Share, discuss, or query, the GB MACHIN HEAD stamps/covers!

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Mon Feb 01, 2010 05:48:44 am

Here's a few covers I bought recently:

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Feb 16, 2010 19:50:52 pm

From the archives, sorry they are not all to the same scale:

The 40gr worldwide airmail stamp 2003

The reprinted high value cylinder blocks, illustration from Royal Mail's Philatelic Bulletin which most of us failed to realise shows the £2 value with no '£' sign :oops:

:

From 2005:

and DLR print of the 35p -

The 2006 issues:

The 2007 issues:

and comparison of the 2005 & 2007 46p printings:

The £1 ruby issued for the 40th anniversary of the Machin design:

2008 issues including the reprinted 9p

2009 With security features:

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:24:38 am

Hmmm... I've never seen that £2 without the '£' before :?:

nigelc · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:34:55 am

jugoslavija_post wrote:

Hmmm... I've never seen that £2 without the '£' before :?:

Neither have I. In fact I wasn't aware of a lot of these! Thanks for showing them Norvic.

What are the key differences between the 2005 and 2008 9p stamps :?:

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 19:04:54 pm

nigelc wrote:

What are the key differences between the 2005 and 2008 9p stamps :?:

I suppose the key difference is the shape and thickness of the figures of value; the shading on the head is different - and the sheet marginal markings changed, but that's not much use in identifying singles.

novato · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 21:43:17 pm

On Robin Harris site, said

"value setting is slightly lower than original",

a give a image, mostly the same like the 46p. But the shape/thickness and the figure shape work better to find the two issues.

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 22:08:22 pm

novato wrote:

On Robin Harris site, said

"value setting is slightly lower than original",

Yes - and that! I'd forgotten, and didn't use photoshop to draw the line as I should have done.

nigelc · **Posted:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 22:18:03 pm

norvic and novato - thanks very much for your help with this.

I could see the slight difference in shading/colour of the Queen's head but I hadn't noticed the differences in the shape or position of the value.

machin head · **Posted:** Thu Mar 04, 2010 00:23:13 am

Those subtle differences are the essence of collecting Machins - sometimes they can make your mind boggle, but i luv 'em to bits :wink:

.

machin head · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2010 19:21:50 pm

"No need to lick. Just bend, peel and stick."

The first self-adhesive stamp issued in UK wasn't until 19th October 1993, many hot countries had issued them from 1964 as a measure to avoid their stamps sticking together in the tropical climate, but in Britain the aim was purely for convenience and health & safety issues. The Machin landcape design was to reappear in the recent "large" mail stamps in 2006.

norvic · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2010 19:49:47 pm

These new self-adhesive stamps were issued in small areas only, and quickly replaced once it was found that wiping the postmark off wasn't too difficult!

machin head · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2010 20:57:00 pm

yes, the World's first "recyclable" stamp ? :lol:

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Apr 06, 2010 05:54:49 am

machin head wrote:

yes, the World's first "recyclable" stamp ? :lol:

Not really; that's why letters were added to all four corners of Queen Victorian stamps.

plsllvn · **Posted:** Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:01:07 am

For your viewing- Erik
Paul

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Tue Apr 06, 2010 11:16:35 am

Some nice ones, Paul.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Apr 06, 2010 19:04:53 pm

Yes, very nice 37p red double head, and 39p mauve. Of course these may be common in Canada, but they aren't common back here!

plsllvn · **Posted:** Wed Apr 07, 2010 00:55:03 am

norvic wrote:

Yes, very nice 37p red double head, and 39p mauve. Of course these may be common in Canada, but they aren't common back here!

Ian-
I have no idea if these are common over here , I just picked up a box full of covers from an estate and these were in there. Can you give a estimate of what these may sell for?
Thanks
Paul
Here are a couple of more scans for your viewing enjoyment

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Apr 07, 2010 01:49:06 am

plsllvn wrote:

norvic wrote:

Yes, very nice 37p red double head, and 39p mauve. Of course these may be common in Canada, but they aren't common back here!

Ian-
I have no idea if these are common over here , I just picked up a box full of covers from an estate and these were in there. Can you give a estimate of what these may sell for?
Thanks
Paul

Paul, sadly from your point of view, there seems to be little demand for these in the UK, though Glen did indicate a few months back that he knew (of?) a dealer in the UK listing them (or even selling them) for pounds rather than pennies.

Let's just say that - if that estate box found its way here - we would be as likely to see them in a 20p box as in a box of individually priced covers, with £n values on them. And they would be more likely to be bought in the 20p box. Hopefully more people will become interested the more these are publicised, though the clean ones with clear dated postmarks will, as always, command more attention than the others.

