Adrian Keppel's new blog

Adrain Keppel is a Machin collector (among others) living in Scotland. He had his own blog, AKPhilately, and contributed a few posts here at Machin Mania.

Adrian is now blogging for Stamp Magazine, where he posts once a week. Although it is not always about Machins or even GB, it is well worth visiting. Find it at

http://blog.stampmagazine.co.uk

We wish you much success, Adrian.

--Larry

Isle Of Man First Day Covers

Whist browsing a well known auction site I spotted these covers which took my fancy. Although I do not make a habit of buying covers I made a mental note to go back with the intention to place a cheeky bid on them. Unfortunately the seller will not deliver overseas so both he and I missed out this time.

Larry & I briefly wrote about Isle of Man stamps and the other regional Machins sometime back. Click here and here for the links.

Coronation Plaster Cast

As it is the Queens Diamond Anniversary next year I thought this image of a plaster cast profile of Queen Elizabeth II may be appropriate to show on these pages.

It was created 60 years ago in 1952 designed by Mr N A Trent of Chelsea to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II Coronation.

Although it was not created by Arnold Machin, it is certainly in his style. Perhaps (if he viewed it) it could possibly be where Arnold got some of his inspiration. Nice Eh?

Another portrait of Her Majesty dressed in coronation robes will be issued next year (2 Feb 2012 ). It is that of the £1.10p value on a set of stamps depicting all the monarchs to date that make up the the House of Windsor.

Although I complain a lot about Royal Mail and some of the boring designs they have produced over the last decade. I must admit I like this set of stamps very much. Well done RM keep up the good work.

Site And Traffic Overview

I had a little time on my hands today so I took a trip into the Google Blog settings for this site. I have often wondered how many visitors we get and I was very surprised to find a page informing me of an overview to the visitors that actually frequent the site.


For your information here are some of the statistics.

Page Views today
107

Page views yesterday
160

Page Views last month
5,288

Page Views all time history
90,432







Main Countries that visit

United Kingdom 39,715, United States 17,337, Canada 5,611, France 3,647 , Netherlands 3,590,
Australia 2,762, Germany 2,440, Spain 1,374, Italy 1,095, Ukraine 453

It is nice to see that so many people are interested in the content we provide. From myself and Larry many thanks to you all. Without your comments and questions we could not keep the blog going. With your help and contributes we hope to continue with the service for a long time to come.

Machin & The Coinage Head

On the Diamond Anniversary Miniature sheet you will notice that we are looking forward to (5) new definitive type stamps. Described as:

1st class based on a Wilding Definitive.

1st class based on a £1 note portrait by Robert Austin.

1st class based on £5 note portrait by Harry Eccleston

1st class based on the Pre-decimal coinage head by Mary Gillick.

1st class based on the Arnold Machin’s decimal currency head.

and lastly the 1st class new Jubilee Machin Definitive Stamp.

The one I want to bring to your attention today is the 1st class stamp based on the Arnold Machin’s decimal currency head of 1968. I thought as it is a Machin (but not as we know it) it deserved a mention on these pages.

I have picked up some information on this early head which is quite interesting.

The head was submitted by Machin as a competition entry for the new coins from photographs taken by Lord Snowdon. Eventually Machins portrait was chosen for the obverse side of the new coins. But his work had only just started.

Arnold then had to produce a true likeness of the Queen and for this he had four sittings at Buckingham Palace. As this was the first time he had worked on a coin design, he found it a difficult and challenging technique.

He first made drawings of the the Queen's head, followed by modelling in relief. From theses studies he built up the image working at his London studio, and he finally decided in the summer of 1963 that he would need one further sitting. The Royal Family were away at Balmoral on their summer break and so Arnold was invited to join them there.

On returning to London, Arnold continued to work on the effigy, producing several versions and submitted designs for several months. His final portrait, approved by the Queen in June 1964, was handed over to the Mint where it was reduced mechanically with a pantograph machine to coin size.

Arnold visited several times to supervise the final engraving. The first two coins (the 5 new pence and the 10 new pence) with the new effigy of the Queen were in circulation in 1968.

A year later a 50 new pence piece was introduced, and the remaining coins became available as legal tender on Decimalisation Day, February 15th 1971. In March 1965 Arnold was awarded the OBE.

One coin that does not get a mention is that of the full Gold Sovereign, Shown above, beautiful coin in my veiw which allows Machins design to stand out in all its glory. Sovereigns are struck in 22 carat gold, weighing 7.98 grams and measures 22.05 mm in diameter. The reverses show St. George and the Dragon.

Shes Reigning In Our Hearts

I had this sent to me by email, it made me chuckle so I thought I would share it with you.

To the tune of Its raining


Shes reining in our hearts
The secrets out the stamps are blue, there's nothing else RM could do
and shes reigning, still reigning in our hearts.

The Machin men will clap their hands , a mini sheet to please her fans
shes reigning, still reigning in our hearts.

Expect a Prestige Book to come of age, more Machins yes will grace a page
yes shes reigning, still reigning in our hearts

Diamond Jubilee Definitive

At long last the official embargo is now off and details of the Diamond Jubilee Machin and other products have been published by Ian Billings on his blog.

I have to say I am impressed and congratulate Royal Mail for their thought and endeavours creating this issue.
Ian informs us (as we suspected) that The definitive will be 'diamond blue' and will show the words 'DIAMOND JUBILEE' continuously in the style of the current security print, what we did not speculate on is that the the security print would only cover the background only. A definite improvement in the design if you ask me!!

Ian also informs us the following will be issued on 6 February 2012:
Counter sheet, Business sheet x 100, 12 x 1st booklet. The booklet will be on sale throughout the year replacing the 1st gold definitive.

