so have the new sequence of values. Let's give Post and Gos a rest for a moment and deal with something much simpler.

A Cartor printed England regional £1.28 has appeared with the vignetted style of phosphor. The 2012 printing just had very wide phosphor bands with the same density throughout. This has just sneaked out without anyone telling us so look out for it.

A strip of 'Series B' old values on undated Machin labels.

2nd Class Post and Gos now with MA13 codes - you really would think they'd be MA14 by now! Just shows how slowly some rolls are being used up.

The new values produced on the old Wincor machines. On commentator remarked how poorly the 60g had been set up by the engineers, hinting that they might not have been too bothered knowing that in a week or so's time their contract was up and the new NCR type machines would be replacing theirs anyway.

Now some more M14L and MA14 codes

M14L De La Rue

M14L De La Rue

M14L De La Rue

M14L MTIL

M14L MCIL

MA14 MBIL

This has been an expensive time and led me to wonder seriously if I should give up on the Post and Gos. I have had to reorder the overprints which I had abandoned briefly because they can be the sole source of some changes at times. If they were just an existing issue with an overprint then I am happy to let them go but where they appear first or even seem to be the only example of a particular type then I do need them.

It has been interesting to see how dealers are reacting to all this. One has very efficiently supplied as many pairs of the new values as they can whilst another is still looking as, theoretically, whatever roll can go in the machine could have the new values printed on it and no doubt some offices somewhere have an old roll or two lying around that will surprise us in years to come and mean that we can never be entirely sure which may or may not appear with the new values.

So far no-one has offered the NCR type of Open Values, other than someone on Ebay, where I got my 'set' of pre rate change values. B Alan Ltd appear to be thinking about supplying a few samples on each colour of background for those who order them. They are regarding them as similar to the old larger label that could also have a whole range of denominations. The difference, though, is that this label is distinctly stamp-like, specifically Post and Go-stamp like, same dimensions, perforations and so forth. So if you collect Post and Gos then I really do think you will kick yourself hard in years to come if you don't include as many denominations of the new ones as you can find or afford.

Just as the Post and Gos have changed in just a short while, so too will these Open Values - different alignment, font changes and, who knows, use on rolls of Flowers or whatever. Keeping my lists up to date, though, has been a nightmare with so many variations: Flag or Machin, date or no date code, font type 2 or 4, series A or B! Crazy. I am still on the verge of abandoning them but probably won't. As for the NCRs, I actually prefer them as 'stamps to collect' to the pictorial Post and Gos but whether I will be able to figure out any sensible way to determine what to collect has yet to be seen.

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.