65th Anniversary of Accession £5

Today is the 65th anniversary of HM Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne and the Royal Mail mark this sapphire anniversary with what is a familiar stamp.

Almost exactly 40 years ago the blue and slightly pink £5 was issued on 2 February 1977 and this now reappears in what I expect we shall be told is sapphire blue. The new stamp has the same dimensions and the security iridescent text reads 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF ACCESSION. There are no ellipses in the perforation.

An excellent choice in many ways and a nice addition to the Machin line.

Return of design as it should be!

Well, a 40th anniversary was just what we needed and a whole bunch of new items for us collectors. So nice to see the BPB stuffed full of Machins once more so fears of their early demise have faded somewhat.
The Big News, though, has to be that we're rid of those ghastly fat digit PiPs!! Hooray! And it's very rare that I type Hooray in a web log. And Good Riddance, I say! Common sense and good design prevails, eh.
I have to say that I keep thinking 39p bright pink when I see the £1 ruby illustrations, although the real thing is better. Still, a darker shade would have suited the 40th more appropriately, in my view.
I suppose a new 4p in black was a bit much to expect. Maybe in 2017 for the 50th - or will the 1st gold be brought back to life for, what would it be, the third time by then? Nice to think the design might make it to 2017 (assuming the owner of the head does).
Goodness, that's something that had never occurred to me before.

40th Anniversary : 5 June 2007

A bit more Machin news beginning to appear at last - and rightly so with the 40th anniversary of the appearance of the 4d stamp way back in the Summer of Love days. I really shouldn't remember them as well as I do but that's another story!

More pics and news to come but there's a new £1 in ruby, the old violet one will officially go away but not before they stick it in a miniature sheet so that'll be another addition. I also have a feeling there'll be more too. Updates on some other recent issues to follow shortly. Just moved - that's my excuse, and I'm self-adhesiving to it.