The 2nd Large stamp was also issued in a retail stamp book of four stamps. The words "Large" and "Letter" appear at the bottom left of the front cover. This is done to avoid confusing the booklet with one that would contain ordinary second-class stamps.
Like the retail book of eight second-class stamps, the cover has two elliptical indents. The indents appear at the top right of the folded stamp book. The indents are larger than those for the retail booklet containing the ordinary second-class stamps. The indents help the visually impaired recognising the content as second-class stamps for large letters.
As was the case for the retail stamp book with four first-class stamps, the paper matrix on the inside of the front cover has been stripped away around the four stamps. Only the narrow strip on the extreme righthand side of the booklet, when viewed from the front, remains. The stamp books are folded slightly off-centre. As a result, part of this strip remains visible when the stamp book is folded. Towards the bottom of the strip appears the imprint 'KC' for 'King Charles.' Part of the stamp books will also show the cylinder numbers. The matrix on the inside of the front cover, has not been removed. This provides stiffness to the front cover.
The backing paper for this stamp book is SBP2i.
Stamps from the stamp book have the 'A' in 'MAIL' above the back of the King's head replaced by a 'F' identifying this as a stamp from a book of four stamps. It also has the code 'M23L' above the King's forehead. These are listed as MFIL/M23L, i.e., stamp books of four printed in 2023.
Like the stamps from counter sheets, stamps from books have two 6.5 mm. wide side phosphor bars.
The phosphor bars are visible under longwave UV light. This is the case for all the stamps issued on 4 April 2023.
Posted 10/21/2023 3:48 pm
