Queen Elizabeth II And Our Hobby.

Some folks here have been collecting for many decades, some for a few weeks or days.

Some folks here have a large budget to spend on stamps, some collect only what they can get for free.

Some folks collect stamps from only one country, some collect a little of everything.

But I think it's safe to say almost all of us have at least laid eyes on one British stamp with Queen Elizabeth II on it. If not, then seen them online or in magazines.

When I heard of her passing today while driving, the first thing that popped into my head were the many times I have seen her portrait on stamps. She actually helped teach me how large the Empire once was, what various countries used to be named, etc.

Whatever your thoughts on her, the monarchy, the whole idea of monarchies, you have to admit, QEII has been part of our hobby for a very VERY long time.

Long Live the Queen!

I had the exact same reaction when I heard the news. I immediately thought of all the stamps I've seen over the years with her image. When I was a boy, my Canadian aunts would save stamps and bring them when they came to visit. I had so many of those centennial definitives I'd make them into bundles of 100 as we were taught to do back then. Still have them all!

I think it is the case that all(?) Great Britain stamps since 1952 have QEII image--if she is not main image on stamp then head image or silhouette in corner. So are they going to change new issues to have KCIII head silhouette? I wonder if Machins will live on or be replaced by something else?

Undoubtedly new issues will have KCIII profiles on them. The same will happen to coins and bills that currently have her image.

The reason for the regents profile on English stamps is simple. All countries are required to print the countries' or entities'
name on all their stamp issues. Since England was the first to introduce stamps they are exempted from this rule as long as they print the regent's profile on the stamps So yes, we will see KC3's profile on the British stamps.
So long Machins


Peter

Yes, her image on stamps brings back many memories of my early days of collecting.

Rest In Peace ...

I was at our weekly Kiwanis meeting tonight in our small Canadian town and several people - all non stamp collectors - mentioned to me a favourite Queen Elizabeth stamp of theirs. Which was really nice to hear.

I will be putting QE stamps on all my mailings out for the next couple weeks to be sure.

~Greg

It will be interesting to see what the new King Charles III stamps will look like. I wonder what his 'standard' silhouette will look like adorning stamps of GB. I wonder how long it will be before we see the first of them for sale. Will there be an ongoing, constantly added to, series for KCIII, similar to Machins for QEII? The BPO is going to be busy for the next year or so!!

Having endured the tedium of the Machin design for nigh on sixty years, I hope that the new design will be fundamentally different. There's no reason why a new design should use a profile - the QEII definitive stamps utilising the Wilding photograph and the Annigoni portrait are much more attractive. But I fear that reduced modern design skills and ambitions and cost will rule out the possibility of a beautiful series along the lines of the QV Jubilee issue.

Her image was on the endless Machin series. Seemingly a humble simple series, but oh my, it had all the features for a stamp collector:
Different WM, different perforation, no perforation, different size, different colors and shades, different printing techniques, perfins, fluorescent type, adhesive.
Did I forget anything?

I love the Machins as they show how stamp production changed.

@Rob Roy
Phosphors, phosphor layouts, iridescent overprints (security, year, and source), booklets, sheetles, etc.

However, Machins never came with a watermark. Those were the re-issues of the Wildings.

@GeoffHa

The Jubilee issues make a lovely album page. The mass production of stamps, however, requires printing techniques like lithography and gravure that are not very apt for 'Jubilee,' or MacKennal-like designs. I doubt the design skills have anything to do with modern stamps not having early 18th-century Rococo designs. Times simply change and in 1966 - 1967 Arnold Machin's design was a reflection of what many people liked.

Considering King Charles has shown himself to be a traditionalist, I too am hoping for a bit more elaborate designs. But I am afraid neither Royal Mail, nor the majority of the public will share my taste.

NSK - Yes, the Machin issues were a pleasant change from the Wildings when they appeared. However, having seen the same bland design on my incoming post for decades, I had more than enough of them many years ago. I'm not sure that the post office is overly concerned with what we like - we just take what we're given!

What the new stamps may look like:

NSK - you are right. I was thinking about back prints: D, star I, star II.
I've downloaded some time ago a PDF document, from adminware.ca, titled "simplifying the machins", and there many more features of these stamps are mentioned, like currency, no-value, various security measures, paper types, and more.

If he has any say, they'll use an image from when he was younger...
Let's face it, the man is not what you'd call "an Adonis"...

(waiting to get banned on the forum by his new subjects)