A few variations

No, the booklet isn't wrongly cut, just my scan not being up to normal standards! This is, though, quite an expensive little book as it features four 1st red with dull fluor and the iridescent coating is short at the top. The stamps are the Walsall M14L MCIL which have appeared before. I don't need this in my collection so will be selling it if anyone is interested.

These two strips of Machin Post And Gos look pretty similar. Indeed they look pretty similar to another strip with that feint IIA font released last year. So what's the difference. First, the strip originally released had short phosphor bands - quite common on these things it seems. One of the above has what I'd call 'normal' or properly synchronised bands.

The other also has the same short phosphor bands at the bottom as before but also have what is described as sometihng akin to AOP, a sort of phosphor wash, presumably where the equipment has allowed the additive to spread during production, and, as well as being clear under a UV lamp it has also affected the printing which is very weak in the affected area which starts about a third of the way across from the left. That strip is the left one shown above and the poor printing is quite obvious.

Both strips are undated.

Lastly in this less than enthralling group that arrived this morning, there is the 2nd Class Machin Post And Gos with 'normal' phosphor bands. the previous ones were interrupted at the bottom so looked a bit odd. These are MA14 dated as before.

Again, none of these variations particularly interest me so I will probably keep the 'normal' ones and sell the off beat stuff.

How I miss the days when there would be all sorts of interesting Machin definitives appearing each few weeks.

Back to that 81p

Well, if the many scrutineers at International Security Printers can miss it then so can I! The 81p in the British Inventiveness prestige booklet is sea green but it should have been holly green - the colour of the De La Rue self adhesive issued in March 2014. The sea green version dates back to 2008! So that is what all the fuss was about.

I am not sure it need make the stamp any more valuable, though, as it would have been a different item anyway, both as a new printer and with its security code.

Now an 81½p would have been more interesting...

A somewhat over-designed prestige booklet came out this week. Inventive Britain sort of excuses the enthusiastic design evident in the front and rear covers, celebrating as it does some remarkable achievements by inhabitants of our islands over the years.

Inside there is some good text and the set of 10 special issue stamps, with two of them duplicated to make the three panes of four add up. There's invention all right. More to the point, though, and the first stamp pane for a welcome change too, is the Machin pane in what has become a very fixed three by three affair with someone having to conjure up something suitable to go in the middle. Why we have to have a label in the middle when another stamp would be perfectly acceptable is beyond me.

Some commentators are promoting this as of equal importance to the Wedgwood £3 book and its ½p pale blue left band because there is just one 81p in this book and I suppose the 81p is vaguely similar in colour. It is, though, some 162 times higher in face value so may have a chance but with the ½p stamps currently going for about £10 in a complete pane a £10 price tag for the 81p isn't that difficult to envisage anyway.

There does appear to have been quite a bit of advance interest with Royal Mail apparently restricting orders of panes as dealers tried to stock up in a big way, expecting this to be something of a special item. I am not convinced, especially as no-one uses the stamps in prestige books these days. In the Wedgwood book days they did and there lies the difference. Even the design of the panes doesn't exactly encourage anyone to tear the stamps out, even on the special issue pages. The firm want you to but the book and put it away somewhere. If you need to post something the pop down to the post office and they'll put a Horizon label on it or just get some NVIs at the supermarket.

The book has four new Machins that we need: 

1p crimson 2B

2p deep green 2B

81p sea green 2B

97p mauve 2B

All have the M14L MPIL code and are printed by International Security Printers who, I think, get called Cartor still.

Quaint old chart in the Bulletin this month

I had to smile at the British Philatelic Bulletin this month, with its quaint chart illustrating an article about scientists in UK stamps. That must have been made with an extremely old version of Microsoft Excel! Now, there is nothing wrong with that - I still use Excel 97 myself when I have to use the official Office product - but the colours and style are just so, so old-fashioned! They are so quaint that they're almost cute.

I made the one below in about five minutes using Google's free Sheets on-line. perhaps someone might gently suggest to the Editor or the author that they might try a little harder to keep up with the times.

Curiouser and curiouser

A massive number of Post And Gos would have been required this month if you have still remained a member of the 'I'd Better Collect All That Comes' group! Winter Greenery has 16 different labels and comes in at least three types. 6 new Christmas Robins, 12 new Birds II labels with the new 60g values and a whole bundle of dual values from the old but still going Wincor machines. To that add BPMA Inland Airmail getting overprinted on blue backing at regular intervals and yet another overprint 'The RMM' which will be on at least the Machins and probably more in a while. You poor people will have a hundred or so new items. You must be as devoted to these things as I am to the little definitives.

