Enter the World of Engravers!

Czeslaw Slania

It feels like an age since I did my last blog post! In that space I have been keeping busy checking out, what is for me, a different type of stamp collection - engravers. To be honest, till recently I'd never really given much thought to who engraved what stamp. Then, just before Christmas, a stamp friend sent me some stamps engraved by Rudolph Toth, an Austrian engraver. The instant I saw the amazing details, I was hooked!! That very night I jumped on the net and started surfing, searching for engravers. I found to my delight and dismay there are plethora talented engravers out there. Besides Toth, two engravers stood out to me. One was Albert Decaris, an incredibly talented French engraver. The other engraver needs no introduction to those in the stamping world - Czeslaw Slania.

In the coming weeks I'll take a look at some of the works of Toth and Decaris, but today is all about Slania.

I did some basic research into Slania and found this great website: I quickly discovered that Slania's first stamp engraving as an apprentice was a part engraving on a stamp from Poland issued in 1950. Turns out Slania engraved the metal head of the axe on the left hand side of the stamp. Seeing this cool bit of info, I immediately knew how to start my collection - right at the beginning. So I have. I just purchased the stamp plus a proof that, I believe, came in a special booklet.

I'm rather chuffed, and I can't wait till they arrive. When they do, I'll post higher resolution scans. 

Stay Stamp Crazy!!

Lavender Hill Mob Forgery

The Fake 24p Rust Machin

The Lavender Hill Mob were a gang of forgers who printed over £50 million of fake currency during the 1980’s and early 90’s. They managed to inject over £30 million of fake cash into the economy, some of which is still circulating to this day. Although specialising in fake currency , the gang also printed Postage, Gas, and TV Licence stamps.

The focus of this brief study is the forged 24p Machin Head Definitive Postage Stamp ...

Forgery

Genuine Stamp

The gang chose to forge the 24p Rust Machin Head stamp, as 24p was the current inland letter rate at the time. They printed the stamp in offset Lithography. They used a Genuine half-sheet of 100 as their template. The forged postage stamps began to appear in the summer of 1993 in mail posted from London and Essex.

Above is an example of the forged stamp alongside a Genuine stamp for comparison. Clearly the colour is an excellent match to that of the Genuine Stamp, enabling the untrained eye to be fooled.

To the trained eye, however, the forgery clearly stands out as a fake. For one, the perforations are much larger at 11 as opposed to 14 or 15. The perforations are also Line Perf. And not Comb. Perf. 

Large Forgery Perfs 11

Genuine Perfs 14 or 15

A close look at the gum also reveals a striking difference. The Deegam Catalogue further elaborates:  “The gum ... is very thin and shiny, with no green or blue dye. It does not appear to be gum arabic since there is no 'crazy paving' appearance under magnification … ”  Deegam further suggests,  “It maybe a variant of Polyvinyl acetate (PVAc).”

Stay Stamp Crazy

Printing Confusion!

Who Can You Trust?

Recently I purchased a lovely Butterfly Custom Booklet direct from Royal Mail. After it arrived, I scanned it and proudly presented it on this Blog. For the technical details I referred to the Royal Mail website. I assumed the information on the site to be accurate. My assumption was wrong. Not long after publishing the article on my blog, it was pointed out to me that the method of printing described for the booklet was incorrect. I had written that the printing method was Litho (Lithography) when it fact, the booklet was clearly printed in Photo (Photograuvre).

To refresh the memory, this is the booklet in question...

I have found that the best way to tell the difference between Photo and Litho printing is to take a close up look at the value and the border of a stamp. When a stamp is printed in Photo tiny square cells can be seen along the edges of the coloured portions of the stamp. This is a product of screening, which is part of the Photo process.

Let us take a close look at one of the 1st Class Royal Mail Red stamps in this booklet.

As you can see this stamp clearly has the hallmarks of a Photograuvre printed stamp. The arrows point to the areas in which the screening effect can be seen.

Conversely, this is what a stamp printed in Lithography will look like...

I guess the moral of this story is to always question and to seek out your own answers! My lesson has been learnt.

Stay Stamp Crazy!!

Butterflies

Royal Mail's New Retail Booklet

On 11 July, Royal Mail issued a new Custom Booklet that I think is rather charming. The booklet contains 4 1st Class stamps in the new 'Royal Mail Red' with M13L date code and MCIL source code. The 'C' stands for Custom. The booklet also contains two 1st Class commemoratives. The Chalkhill Blue butterfly and the Comma butterfly. Although Royal Mail have this booklet listed as having been printed in Lithography it has been done in Grauvre. Royal Mail lists the printer as Cartor. It has been brought to my attention that these booklets were likely printed by Walsall. The two commemoratives are all-over phosphor. The definitives have two phosphor bands.

Stay Stamp Crazy!

Machin Diary 5

Bags of Fun!!

Recently I purchased a bag consisting of 1 Kilo of Machin stamps on paper. I haven't had much of a chance to delve into the mysterious depths of said bag just yet, but today I will be tackling it full force!!

