The Virtual Machin Album

The souvenir sheet, issued on June 5, was designed by Jeffery Matthews and Katya Thielen of Together Design. It contains two commemorative stamps, one featuring a portrait of Arnold Machin and the other featuring the first Machin stamp. (The 4d stamp shown is one of three that were issued on June 5, 1967. However, since the 4d paid the basic letter rate and was the most commonly used of the three, it is generally considered to be “the first Machin.”) The sheet also contains the old £1 mauve and the new £1 ruby as a vertical pair.

The £1 mauve in the souvenir sheet has its usual iriodin ink overprint. The central image of the two commemoratives is raised slightly (embossed). These commemoratives also appear in the prestige booklet and the generic sheet. The stamps in the booklet pane have the raised image, but the stamps in the generic sheet do not.