The Virtual Machin Album

“Profile on Print” is the second in a series of three prestige booklets promoting Stamp Show 2000 in London in May, 2000. The booklet features current British definitives known as Machins after the designer of the stamps, Arnold Machin.

The booklet contains five panes, each with Machins printed by a different process and produced by a different printer. The printing processes run from the common (gravure, lithography) to the uncommon (intaglio) to the unusual (embossing, letterpress). The results vary widely, a reminder “that certain designs are appropriate to certain printing processes.”

Albert Farrugia, editor of Machinations, refers to some of these stamps as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” You can read his comments about this booklet in his Musing here at GBStamps.com.

These virtual album pages show the stamps, panes, and interleaves of this remarkable booklet. Following each normal-sized image is usually a supplementary page with enlargements. Use the blue left and right arrows to scroll forwards and backwards through the album.

Some of the images are fairly large, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the grand tour of the world’s most famous Profile on Print.

The booklet covers are even more minimalist than the Machin design itself. The front cover is gray with two small bands of color blending in at upper left and lower right. There are three emblems at the top left and a line of text at bottom right. The back cover (shown later) is solid gray with the Royal Mail logo in black and white.

The Profile on Print booklet was issued on February 16, 1999. It sold for £7.54, the face value of the 29 first-class non-value indicated (NVI) stamps in the booklet. The text pages and covers were printed by The House of Questa, who assembled the booklet incorporating the panes from the other four printers.