Great presentation. I'm a GB collector (since 1983), and I have a vast collection of Machins, I love them. I know I'll never get them all, but it's rewarding when I snag some new ones!
Good evening. I have been watching your video with a great deal of interesting information about UK brands and I wanted to share my thoughts on it. For the past few years, I have been trying to assemble an entry-level stamp collection of Machins. We don't have a lot of these in Russia, but friends from other countries have helped me. With their assistance, I have already amassed about 50% of this collection.
I'm from the UK. I actually found this to be a pretty accurate description of Machins and the problems for collectors. If I can add some additional information :- UK post costs in 1840 were 1d. This had risen to 5d (1st class) by 1970 (pre-decimal). There were 240 pennies to £1 After decimalisation £1 was the same but 100 new pence made £1. so in pence 12d (1 shilling) was the same as 5p. So in the first 130 years of stamps the rate went up by 4d (just over 2p) The 50 years since 1971 the current 1st class rate is now 85p (That's privatization for you). Phosphor Bands. For example 7p in brown was a 1st class stamp (2nd class was 6 1/2p) when the rate went up to 9p for 1st 7p became the 2nd class rate. However the phosphor bands changed Generally speaking a single Centre band was 2nd class and 2 side bands were for 1st class. so although the 7p in brown has the same colour there are two main phosphor types. If the 7p was issued in some booklets, the single band might be on either the left or the right side. When the early Prestige Booklets were issued DX1 (£1 Story of Wedgwood) was the only source of the 1/2p turquoise with the band at the left side. This caught a lot of people out at the time so that stamp is rare and worth way more that almost any other machin (ex errors). Later stamps may also have AOP (All Over Phosphor) Perforations The standard Perf is 15x14. Again mostly due to different printers, some otherwise identical stamps may have 14x14 perfs. Regional Varieties. Starting in 1958 with the Wildings and carrying on with Machins stamps have been issued for Northern Ireland (Red Hand of Ulster), Scotland (Rampant Lion) & Wales (Dragon) Technically there were 1 set of machins issued for the Isle of Mann back in 1971. For the most part, these are the same colours as the normal Machins with a slightly smaller image of the Queen to make room for the regional symbol. There are some subtle variations of these symbols due to different printers. One other odd exception. Wales is classed as a Bi-lingual country (Like Canada I suppose). A few stamps were printed without the 'p' i.e. 20 in wales, 20p elsewhere. Also 1st became 1af/st Regional machins were replaced in 1999 with 'pictorals'. Each country in the UK has 4 images to reflect the country (Scottish ones have Saltire Flag, Rampant Lion, Thistle & Tartan). The English were always miffed that the regions had there own stamps so although there are no English Machins there are 4 pictorals for English. Or maybe Royal Mail saw it as a way to get more money out of collectors. NVI & Self Adhesive. Gummed NVIs were introduced in 1989. SA NVIs were introduced in 1993, they were originally issued in Landscape (Horizontal) format but reverted soon after to portrait format. Apart from some colour changes (White for millennium) they stayed like this until 2009 when the iridescent overprint was introduced (& Security slits) Note, Although Self Adhesive, Stamps prior to 2009 can be soaked off without any real problems. 2009 NVIs have no Date codes these started in 2010 onward. With one change 2nd class stamps are light Blue (briefly they were dark blue) However 1st class have seen several colour changes going From Black to Red to Gold and back to Red. In the middle of 2016, the Red went from Red to Dark Red. Also 1st class have had some special issues (White in 2000 for millennium, 2012 Slate-Blue for Diamond Jubilee and 2015/6 amethyst-Purple to mark QEII becoming the longest reigning monarch). Once you start looking at Machins in detail you will never be the same again. Actually my main collecting habits are GB First Day Covers and sometimes it seems that the more I collect the more I find to collect. Hope my comments help.
Wow! Such minutiae, so much to learn, my head is spinning! I definitely need to take a closer look at all my Machins - I have missed so much and am so glad I have not given, what I thought, were extras away! Thank you for taking the time to share all this information. In future I will think of this as the secret life of Machins!
A beautiful and very wonderful offer. I wish success and progress in your wonderful work. Health and safety to you. My thanks, appreciation and respect.💕💞💕
A very thorough and interesting overview. I'm Australian, but I love British stamps. My focus is on pre decimal and even then mainly prior to Edward the 8th. I agree there are just too many Machins and after watching this I now realise there are many more than I was remotely aware of. I just can't be bothered trying to sort them. I've probably got more than 500 of them that I've never done anything with. When I eventually do get around to it I think I'll just sort the decimals by value.
