2020 New Definitive Values, James Bond and London 2020

The Queen Victoria 1d black, 2d blue and 1d red from 1840/1 return once more in a London 2020 booklet. You will recognise these from a few years ago when the 175th anniversaries were noted in 2105/6. I like the idea but the Queens head and value tablet placing has always jarred slightly with me. Having said that, I can't think of where else they could go. I might have been tempted to replace Victoria with Elizabeth II and change the text to 1ST CLASS and 2ND CLASS. In fact I might try that in my editing program and if it works I'll share the results here just for fun.

We also have a Concrete & Clay booklet and a Prestige booklet marking James Bond films.

The 4+2 booklet features  te 1st Royal Mail red with code M20L MCIL which we have already seen.

The prestige book pane has a strange combination of the Union Flag 1st and the Scottish Saltire 2nd so that's going to upset the Welsh and Northern Ireland people for a while. Then there are 2 very tired looking 2p deep greens and a couple of 2nd Class blues. the Scottish stamps have the later serif-style value tablet but the UK one is the older sans serif type, not that we've had the later type for that stamp. Now might have been a good time to change that although quite why we get this combination is anyone's guess.

This pane, being planned and presumably produced sometime previously, features stamps with the code M19L MPIL. The 2p looks very much like the one in the February 2019 book but the 2nd Class stamp looks, to me, a quite new 'baby blue' shade. It also appeared in the February 2019 book so I'll have to dig that out to compare. It'll probably turn out to be the same as Cartor would, I guess, just bring out the colours from last year in whatever process is used. Not a tube of paint, I know, but some sort of formula that can be readily repeated.

The main event this month is the issue of the new definitives, supposedly to meet demand for the new rates coming into force in a few days. This has become a regular March (or sometimes April) affair and I do look forward to it, albeit with some trepidation now that the combined total is £29.80!!

  

  

 

The official colour names are:

£1.42 garnet red

£1.63 sunset red

£1.68 tarragon green

£2.42 purple heather

£2.97 rose pink

£3.66 harvest gold

£3.82 holly green

I recognise a few of these.

 

 

 

The regionals are all just as we've seen for many years now with just new values. I can't remember seeing the black outline on the Northern Ireland higher value but that's probably my memory rather than anything new. Perhaps that was introduced when the font changed and I didn't notice.

Whilst these designs do reflect the nations well I am surprised they have not been changed since 1999. There are so many items or scenes which could be representing the four nations that could be used and I am also surprised that the designs have remained such that some values are not at all easy to read. I suspect that they are little used and no-one really cares. Those businesses who have sheets of them for particular product postage needs are so used to looking for the yellowy-brown or purple one that I guess staff don't need to bother about the value tablet either. One reason for retaining the designs, I guess.

Right, now to move once more rows of stamps from page t page to make room for all of these unexpected values. I really should have learned my lesson by now and left a lot more room between values.

No prestige Machins and Birthday book design errors

The 2016 Prestige Book finally arrived yesterday. Delayed from June due to an error in the Presentation Pack. I cannot quickly see why that meant we didn't get the prestige booklets but never mind.

As it happens it contains no Machins. That has got me wondering whether this is the first prestige book not to have any Machins? Something I shall have to consider.

The definitive pane has the very attractive small Poppy 1st Class stamp, the newer style English, Scottish and Welsh flags and the familiar Northern Ireland fields. Whilst the English and Scottish flags are quite well-represented, the Welsh dragon really does not seem to have coped as well with the rippling and perspective effect. You also do have to wonder why no effort seems to have been put in to come up with something other than fields for Northern Ireland! 

I have often suggested that scenes from around Britain could be a good future definitive theme and if flags presented problems for the Northern Ireland issue then they should think of something else that would be suitable for all four nations.

I shouldn't worry too much as few people other than collectors will see this particular production anyway. Whilst the booklet, as the preceding two have been, is very well written and illustrated indeed, my interest in the prestige booklets is rapidly diminishing now. That is not just the lack of Machins but for many years it has been mostly just one pane that I have wanted and the chances of any of these being used in a postal sense, always slim, have become almost negligible. When they were promoted in Post Offices and you could fairly easily tear off a few stamps for use on an envelope then it was worth checking your mail for that scarce used copy of a left or right band variant or one from a different printer perhaps. Nowadays you could spend a year and find none. Or probably even longer.

Because I feel that there may not be long to go before we finally see the conclusion of the Machin series I shall not stop now and, for the sake of completeness, I'll keep collecting the prestige books and hope that they don't get too expensive. (Of course, there have been the annoying 'Special Edition' prestige books but I am hoping that these continue not to have different printers or anything that might make the definitive content unique. Now that would be really annoying!

On the topic of booklets that have stamps we might see on mail, here are a couple that you can reasonably expect to be used as intended and not just bought and filed away. The Concrete & Clay booklets have been with us for a while now and work well, 

The second book, ostensibly celebrating H M The Queen's birthday a second time, has four O16R REIGC amethyst 1st Class as has the other Concrete & Clay book with some nice landscapes.

The birthday book is a little strange, though. A sort of half-hearted effort has been made, by the seems of it, to mount the two photographs on some wall, presumably in Buckingham Palace but all that results is quite a confusing jumble of lines that stop and start. It really does not work and is not the sort of design that I would have expected to have survived through to print. 

It was the same with the first birthday book of 4+2 but I didn't notice at the time. They have taken the four stamps from the 90th Birthday prestige book and included them in these panes. Unfortunately, the prestige sheet was one large image and so various bits of background were included in individual photos selected as stamps. In the Concrete & Cay books, however, someone has attempted to put a background  in which simple doesn't work. For most issues they leave the background plain or presented in a way that enhances and does not interfere with the stamps. Notably, for Morecombe & Wise a while ago they were able to extend the photos really successfully, presumably by working with some original stamp design artwork. Someone should have had words with the designers on this occasion. Bit late now.