To my mind the one with 24p+10p+5p is as interesting as the 39p one (and the date is clearer). The 1968? 2nd class airmail with Machin and Wilding is good - and could go into the Decimalisation thread. I don't know what the '2d class' rate was for airmail, I suspect it is actually printed paper/cards.

The one with 18p green & 39p fuschia is almost certainly a 2nd weight, but you have - for various years - 39p, 57p, 65p, 47p, 60p. Oh for the time to go through all the ones I've got and the postage rate books!

plsllvn · **Posted:** Wed Apr 07, 2010 08:54:36 am

Ian
Thanks for the info.
Paul

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Apr 07, 2010 18:52:16 pm

As I've just posted these in another thread I'll show them here as well: issued 30 March 2010 and sold for 1 week at old rates prior to tariff increase on 6 April. Having said that, they don't seem to be available at many POs so it is only dealers and collectors who will have gained a few pennies. Europe is up from 56p to 60p, and Worldwide up from 90p to 97p.

I do like these Airmail stamps with their white backgrounds; I think they are better than the ones with solid colour backgrounds.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Apr 27, 2010 21:50:42 pm

1995 Guaranteed Delivery cover (a short-lived inland service after registration and before special delivery took over everything), with nice bright block of 35p chrome yellow:

Single use 40gr airmail NVI to the USA, October 2009 - this one took 6 months to arrive (March 2010), with no indication of why or where it went in the meantime:

Recent Special Delivery cover with £3 and £2 Machin with security features, Horizon label for 50p.

Philatelic or commercial?
Item 3 is dealer to dealer, but no indication on the cover apart from the unusual use of these HV stamps.
Item 2 is dealer to customer, but again nothing special and no indication, apart from my return address!
Item 1 is to a collector, but I've no idea whether it was sent to him as a collector. The 35p stamps were issued in '93 so slightly late, but they are stuck over the label, so probably a PO using them up.

machin head · **Posted:** Fri Apr 30, 2010 03:24:09 am

For those interested in identifying their Machins i managed to find some useful web sites...

http://www.greatbritainstamps.net/gb-ma ... at_85.html

http://www.adminware.ca/machin.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Machin_stamps

norvic · **Posted:** Fri Apr 30, 2010 06:41:29 am

We now have copies of the London 2010 Festival of Stamps Souvenir Sheet, containing 11 Machin definitives printed by Cartor. As is to be expected, these show marked differences to the normal sheet stamps printed by De La Rue. Although Stanley Gibbons' Concise catalogue will probably only assign a number to the whole sheet, specialist catalogues should allocate numbers to individual stamps.

Here are the stamps, Cartor Souvenir Sheet stamps first, followed by the separate DLR stamps:

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Fri Apr 30, 2010 06:52:29 am

Nice colour of the £1.46 :!:

norvic · **Posted:** Thu May 20, 2010 22:23:01 pm

jugoslavija_post wrote:

Nice colour of the £1.46 :!:

Some sheets were found at the show's Royal Mail stand with much darker £1.46 - and most of mine have much lighter 97p!

Meanwhile, here are the new coils - ordinary gum, security overprint MRIL & MA10, but no security slits:

(Not my pictures, I haven't managed to get any 1st class to look that good on a scan!)

norvic · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 03:10:47 am

Two flaws, or two stages of the same 'ring flaw' against the 'P' on the Cartor-printed litho Souvenir Sheet from the London 2010 Festival of Stamps:

(Sheet is RM Publicity picture, not actual)

tooler · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 03:35:49 am

Erik, I know very little about these, but had these two sheets in a stock book.

norvic · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 07:21:20 am

Feebletodix wrote:

Is this mark on the neck in front of the light patch an indication of printer / booklet or other?

All the Machin stamps have that 'mark'; it is part of the counter of the shoulder and is present on the original sculpture, though it is not as obvious, the way this picture of it was lit:

You can certainly see it on these:

(Unless, that is, you are referring to something entirely different :?:

)

Feebletodix wrote:

Also I have a couple of yellower heads same question?

Could be the 2002 issue for the Jubilee. Difficult to tell; the postmark is more recent but with 40-year old stamps being used anything is possible.

Feebletodix wrote:

Ian if you catch this sorry I used your logon instead of your truename, no offence intended.

No problem - names and handles are interchangeable.

maptrekker · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 09:56:40 am

Ever see a UK Machin with a Hong Kong postmark? This project must have produced hundreds of Machins with non-UK postmarks.