There is one in amongst all of them that I have added - the odd dual value with the old big font 2 from a Wincor machine with an MA13 date code. It stands out from all the rest of the recent issues like a very sore thumb might do. If you had several thumbs in the same place. 

Just one normal Machin makes this article. A 5p with a M14L date code from counter sheets. (The first M15L was in the Alice In Wonderland booklet featured in an earlier post)

Although not Machins, there's a new Smilers book of 12 1st Class stamps. These are a curious, and in my view curiously bad, designs intended to cover a multitude of sins or greetings. I sort of like the DAD one but, really, we could have done without these and I don't think any will be getting many votes for Stamp Of The Year 2015. There will be some more of these from Cartor (apparently that's who International Security Printers are after all. I do wish the British Philatelic Bureau would say Cartor when it is only Cartor. That's the third time I have created an extra code for a printer I don't need.) The others come from sheets and I hope to have these soon to see what is different.

So which was your favourite Special Stamp Issue of 2014?

The good folk at the Philatelic Bureau are asking us to vote for our favourite stamp and set of stamps from those issued in 2014. No, they don't let us vote for the Machins. I thought I would publish the relevant pages here as many of you may well not have even seen any of these. Apart from one or two, I haven't noticed any of these myself and I do try to pay some attention to what appears on envelopes wherever I am.

I have a feeling that the Poppy remembrance stamp, and maybe the slightly more attractive Poppy in the Post and Gos, will feature strongly in the results as well as Winston and one or two of the delightful children's characters. I'll tip Dougall, as he just bursts out at you, Paddington Bear, as there'll be lots of promotion at this time for his movie which could influence votes and all the postmen will presumably have a free vote or two and will nominate Postman Pat!

A red queen, new printer and a 15 date code.

There were just four new Machin basic issues in 2014. If you add in the 14 codes and a few other variations then the numbers do increase quite a bit but it was still a very quiet year in that respect. I include the four new values just as an extra illustration and to save you scrolling back to an April post. Isn't the £1.47 a strange affair?

To start 2015, here's a nice booklet with the first 2015 date code , the 1st Class reds showing M15L MCIL in the iridescent overprint. No doubt there'll be more 15 codes along soon enough.

This booklet is, incidentally, the first production from a new machine at International Security Printers in Wolverhampton. I am not entirely sure who ISP are but thought they were a collaboration between Walsall and others so whether we now need to have an extra printer's code in our lists I don't know. Amusing to see a red queen between the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland stamps!

Merry Christmas. A time for feasting and putting things away.

I was thinking, as I set this month's new additions out, how I used to put everything into either an album or a stock book as soon as it arrived. Now I have a quite unbelievable pile of envelopes and black card with stamps beneath clear acetate strips, most just about staying upright but quite a few starting to fall over or, in some worrying cases, out.

I gave up trying to keep the definitives in an album purely because I had found myself having to redo the pages every few months when new values came out. To be fair, that is nothing like the problem it was but the NVIs would be a complete nightmare now, with several hundred 1st and similar quantity of 2nd with the smallest of differences which I may not actually be able to spot myself. I just hope I can still match the various cards to the details sent with them at the time!

It is several years now since I put anything away properly - possibly six or seven - so there is quite a big job that I must do before it all gets completely out of hand! 

Something odd did hit me recently, though. I collect Corgi Toys from the 1956-74 era and, as with stamps, have this desire to get a 'complete' collection; you know, one of each model and also the colour variations too. I take photographs of the new acquisitions and display them on my web site and then advertise them for sale. Well, most of them, that is. Some I really can't see me parting with but most I can happily pack up and send to collectors all over the world. The thing is - I have seen and owned each one and have the 'collection' in photographic or digital form and I am quite happy with that (with, as I said, one or two exceptions). I didn't expect that to happen. I thought I would want to keep every one or, at least, only sell those in poor condition with a view to buying a better one some day.

What changed my attitude, I think, has been the problem of displaying them all satisfactorily. I really do have a huge number, having almost succeeded in getting an example of every one! (There are gaps - some are several hundred pounds and extremely hard to find.) So they have been stored in a box for a year or so and I am getting far more satisfaction from being able to display them digitally on my site and in various articles I write than the large brown cardboard box on the floor could provide. I have since moved them to drawers in an old 1940s tallboy but that's not going to make much difference.