The landscape issue is pretty enough and a more suitable background is used.

All the Machins have the now standard 'security backing paper'.

The shades are more interesting

It took me a good half an hour or so to figure out just what the dealer had sent me this month as not a lot tied up with the invoice. The main problem, however, was not looking for amounts that might add up to the various figures paid but distinguishing between these three pairs and wondering why on Earth I'd been supplied with them anyway!

Here we have type IIA font on undated backgrounds for these values. I don't think I have the undated background type so may need these. They have short phosphor which is also inset at the right.

These are virtually the same but don't have inset phosphor. One of these pairs is surplus and as these were the more expensive they'll be what I either return or sell.

These are the same as some provided some time ago, type IIA again and still with MA14 in the background as before but these don't have short phosphor. So these or the earlier ones can go.

To be honest, the really interesting thing about all these is the shade difference - quite obvious as you can see. Now that I would collect. I think this was the shade of the short phosphor version too and the other pairs' darker shade is similar to their predecessors too so these needn't be retained but I probably will as it is a hassle getting them returned.

I could barely contain my excitement when the mailing also included three booklets, one which the Post Office had already supplied with the latest Concrete and Clay layout and these two providing M15L MTIL and M15L MSIL variants. I am pretty sure I have noted these before but they're almost new and rumour has it that one book has some new phone numbers and the other has some weird Welsh stuff on it. I do wonder why we don't have variants with Gaelic or even Cornish or whatever the Irish speak.The Welsh do seem to have special treatment and I am not sure there are more than 17 who will actually encounter these booklets and need to have a translation of To Check Postcodes and addresses for free go to.

This has been another tedious month but then August used to have nothing happening anyway so I shouldn't complain. I also thank my lucky stars that I didn't have to cope with (and pay for) the new 100g values on British Flora II and ist Class and higher values printed on the background intended for 2nd Class in British Flora III, yet another new naval overprint, RNSM on Machins and Flags, Sinpex overprints on two types of Flags (with and without dated backgrounds) and BPMA Postage Due 1914 overprints on Flags with MA13 background. Gosh. That's a lot. If you are still managing to keep up then well done. You must be exceedingly well-off. Or were, at any rate.

Concrete and clay bees.

Just in case you weren't sure what the insects are, Royal Mail helpfully print Bees on the edge of the latest Concrete and Clay booklet. Concrete and Clay? That was a hit in the 1960s for Unit 4 Plus 2 which is the format of these books so it's what I might call them from time to time when the mood takes me.

The 1st reds are the now fairly familiar M15L MCIL coded stamps by Walsall. I do wish they'd credit the printers on booklets. The Bulletin just says ISP these days.

I don't think there's anything of particular interest about the definitives. The bee stamps, however, may be different to the usual sheet supplies as they have a design that overlaps the perforations, continuing just a millimetre or so into the background. As there is also a miniature sheet featuring all the set that is available too then it may be that that will have the same image printed with a similar extension. You may need to check but that hasn#'t got much to do with Machins which is what I am supposed to be writing about.

I would write more - if there were any to write about.

Spend £14.47. File it away. Probably for another 200 years.

Another bleak prestige book of war came out today. This one is all about the Battle of Waterloo which is not the crowds at a London station but a place in what used to be called the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and is now in Belgium.

I have never understood quite why it is remembered and talked about so often now but blame Abba in the main.

Anyway, it represented an excuse for another expensive little book of stamps with ten special issues from the two sets being issued for this event as well as the part that we're really interested in, the decimal pane.

In the now traditional format of 3 x 3 there are eight Machins around some label. The labels I tend to regard as something of an also-ran in these things but I would draw your attention to this one being printed with a background that goes right up to the perforations, so would appear without a white border if it were ever to be seen on its own. Bearing in mind just how precise the alignment has to be to achieve that, I can't quite see the point but there you go. From some viewpoints, it looks as if the eight stamps border an empty space through which we just happen to catch sight of part of Trafalgar Square.

The new Machins are nice, sensible values: 5p in ash pink, 10p tan, 50p slate and £1 wood brown. Two of each. Although you know and I know that there's little chance of any of these being used on anything like normal postal items, at least we don't have to add a fifth 97p or another £1.52 to our lists. there are so many varieties of the main values that an extra one each doesn't matter a great deal.

They all have the M15L MPIL security code and two phosphor bars, printed on gummed paper by, presumably Cartor, if that is who 'International Security Printers' implies rather than some random international security printer.

This is £14.47 which you will spend, put away somewhere and probably forget about for another 200 years.

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.

The Great War 1914 Prestige Booklet

Something for everyone with the 1914 First World War prestige booklet out today. The content is naturally sombre and factual, with an effective fold old illustration across a set of pages. As well as three new Machins, there are the four nation's 1st Class stamps in what I am presuming will be a distinguishable form.

The Machins are maybe not very 'new' as each of the 10p tan, 20p green and £1 pale brown (or wood brown as they call it) with the code M14L MPIL, printed by Enschedé could be found in the Buckingham Palace book. I am wondering if they do have any differences at all!

The Regionals are definitely new, though, as recent issues have been different designs so you'll need that pane anyway. I am not sure whether Cartor are any different to Enschedé now.

New code on 1st red - already!

Norvic Philatelics report that the 1st red in books of 6 is now appearing with a M13L code in place of the M12L code on release. Check your copies and look out for the revised one as this is unlikely to be supplied by the Bureau. You may need to take a magnifying glass to some local retailers!

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