I have a bunch of these reply cards from Hong Kong, but most of the Machins received Paquebot postmarks for whatever reason.

maptrekker · **Posted:** Mon May 24, 2010 09:58:11 am

Here is the other side.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue May 25, 2010 01:16:56 am

Feebletodix wrote:

The four main colour variants of the SG2295 self advhesive

Ian the line I keep seeing shows up really well on the nearly brown variant and not on the two lighter shades which is what made me ask.

Be well

There is much less definition overall on portrait in the 4th stamp above so that feature would not be very noticeable.

librarianc · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 10:41:33 am

Question of curiosity.........SG#Y1803 or Y1729 (SC#MH283) - £5.00 machin:

Is there a listing for the £5.00 Machin brown with Hibrite back paper? This has elliptical perf and no phosphor bars. When I put it on the table with several others, it jumps right out once the UV lamp is turned on, even before I pick the stamp up!! The face is the same as the other Y1803, but the back is brilliant. The face colour doesn't seem to be altered, so I don't believe that it is because of what it may have been soaked off of, or soaked in.....although many times that is the reason.

Is there anything listing this variety? I have SG Concise 2010 and can't see anything about paper variety.

John A

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 10:54:26 am

Maybe it's been bleached? I read that a stamp with bleach glows brightly under UV.

norvic · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 18:59:10 pm

librarianc wrote:

Question of curiosity.........SG#Y1803 or Y1729 (SC#MH283) - £5.00 machin:

Is there a listing for the £5.00 Machin brown with Hibrite back paper? This has elliptical perf and no phosphor bars. When I put it on the table with several others, it jumps right out once the UV lamp is turned on, even before I pick the stamp up!! The face is the same as the other Y1803, but the back is brilliant. The face colour doesn't seem to be altered, so I don't believe that it is because of what it may have been soaked off of, or soaked in.....although many times that is the reason.

Is there anything listing this variety? I have SG Concise 2010 and can't see anything about paper variety.

John A

Concise doesn't go that detailed. You need the Specialised for paper varieties. There are variations: I'll ask around.

Edit: See http://machinmania.blogspot.com/search?q=bright+paper Quite a way down, and probably in earlier postings the different papers are discussed but I didn't go as far as to find out whether your value exists on different types. The top message focusses on Gibbons' limitations compared wtih other catalogues.

manfaefife · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 22:04:55 pm

This one has puzzled me for a bit. Presumably unofficial Overprint for Philatelic Congress Great Britain Salisbury 1999 but where are the machins from ? I assumed they were from a Prestige Booklet.

librarianc · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 22:11:21 pm

norvic wrote:

librarianc wrote:

Question of curiosity.........SG#Y1803 or Y1729 (SC#MH283) - £5.00 machin:

Is there a listing for the £5.00 Machin brown with Hibrite back paper? This has elliptical perf and no phosphor bars. When I put it on the table with several others, it jumps right out once the UV lamp is turned on, even before I pick the stamp up!! The face is the same as the other Y1803, but the back is brilliant. The face colour doesn't seem to be altered, so I don't believe that it is because of what it may have been soaked off of, or soaked in.....although many times that is the reason.

Is there anything listing this variety? I have SG Concise 2010 and can't see anything about paper variety.

John A

Concise doesn't go that detailed. You need the Specialised for paper varieties. There are variations: I'll ask around.

Edit: See http://machinmania.blogspot.com/search?q=bright+paper Quite a way down, and probably in earlier postings the different papers are discussed but I didn't go as far as to find out whether your value exists on different types. The top message focusses on Gibbons' limitations compared wtih other catalogues.

Thanks, Ian. I have a specialized around here somewhere (but I think it's packed up for the Royal show in Windsor, Ontario this weekend). Looking that up will give me something to do if there are quiet moments during the show. :wink:

John A

norvic · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 22:24:47 pm

manfaefife wrote:

This one has puzzled me for a bit. Presumably unofficial Overprint for Philatelic Congress Great Britain Salisbury 1999 but where are the machins from ? I assumed they were from a Prestige Booklet.

Profile on Print PSB - the one that included the 'invisible' stamp. This is from the DLR gravure pane, the other orange ones being from Questa litho pane, and the large ones being from Harrisons in letterpress, Enschede in intaglio, and Walsall, litho & embossed (white).

The Stoneham catalogue illustrates them all in colour.

