Yet Another Machin Thread (With Pictures)

If you read all the threads on SCF like I do, you've seen in various places that I've been soaking Machins all summer so I can start a new collection (as if I don't have enough to do already).

Anyway, I've soaked, dried, and pressed a few hundred stamps and I have another couple hundred pressed between Rod's freezer bags.

I plan to use Robin Harris's Beginner (Free) Album. I've downloaded the PDF, but I haven't printed it yet because I don't have any good-quality paper. I need to make a trip to Staples or Office Depot.

Today, I made little piles of stamps by denomination, then put them in a stock book. It'll have to do until I have time to make an album.

After sorting, I figured I may as well fire up the scanner. Here's what I have so far....













It's strange -- I feel like I've been working on this a year and I have yet to hinge the first stamp. But I'm getting there, I guess. Maybe by the end of 2011?

KirkS

I like the cancel on your first pair of 10p stamps. One could imagine that if the cancel had been shifted slightly, it might read, "properly dressed".

Nice work so far Kirk. Good job. They do look nice when all together like that.

Strange I was just looking at some on postcards wondering if I should make the attempt to figure them out, perfs and phosphor and colours and paper and such.

Are you going for the simple one value of each type or will you keep extras to look at and figure out as to perfs and tagging ans all that other intersting stuff too?

Or the multiples from booklet panes or mini sheets or anything? Do you keep them intact?

You're off to a good start. I just have a basic collection, I was working on it last night actually, reminded by your giveaway offer the other day. I think macins look great in a collection, the variety of colours make an attractive display.

I like your booklet multiples. Definitely worth keeping intact, I would say.

I am not planning, at present, to go in-depth into machins. There is actually quite a lot of work in the basic collection. The regionals can be hard to find, for instance.

My other problem is finding airmail machins - by definition these went out of the country so don't turn up in UK kiloware.

I'm definitely going for SIMPLE with this collection. The description from Robin Harris's website describes the it thusly:




KirkS

That's the album I've printed off too. Came from a great link from an SCF member - can't remember who now .
I'm with you - basic 460 machins is quite enough to be going on with!

That website with the pages and info is interesting. I have a small collection of the Machins and have to confess I know nothing about them. But I am getting the impression that a comprehensive collection would be quite a feat!

C'mon Nells -- a basic collection is under 500 stamps. You can know that out in a long weekend

OMG -- it's almost Christmas 2012 and I still haven't moved these Machins from the stock book to an album. What is wrong with me ???

This is my early New Year's Resolution -- get these hinged before Jan 1!

Funny coincidence, I started on mine last night! I've done about 5 pages. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced my pre-decimals, but they will be around somewhere. I printed the Robin Harris free album pages onto some acid free paper, with each page then going into a protector. I printed it in greyscale to save ink, and I use the colour version on the computer screen to double check colours as I go. It will be interesting to see what proportion of the 460 I actually have, I am guessing around a third.
I will post some pics later!

If I can help fill any gaps, just holler !

Here's one of my better (fuller!) pages!



Many other pages are far more sparsely populated. But I have just under half (around 210) of the spaces filled, which is a good start.

That Robin Harris *.pdf is great, I use that as well.
I wonder what the face value of the basic set is worth.

KirkS, I know you said you wanted to keep it simple, but one stamp you really should be on the look out for is the half penny turquoise blue with the phosphor band vertical on the left. It is heads above the others in terms of value. It was only available as part of the Wedgewood booklet. Check out the SG concise to see how much more valuable it is than the other Machins.

You can see the phosphor bands without a UV light by tilting the stamp and seeing the light reflect off at an angle. The phosphor band should be easily visible.

The strange thing is, Machins feature quite far down my list of collecting interests, yet these are the first stamps I have properly displayed since I got back into collecting 2 years ago. Why is that? I really think it is down to these great PDFs. Free, look great, easy to use as a reference for a basic collection. Its made it a breeze.