Great Britain : On Steiner Pages.

London 1980 Cinderella.

The face of "Big Ben" is Prussian Blue



Stitched Booklets.

Big Ben is one of the bells, not the tower, nor the clock.

Any hopes of the return of interesting design after sixty years are dashed. The new GB definitive design -

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ed-on-stamps

Wow. I can hardly believe this. I truly thought it was a joke but it seems real. What a dreadful stamp, totally unworthy of its inevitable association with the Machin.

Posthumous Machins.

Maybe Douglas Myall can publish a new Charles III 'Machin' Handbook, posthumously.

In fact actually unworthy of being called stamps! At least many of the shiny overblown modern stamps produced for collectors and (rightly) deplored as stickers picture interesting subjects

https://www.royalmail.com/hmkingcharlesregister

Ringo - as you know, I don't share your love for Machins, so I just see this as more of the same!

Something tells me Royal Mail does so as well



Except for the portrait only the position of 'Large' changes.

It would be interesting to see whether the 'Downey Head' history is going to repeat itself.
(Those stamps were widely disliked and soon replaced by the Mackennals/Profile Heads.)

Also, I am wondering what Royal Mail will do with the cameo of H.M. the Queen on commemorative stamps. Are they still thinking about that, or were the 16 February 'X-men' stamps at the printers when H.M. the Queen died?

My view is that our definitives lost their way in 1934 with the photogravure vulgarisation of the McKenna heads. The Wildings have been the only interesting and attractive design since then. An opportunity to update those with the Annigoni portrait was missed. The Machins were fun at first, with some attractive colours, but degenerated into dullness because they went on too long with what was little more than a crude play on the 1d black. Lack of new design imagination became characterised as "classic".

I agree the colours have gone downhill. They used to have all sorts - that light tourquoise half-penny, bright yellow 10.5p, the purple 9p which faded across one side to the other, as did the bright pink 2.5p. The modern ones were all light effigy on dark background and dull, lifeless colours, as per those shown on that cover mock-up. They have outlived their prime for sure, and much as I do love them, I am glad they are finishing. (Expensive to keep up with, too.)

You'll be able to buy that seafront flat in Brighton now.

Hats off ! to Cinderellas.

Cinderella Philatelist July 1998 (Pages 50 to 55)

In Honour of those young men (Boys) whom started it all.
The early Cataloguers

If they only knew where it was going

Mount Brown : Cataloguer extraordinaire
1st November 1919

The Penny Post
Academia