Jack · **Posted:** Fri May 28, 2010 23:23:47 pm

The October 1979 cover below is a little battered but would work well in a Machin exhibit I think--

and another of interest--

I still haven't found another of the preprinted below--

norvic · **Posted:** Sat May 29, 2010 00:09:50 am

Jack wrote:

I still haven't found another of the preprinted below--

I have one of these unused: the adhesive doesn't seem to do the sheet any good.

Jack · **Posted:** Sat May 29, 2010 00:13:51 am

It'll be interesting if anyone can tell what they were for. Tapes?

norvic · **Posted:** Sat May 29, 2010 00:28:36 am

Jack wrote:

It'll be interesting if anyone can tell what they were for. Tapes?

Yes, I think they were sold as a pack with a casette. But where mine is I have no idea

Jack · **Posted:** Sat May 29, 2010 01:26:26 am

I've just posted this elsewhere but it also deserves to be here; Wolverhampton 1971. Any idea about the box marks?

machin head · **Posted:** Mon May 31, 2010 03:46:13 am

Hong Kong Machins introduced in 1992 look exactly the same as the GB heads, are there any other foreign issues using the crowned head?

please excuse slightly barrelled images, my scanner's on the blink

Leon_Sellos · **Posted:** Sun Jun 06, 2010 03:20:40 am

Hello friends. I go a lot of time guarding the stamps of "Machin" in envelopes.

Since me it is not possible to differentiate without pipe the different types with phosphorescent bars.

Since(As,Like) podria to do, to be able to differentiate them?

Thank you. Leon_sellos

The Pom · **Posted:** Sun Jun 06, 2010 04:56:44 am

http://www.adminware.ca/machin.htm

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sun Jun 06, 2010 06:12:20 am

You can sort by value, colour, perforations, etc.

machin head · **Posted:** Mon Jun 07, 2010 18:03:11 pm

The phosphor bars are easy to see if held up to the light and look across them, non phosphor will be shiny and all over phosphor will look matt.

As mentioned above there are some very informative web sites on Machins but colour descriptions vary and can cause confusion, but basically the stamps fall into a few main groups regardless of colour, most have side phosphor bands, centre phosphor band, all over phosphor or non phosphor. Don't attach too much importance to the colours.

Pre - decimal (1967-71), most are the standard size but the high values are much larger, values in "d" (stands for the Roman "denari") meaning pence.

Decimal Currency (1971 onwards), values marked "P" for pence, the early high values were larger still.

Regionals (Isle of Man 1971 only), Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales small heads and have their country symbol in the top left corner of the stamp, these are still current.

NVI (No Value Indicated i call them) were first issued in 1989 in black and blue, and red and dark blue from 1990, today blue and gold, commemoratives are also issued in NVI .

Ellipticals were introduced in 1993, and have large elliptical shaped perf holes each side three-quarters of the way down, still current.

Self Adhesives, these dreaded stamps were introduced in 1993 in a landscape format (still in use on large letter stamps) but changed to look like the normal Machins in 1998 as NVI's and "E" airmails, many of the common stamps in use today are self adhesives.

Security. These are the most recent incarnation of the self adhesive Machin (2009) and have elliptical slots cut into them near the bottom, and have various letters mixed with the "ROYAL MAIL" lettering to indicate year of issue or if from a booklet, sheet or commercially used coil, they are in blue or gold and have a shimmery surface.

Double Head (Q.Victoria and Elizabeth 1990) ) and Gold (1997) Machins were introduced as Commemorative issues but the Gold colour was successful and remains on Machin issues to date.

hope this helps

Leon_Sellos · **Posted:** Mon Jun 07, 2010 22:19:06 pm

Thank you very much for the help friends. Last weekend, I have devoted myself to organize little these "Machin"... Cordial regards. Leon_sellos (Martin)

cdj1122 · **Posted:** Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:51:54 pm

Just for the record, Leon, there are currently 419 different Machin stamps that can be sorted by color, value, size, shape and design without any special equipment.

Another 300 to 500 fairly simple variations can be discovered by the number and placement of the phosphor bars and a few obvious differences, again using little more than your good eyes and a bright lamp.

Finding and mounting that number of different Machin stamps can fill many pages of your album and be something worth bragging about.

Best of all, almost all of them can be found in kiloware or purchased at a minimal price.
So, good luck with that and happy stamp hunting.

Leon_Sellos · **Posted:** Thu Jun 10, 2010 20:54:15 pm

Thanks Dear friend.
I schall start with the basic ones(419 units).
¿Is this including the Man Island-Wales-Scotland and N.Ireland..?
I allso have notice....thera´re white and yellow bars...?????

Regards friends. :shock:


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