What Was In Your Mailbox Today??

NSK- thanks so much for the details. I have avoided jumping into Machins despite many temptations but as a vast and varied definitive with what seems like endless varieties, they keep speaking to me. Over time, the whispers grow louder and louder and now that the series has ended for good, I should probably get one of the better catalogs for Machins so I can at least begin to study them.

Unless someone takes over the job of editing the Connoisseur Catalogue (CC), that may be outdated. The last one I know of dates to 2008, pre-dating the iridescent overprints.

I have no experience with the Machin Collectors Club catalogue, but you hardly see it quoted. Sutton stamps that sells it does not even mention the catalogue numbers in its stamp listings. Neither the MCC, nor Sutton stamps has considered it an idea to post sample pages so you know what you are getting into.

Stoneham was available online for a while, but its publisher reconsidered its big talk about believing a catalogue should freely be available and offers it for £5. Sutton Stamps sells that one. It is a very good catalogue. However, the Machins listing is not there with the CC.

Stanley Gibbons has the GB Concise that is a very limited listing. The GB Specialised is better but does not come near the CC one.

My favourite remains the Deegam Handbook (I really must update my old one). After Douglas Myall's death, it has been continued. It has a very extensive listing and dealers who list stamps by Deegam numbers are going the way of the dinosaurs.
Deegam also has the 'profiles' that are very convenient for re-arranging your collection.

Maybe someone can share his or her experience with the MCC catalogue.

My new air mattress. Took the old foot pump to it and I should be snoring away in the next hour.

I do have the latest Deegam and it is an improvement over the prior editions. Images are better quality..

I was curious about the old Machin presentation packs. This is from 1977 (nr. 90) that arrived today. The inside tells the story of how Arnold Machin designed the stamps. The insert card is folded: i.e., the back cover has been folded. It is twice as wide as the pack itself.




Not all stamps show.



The production of the packs was not always gentle to the stamps. Although most stamps are fine.

The 50p stamp comes in two varieties. One has two phosphor bars and two have no phosphor bars. The former was perforated with a Kampf perforator and the latter both with the Kampf and APS perforators. The Kampf perforator left clean holes. The APS, also known as 'lawnmower' left swarf, The swarf is helpful for determining the direction of printing, as it appears in the direction of printing.

The stamp could be helpful for recognising other stamps. In 1977, only the former had been issued.

20 packs of mounts! And another 22 coming in a couple of days. And hopefully my dual wave lamp not long thereafter.

Scott 320c ... carmine rose imperforate pair

I bought several stockbooks with stamps at ebay, no biggy, but I wanted to show the stamps the seller used.

First, a tribute to Lady D:


Then, a set of 8 stamps, 2 perforated, 2 perforations within perforation, and 4 imperf that you cut by hand. I never saw such an option in modern stamps.

Cutting by hand remains an option if the stamps within the minisheet are imperforated, although they usually aren't.

Sure it's an option, it was just strange to see in the same set stamps with elaborate designs of perf within perf, and hand-cut imperf stamps.

Those Diana stamps are funny.

Charly holds some eco-tourism real estate in Romania, or used to hold it. Someone in the post ooffice must have thought "let's annoy him."

If it's so they were planning ahead: The stamps were issued 6 years ago.

Charly did exist before his coronation.

He owned it for quite some years. My last trip to Romania was in 2014 (I did stay a night or two in Bucarest in 2016). At that time, he had this eco-tourism place and visited it frequently.

Hopefully those stock books are made with materials more typical of Germany than of Romania.

Sherme, I see there King, Edelweiss and some German, so it is probably ok.
Indeed I buy stockbooks with stamps because the shipment of new empty stockbooks from Europe is as the stockbook price itself.