I just started collecting Machins and yes Robin's site is awesome. I also found that 'an other youtube site 'John Collects Stamps' has valuable info on Machins. Thanks for sharing this great video.
FYI, the city in the UK is pronounced Nor-ij not Nor-witch like the city in Canada. Same as Greenwich (Gren-ij) and Woolwich (Wool-ij). Also, the printing firm is pronounced En-skuh-day. The presentation was very informative.
I agree that the Robin Harris website is a fantastic resource for Machin collectors. He also offers three levels of albums to download, depending on how specialized a collector you want to be.
I think the collecting world will rejoice when the machins finish and we can get on with King Charles stamps. The album maker then can have a finished product as well
Collecting Machins drives me bonkers😂😂.I just give up trying to go anything beyond the the like for its colours and stick to the good olde Wildings definatives.Anyway,great video and information.👍👍👍
Ola .soy de Costa Rica.gracias por toda la información.que lindo es compartir con personas conocedoras de la filatelia. Yo tengo estampillas.muy viejitas y en muy buen estado.como pudiera hacer para compartirles fotos de toda mi colección.gracias
Great presentation. I'm a GB collector (since 1983), and I have a vast collection of Machins, I love them. I know I'll never get them all, but it's rewarding when I snag some new ones!
Good evening. I have been watching your video with a great deal of interesting information about UK brands and I wanted to share my thoughts on it. For the past few years, I have been trying to assemble an entry-level stamp collection of Machins. We don't have a lot of these in Russia, but friends from other countries have helped me. With their assistance, I have already amassed about 50% of this collection.
Excellent presentation! Thank you for sharing your knowledge about this classic stamp design.
I'm from the UK. I actually found this to be a pretty accurate description of Machins and the problems for collectors. If I can add some additional information :-
UK post costs in 1840 were 1d. This had risen to 5d (1st class) by 1970 (pre-decimal). There were 240 pennies to £1 After decimalisation £1 was the same but 100 new pence made £1. so in pence 12d (1 shilling) was the same as 5p. So in the first 130 years of stamps the rate went up by 4d (just over 2p) The 50 years since 1971 the current 1st class rate is now 85p (That's privatization for you).
Phosphor Bands.
For example 7p in brown was a 1st class stamp (2nd class was 6 1/2p) when the rate went up to 9p for 1st 7p became the 2nd class rate. However the phosphor bands changed Generally speaking a single Centre band was 2nd class and 2 side bands were for 1st class. so although the 7p in brown has the same colour there are two main phosphor types. If the 7p was issued in some booklets, the single band might be on either the left or the right side.
When the early Prestige Booklets were issued DX1 (£1 Story of Wedgwood) was the only source of the 1/2p turquoise with the band at the left side. This caught a lot of people out at the time so that stamp is rare and worth way more that almost any other machin (ex errors).
Later stamps may also have AOP (All Over Phosphor)
Perforations
The standard Perf is 15x14. Again mostly due to different printers, some otherwise identical stamps may have 14x14 perfs.
Regional Varieties.
Starting in 1958 with the Wildings and carrying on with Machins stamps have been issued for Northern Ireland (Red Hand of Ulster), Scotland (Rampant Lion) & Wales (Dragon) Technically there were 1 set of machins issued for the Isle of Mann back in 1971.
For the most part, these are the same colours as the normal Machins with a slightly smaller image of the Queen to make room for the regional symbol. There are some subtle variations of these symbols due to different printers. One other odd exception. Wales is classed as a Bi-lingual country (Like Canada I suppose). A few stamps were printed without the 'p' i.e. 20 in wales, 20p elsewhere. Also 1st became 1af/st
Regional machins were replaced in 1999 with 'pictorals'. Each country in the UK has 4 images to reflect the country (Scottish ones have Saltire Flag, Rampant Lion, Thistle & Tartan). The English were always miffed that the regions had there own stamps so although there are no English Machins there are 4 pictorals for English. Or maybe Royal Mail saw it as a way to get more money out of collectors.
NVI & Self Adhesive.
Gummed NVIs were introduced in 1989.