It could be similar now with the more recent stamp collection. Even if I manage to get everything into albums they will be in a box somewhere and not a great deal more accessible than the stamps are now. I am beginning to wonder whether I could even go down the digital route with these? Just store images of all the variants. as I have never been a big fan of the 'need more than a magnifying glass to see' variations, this could almost work for me. I say almost because I would feel I was somehow letting myself down after all these years. The series will end before long and I have such a good collection so far that it would be a shame not to see it through to the end now.

Because part of the joy of collecting is to be able to look through what you have, compare items and be pleased at some of the values, I may well scan each page one day (well, one year as there are a lot already!) and that will enable me to browse nice and easily. But I will still keep the albums, and maybe try and find a nice shelf for them.

So, what's new this month? Not a great deal, to be honest. One interesting Post And Go Machin. The card from the Bureau and a M14L code for the Special Delivery 500g. Boy am I glad I stopped the pictorials and overprints (or whatever term we're going to use as I know, technically, they are not an overprint). I narrowly missed what would have been an absolutely massive bill for:

Machin M13L type IV BPMA Inland Airmail 6 values

Machin M12L type IV BPMA 2 values

Machin undated type IV BPMA 6 values

British Flora 3 with BPMA type IV (8 values, two designs each)

Poppy with BPMA type IV 6 values

Flag with BPMA type IV 

British Flora Presentation Pack issue 4 values

That would have been over £150 and then some 60g values have appeared on Birds II! That would have taken the bill to over £300. Phew.

I could get a really nice and rare Corgi Mini, #249 in rose-red with the Pop Art stickers for that.

Type IIA font Machin definitive Post And Gos on undated background. Quite scarce, most are on dated backgrounds.

Thank you to The Philatelic Bureau for this nice A5 card, their Christmas gift to some of us customers.

With Cartor producing the Smilers Christmas sheets, there will be another version of each of the Chritsmas 1st, 2nd, £1.28 and £1.47 stamps to collect.

Now it won't be obvious but it seems there are some pretty wide variations in the fluor on M13L MSIL 1st class stamps - running from very dull to extremely bright. And because it really isn't that obvious I think I may well be getting rid of these fairly soon. I just can't get too excited. Maybe if I but an ultra violet lamp I might. (The mark on the neck is not on the stamp but must have been on the scanner surface.)

I also have a book of six of the extremely bright fluor ones. That'll definitely be put up for sale!

Quite a pale version of the 2nd Class DLR M14l MAIL issue from September and the 500g Special Delivery stamp has now sold enough to need a reprint with a M14L code. This is an expensive item. I've still yet to see one in actual use.

Errors, mistakes and cheating

I was looking at the blue 1st Class and other value printed on the 2nd Class background and this got me thinking about errors generally.

Now, we're told that someone at a Post Office put the wrong roll into a machine and a customer with an eye for mistakes produced as many strips as he could, kindly telling the counter staff about their mistake after he had finished. I have some sympathy with the fellow and suspect I may well have done the same myself. Strictly speaking, or not even particularly strictly speaking, that is not the best behaviour. The 'right thing' to do would have been to notify the staff as soon as the first blue surprise emerged. I would say it would be reasonable to keep that. After that then the moral case descends pretty rapidly and viewing this as taking advantage of a situation for personal gain ascends at the same rate.

No harm was done, though, so it's not something I feel needs to be debated at length. These things happen. These things have always happened and we collectors dream of finding something amiss or awry one day in our purchases. The difference in the past, though, was that very, very few errors actually ever made it to anywhere vaguely close to the public. Printed sheets of stamps were produced by firms known for their security processes - many printed banknotes for heaven's sake! - and they all had staff with brown coats and glasses and magnifying glasses who inspected what someone else may well have already inspected. Not a lot got part these people. Even if it did them Post Office staff would spot it and remove sheets from sale most of the time. So errors that made it across the counter were, indeed, very rare and so much more valued.

Now, with Post And Goes, it seems that customers are in control of the process. We pop in some coins or a credit card and out comes whatever happens to be in the machine, for better or worse. It would be quite easy for a member of staff to put the wrong roll in a machine and let a colleague know that they could get some interesting variations from it. I'm not talking about mistakes here but a deliberate action. Something you simply would not have envisaged once upon a time but which I have to say does enter my head now.

I don't know exactly how much these particular strips will be worth in future but they certainly can fetch a good premium on their face value already. I am inclined to believe that this particular instance was a genuine oversight by counter staff but I am similarly inclined to the view that there will be more appearing that will be set up and entirely dishonest.

We won't be able to tell one from the other.

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.