Machins at The Stamp Show 2000

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There were four Machin exhibits at The Stamp Show 2000. It is gratifying to see that such modern material is well represented at an international exhibition. The best of them won a large vermeil, showing that modern material is competitive with the more frequently exhibited older material (though we’re not likely to see a large gold awarded to such an exhibit, or will we?)

A description and some highlights of each exhibit are given here. I don’t have any of this type of material to show, so this will be a text-only presentation. I offer it to give you some idea of the type of Machin material that is shown at international exhibitions.

Great Britain Decimal Stamp Books — James Shaw, Australia   Large Silver medal

James Shaw presented many scarce errors and other unusual items relating to Machin stamp booklets issued in decimal currency (1971 to date). A few of the items he displayed are described below.

• A 10p stitched booklet with the panes inserted upside down (stitching on the bottom of the stamps).
• A stitched pane of five 2 1/2p Machins plus a label with the phosphor bands shifted by 1/2 stamp so the band is over the perforations rather than down the center of the stamps (only recorded copy).
• A striking pair from a booklet pane with a 1p Machin on the left and what should be a 13p Machin on the right, but the 13p has a white background and a very pale Queen’s head.
• A booklet pane of ten 12p stamps with an extra perforation hole extending into the margin (only 5 of this booklet recorded with this perforation).
• A Christmas booklet containing 12 1/2p and 15 1/2p Machins having an extra phosphor band on the stamps in the fourth column (only recorded copy).
• A pane for the £3 Wedgwood prestige booklet with the red color missing in the selvedge.
• A pane from the same booklet in which the image of the 2p stamp in the middle of a 3x3 block of nine is shifted to the right by several millimeters, so that the image overprints the adjacent 10p stamp (only Machin pane of this nature ever recorded).
• A window booklet containing four 1st class flame-colored stamps with a major phosphor shift that puts the leftmost band in the selvedge and the left column of stamps has two bands down the right side (only recorded copy).

Machin Types of Great Britain — Hans Jacob Tuxen, Denmark   Bronze-Silver medal

Hans Jacob Tuxen presented a teaching exhibit. Rather than showing rare and unusual items, he attempted to show viewers many of the common varieties of the Machins and how to identify them.

He showed the different value types, colors, paper coatings, phosphor coatings and bands, head types, phosphor screens and others. Many were illustrated with enlarged photographs. I judged the presentation to be only partially successful. For example, he showed enlargements to highlight the differences between photogravure and lithographic printing, but these were not clear and the differences were not obvious. However, his photographs showing the difference between the old photogravure using acid-etching and the new electromechanical gravure were very clear.

He had some photographs taken with ultraviolet light to show the differences in fluorescence of some of the papers. He showed some different shades, the type I and type II numerals, and phosphor coated paper (PCP) 1 and 2. He displayed the regionals and the type I and II emblems used on them.

While very comprehensive, the overall display was rather cluttered. I am in favor of this kind of exhibition because it provides useful information for the mass of collectors who cannot afford the type of material usually seen in international exhibitions. I only wish his presentation had been better.

Predecimal Machins — Tony Walker, U.K.   Large Vermeil medal

Tony Walker created a comprehensive exhibit on the 1967-1970 predecimal period of the Machin series. It demonstrates the breadth of the Machin series — and the large number of rare items — produced in that short amount of time.

• An imperforate block of four of the final essay of the first Machin, the olive-sepia 4d, with the denomination at lower right, rather than at lower left as issued.
• An essay of the 1/6 Machin in ultramarine, a color not used for a Machin until the decimal high values were issued in 1970.
• Preliminary artwork for the “Stamps for Cooks” prestige booklet issued in 1969. This artwork was very different from the final version, and it showed the face value as 20 shillings. (The actual booklet was the same value but expressed as one pound.)
• A copy of this booklet with the panes overprinted with the word “SPECIMEN” in such large type that it spread over four stamps. Walker says ten of these booklets were made but have not been reported, and his is one of two copies in private hands. These booklets were used to familiarize the sales staff with this new format, since this was the first prestige booklet.
• A number of rare varieties of stitched booklets, including dummy and specimen booklets.
• Trials of the 5/- 1970 Philympia booklet with green, pink, yellow and blue thread. The booklet was issued with red thread.
• Several part-perforated booklet panes, along with an allegedly unique totally imperforate pane of six 1d head B Machins with PVA gum.
• Cylinder blocks of the 5d, cylinders 13 and 13 dot; these are scarce because they were issued just before decimalization.
• A cylinder block of six of the very scarce 4d sepia head B with gum arabic; only five such blocks were known and most have been broken up for singles.
• A number of printing errors, including perforation errors, phosphor errors, and dry prints.
• The se-tenant pane from the “Stamps for Cooks” booklet with phosphor on the gum side, only three of which are recorded.
• The same se-tenant pane with broad phosphor bands on the left side of the stamps (resulting from a phosphor shift) and also totally missing phosphor. The broad band pane is very scarce.
• A full four pages of color trials:
  • Walker notes that trials were originally produced in 93 different colors. The Post Office narrowed this down to 40, then hired Cambridge University to conduct further tests. Cambridge did tests with postmen and housewives to pick the 14 colors that could be differentiated most easily.
  • Three cylinders were used for trials: the 8d for monochrome stamps with a dark background, the 1/- for monochrome stamps with a light background and the 1/6 for bicolored stamps with a dark background.
  • Trials using the 8d cylinder including bright emerald, deep green, blue, ultramarine, greenish blue, pale turquoise, magenta, mauve, plum, bluish violet and brown.
  • Trials using the 1/- including turquoise (similar to the color used in 1971 for the 1/2p), olive grey, various greens, slate blue, violet blue, pale magenta, mauve and chestnut.
  • Trials using the 1/6 including brown-olive/olive yellow, deep carmine/pale magenta, bright ultramarine/bright mauve, light purple portrait on deep purple background (very striking), pale rose portrait on deep blue-green background, olive-yellow portrait on brown-olive background, pale magenta portrait on deep carmine background and pale dull purple portrait on deep bright purple background.

Coatings of Sterling (predecimal) Machins — Robin Tibbenham, U.K.    Open Class - not in competition for a medal

Robin Tibbenham has created a comprehensive study of the paper coatings of predecimal Machins. He notes that this field has been extensively studied on the decimal Machins but little work has been done on the predecimal, or Sterling, issues. He studied over 2000 cylinder blocks, including every issued stamp except one, the 5d with phosphor coating and phosphor bands.

He differentiates the coatings by the degree of brightness of their reaction to ultraviolet light, that is, their fluorescence. He shows a number of stamps that have varying degrees of brightness and says that these indicate multiple printings. He tries to determine the source of the various papers used. He claims there is more information available at Royal Mail and at the printers, but it has not been released to collectors.

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Last update: Saturday, August 16, 2003
Copyright © 2003 by Larry Rosenblum