SA NVIs were introduced in 1993, they were originally issued in Landscape (Horizontal) format but reverted soon after to portrait format.
Apart from some colour changes (White for millennium) they stayed like this until 2009 when the iridescent overprint was introduced (& Security slits) Note, Although Self Adhesive, Stamps prior to 2009 can be soaked off without any real problems.
2009 NVIs have no Date codes these started in 2010 onward.
With one change 2nd class stamps are light Blue (briefly they were dark blue) However 1st class have seen several colour changes going From Black to Red to Gold and back to Red. In the middle of 2016, the Red went from Red to Dark Red. Also 1st class have had some special issues (White in 2000 for millennium, 2012 Slate-Blue for Diamond Jubilee and 2015/6 amethyst-Purple to mark QEII becoming the longest reigning monarch).
Once you start looking at Machins in detail you will never be the same again. Actually my main collecting habits are GB First Day Covers and sometimes it seems that the more I collect the more I find to collect.
Hope my comments help.
Thanks for this...brilliant snapshot
Wow! Such minutiae, so much to learn, my head is spinning! I definitely need to take a closer look at all my Machins - I have missed so much and am so glad I have not given, what I thought, were extras away! Thank you for taking the time to share all this information.
In future I will think of this as the secret life of Machins!
Great and very informative presentation about Q Elizabeth II stamps of GB. I was amazed by the complexity of the machin varieties. Thanks!
Although I don’t collect Machins, I now understand them better. Thanks for that.
A beautiful and very wonderful offer. I wish success and progress in your wonderful work. Health and safety to you. My thanks, appreciation and respect.💕💞💕
I have some stamp
Very informative - I had no idea how complicated Machins are!
a very interesting and informative video I learned a lot about the varieties of UK postage stamps
Amazing that something so simple as a definitive stamp can actually be very interesting. Will be looking at mine in a different light. Thank you
Thank you for the presentation. It gives rise to my renewed interest in collecting British definitives. Keep it up!
A very thorough and interesting overview. I'm Australian, but I love British stamps. My focus is on pre decimal and even then mainly prior to Edward the 8th. I agree there are just too many Machins and after watching this I now realise there are many more than I was remotely aware of. I just can't be bothered trying to sort them. I've probably got more than 500 of them that I've never done anything with. When I eventually do get around to it I think I'll just sort the decimals by value.
You're welcome to send them to me. :)
excellent vid
I just started collecting Machins and yes Robin's site is awesome. I also found that 'an other youtube site 'John Collects Stamps' has valuable info on Machins. Thanks for sharing this great video.
WOW what an insight. Haven't heard this much details. thank you sir..
Great talk, love to Canada from Oz
FYI, the city in the UK is pronounced Nor-ij not Nor-witch like the city in Canada. Same as Greenwich (Gren-ij) and Woolwich (Wool-ij). Also, the printing firm is pronounced En-skuh-day. The presentation was very informative.
I have all this stamp.. during the era British conquer Malaysia.. king Edward, Queen Victoria, king George and Queen Elizabeth.
I agree that the Robin Harris website is a fantastic resource for Machin collectors. He also offers three levels of albums to download, depending on how specialized a collector you want to be.
And also don't forget the phosphor uses and the different phosphor bands...my best, Stefanos
Yes I have over hundred + Machins mint and used along with Wildings . Very interesting 🤔
I think the collecting world will rejoice when the machins finish and we can get on with King Charles stamps. The album maker then can have a finished product as well
Collecting Machins drives me bonkers😂😂.I just give up trying to go anything beyond the the like for its colours and stick to the good olde Wildings definatives.Anyway,great video and information.👍👍👍
Thanks a lot! So intresting and helpful ! Stefanos, Athens
And also don't forget the phosphor uses and the different phosphor bands.....
Ola .soy de Costa Rica.gracias por toda la información.que lindo es compartir con personas conocedoras de la filatelia. Yo tengo estampillas.muy viejitas y en muy buen estado.como pudiera hacer para compartirles fotos de toda mi colección.gracias
Nothing to do with Machins, I'm from UK but collect Canadian. Particularly George V. Beautiful stamps.
@00:21never noticed that. Coin change after death of monarch. Victoria faces the same on both.
Crap! I’m now Hooked......
I am from India.
Nowritch....not nor witch 😂
رائع وجميل جدا
Have laikethis
انا لدي الكثير من هذه الطوابع
هل تريد شرائها