These shots were taken on the day of arrival. Naturally I was exceedingly excited. Don't those bags, choke full of stamps, look simply marvelous? I believe is it time now to remove myself from the computer and start digging!!

I assure you, as readers of this blog, you will be the first to discover the bounty locked within these plastic bags!

Stay Stamp Crazy!

Machin Diary 4

Covered in Machins!!

Hi all. I just realised I haven't made a blog post in quite a while. I've been busy, busy, busy with my new Machin collection. 

Since the last dairy entry I wrote, I've been happily stockpiling lots and lots of new and used Machins. I have come to the decision that, not only do I want to build a collection to fit into the album pages I recently purchased (no mean feat!), but I also want to build a specialist collection of 1p Machins. Why, you may ask? Well, put simply, I have always been fascinated with 1p or 1d stamps. Especially red ones. I have a large collection of Australian KGV 1d reds that I've been working on for several years now that, at present, doesn't have an end in sight.

Anyway, back to Machins. In future diary entries I'll keep you updated on my progress with my 1p collection. But for now I thought it might be fun to share some of the covers I have recently received that are adorned with beautiful Machins. After all, postage is what these tiny masterpieces are for!!

This first cover has a 2012 Diamond Jubilee 1st Class self-adhesive stamp as well as an 8p rosine. Incidentally, the Diamond Jubilee stamp has no source code in the iridescent overprint, which means it is from a counter sheet.

This next cover has a 1p Dark Crimson (first printed 8 March 2011) with security U-slits. It also has a 5p Red Brown (8 March 2011) with security U-slts. Two lovely 9p orange stamps and a 63p Wales definitive are added to the mix.

When I saw this next cover in my mailbox, I instantly fell in love. It is delightful. Not only does it have a Doctor Who Mini Sheet affixed, it also has three spanking new Machins. First we have the 20p Light Green. This stamp was first issued on 8 March 2011. It was reprinted and released again on 3 January 2013 with an M12L date code. It has no source code so it is from a counter sheet. 

    The 50p Slate Grey was issued on the 3 January 2013 also. It too has a M12L date code and no source code. It is a real stunner, is this cover!!

Last but by no means least, we have a great make-up set of Machins totaling £1.88, the current overseas airmail rate for under 20g.

That's it for now. As always...

Stay Stamp Crazy!!

Dr Who Turns Fifty

50th Anniversary Stamps

It seems like it was only yesterday that I sat down as a kid, turned on the tele, and watched Dr Who battling some form of terrible evil. Well folks, it's now been fifty years since this iconic BBC series first aired on 23 November 1963. The recent release of a set of Dr Who stamps by Royal Mail has brought back a lot of great memories for me. I wasn't yet on this earth when Dr Who first started. I rather wish I was. The early Black and White stories, to me, are the best! So let's take a journey back to where it all began. Join me in my time machine as I go back to 1963...

It is now 1963 and the world is a very different place. No ipods, no mobile phones (cell phones), no laptop computers. This was a time when families huddled around their Televisions to watch shows transmitted Black and White. I wonder what someone from 1963 - if transported ahead in time to 2013 - would think of our huge flatscreen HD TV's?

Now that we are in 1963 why don't we find a house that has its TV on and take a peek at what they are watching? It is now 5:15pm and I have it on good authority that a brand new Science Fiction show is about to start...

Just to the left. A house with the TV on. Let's hurry. Oh good. It's just starting. The strange swirly white mist accompanied by riveting music has the family in this particular house transfixed. The story that evolves on the TV on 23 November 1963 is now very well known. The show was Dr Who. The episode was entitled An Unearthly Child.

In this very first episode of Dr Who we meet two school teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. They are both intrigued by a gifted student named Susan. The pair decide to follow Susan home. To their horror they discover that Susan lives in a junkyard at 76 Totters Lane. They follow Susan into the junkyard. There thy are accosted by a strange old man who, Susan claims, is her Grandfather. He has appeared from inside an old blue Police Box. The school teachers then find themselves inside this Police Box. They are amazed!! The inside is huge. It's a spaceship. Then the old man turns on the spaceship...

The rest is history!!

That crazy old man in the junkyard turned out to be the 1st Doctor played by William Hartnell (who happens to be my favourite). Hartnell played the Doctor for 4 seasons until his final story The Tenth Planet, the final episode of which aired on 29 June 1966. Quite a few episodes from the 1st Doctor are, sadly, today missing, including most of the scene in which Hartnell regenerates to the 2nd Doctor... 

William Hartnell

The 2nd Doctor first appeared at the end of The Tenth Planet. He was played by Patrick Troughton. The 2nd Doctor's first story was called The Power of the Daleks. It first aired on 5 November 1966 at 17:50pm. Sadly, most of the stories of the 2nd Doctor were destroyed to make space (if only they knew how popular the show was to become!). Sigh!!

Patrick Troughton

To find out more about the stories of the first 8 Doctors, check out this great site: Click here!

Stay Stamp Crazy!