In March the following will be issued:
4 x 1st Large letter, 1st Large counter sheet, 1st large x 50 business sheet.
There is no indication of any variation in the inscription to indicate the source of the stamps.

Also on 6 February there is a Jubilee miniature sheet with 6 x 1st class stamps with designs taken from banknotes, coins and similar to the Wilding stamp:

Many Thanks to Ian for the insight and the image, now jump over to his blog and read the whole account for yourselves.

PHQ Cards Continued

I recently discussed the topic of PHQ Cards and wrongly informed you that these were relatively cheap to acquire.
Peter Bradly has sent me two images of of early cards with the actual stamps attached and cancelled with first day of issue postmarks. Peter informs me these are quite rare and now command a premium price from dealers.


The fist is the £1.00 issue from 22 August 1995 now selling at £14.00. The second which I found hard to believe until I checked it out myself is that of the Millennium Machin 23 May 2000, now selling at an incredible £27.50.

Sorry if I miss led you. In the previous post I was in fact referring to plain cards. But even the two shown above if you buy them in plain format which are catalogued at £3.00 and £5.00 respectively now sell for a whopping £10.00 each. A massive rise in a short space of time!!

I also had an email from Larry who informs me that Douglas Myall lists these in the Deegam Handbook. Douglas has published list of official cards with the Machin head on pages 35 to 42 of Appendix 13.

Mystery Machin Display Solved!

I knew this blog has intelligent readers. Less than three hours after the display was posted, reader Phil came up with the correct answer, a Sudoku grid.

In a Sudoku grid, the numbers in each row, column, and sub-section add up to the same total. In this case of a 9x9 grid, the total is 45. The sub-sections are the nine 3x3 grids that make up the 9x9 grid.

No number can be repeated in a row, column or sub-section.

Sudoku is presented as a puzzle, with some of the numbers filled in. The solver must fill in the rest of the numbers.

A couple of readers (one who responded by email) said this was a magic square, but it is not. In a magic square, each cell has a different number. In a 9x9 magic square, the cells contain the numbers from 1 to 81. (You can only build up to a 4x4 magic square with Machins because there is no 21p Machin that would be needed for the 5x5 square.)

Thanks to all who replied and to my friend David who sent me the image. Phil, please email me (click the Contact Larry link above) your mailing address, and I will send you the Machin prize.

--Larry

PS I don't do Sudoku puzzles. In my few spare minutes, you'll find me playing Angry Birds.

PHQ Cards

I hope you enjoy this post my second of the day. One theme of collecting which we have not covered on Machin Mania is that of PHQ cards. What are they and what do the initials PHQ stand for?

PHQ actually stands for Postal Headquarters and they are a quite a diverse subject so were to start?

All PHQ items are published by the Post Office and they are given a number which is prefixed by letters. The first card issued, was the 3p W.G Grace stamp from the set of stamps commemorating County Cricket, issued on 16 May 1973, this card was numbered PHQ 1.

These cards previously called Maxim Cards are still sold to the present day, the numbering sequence has continued, and the latest set to be issued is that of the A-Z of UK Landmarks.

I have to admit I have never been interested in this type of material, I find that the hobby is far to expensive as it is just collecting the bits and dabs that I now limit myself to. But then again saying this as a self confessed Machin Nutter, if it is Machin orientated I may just persuade myself to pick up the odd one here and there.

Most of these cards depict commemorative designs, but there are also quite a few that actually depict the Glorious Machin Head in one form or another. Get ready to be surprised.

Only four commemorative (or special issues) actually refer to the Machin or to the man Machin himself, one is shown above, but there are plenty of others that have been issued with images of the actual Machin definitive. In fact a grand total of 29 (as far as I know) to date. The first was issued in 1993 which was the experimental Machin self adhesive (horizontal) Flame 1st-class. The rest of the list is a long one but if you want to start a collection you can still pick them up at reasonable prices.

1993 1st class flame horizontal self adhesive
1995 £1
2000 Millennium 1st-class
2003 1st-class Gold machin
2003 Universal European 40 grams

Shown below are the 2008 National Definitives (a set of 24 values) 1p, 2p, 5p, 9p 10p,15p, 16p, 2nd class (blue), 1st class gold, 2nd class large, 48p, 50p, 1st class gold large, worldwide postcard, 56p, Europe 40 gr, 81p, £1 ruby, worldwide 40 gr, £1.50p, £2.00, £3.00 and £5,00 high values.

Roald Dahl Prestige Stamp Book

I have just received images of the Roald Dahl Prestige Stamp Book to be issued on 10 January 2012. Although it is a bit early, I thought I might share them with you.

I am not sure if they are mock ups or the real McCoy, the Machin pane which clearly shows security slits consists of 4 x 68p, 2 x 10p and 2 x 2p.

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

An exhibition of The Queen at National Portrait Gallery will take place during 2012 as part of the national celebrations for the Queens Diamond Jubilee. Celebrating 60 years on the throne.

The gallery will mark the occasion with a collection of special portraits of the monarch, created during her lengthy reign.

From her profile on stamps and coins to full length commemorative portraits, the image of the Queen has been photographed, painted, and recorded in a number of different ways over the years. Capturing a number of different ages, sittings and formal occasions, the exhibition aims to explore the way in which the Queen has been represented since she came to the throne in 1952.

Works of art to be included in the exhibition about The Queen at National Portrait Gallery are 60 different works, one for each year of her reign. Formally painted portraits, official photos, press images and commissions by contemporary artists will all be on show, giving visitors the chance to witness not only changes to the Queen over the years, but changes to the styles of representation she receives.

Artists whose work is represented in show include the likes of pietro Annigoni, Cecil Beaton, Lord Lichfield, Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud and Gerhard Richter.

It has been said one of the most popular images on show throughout the exhibition is the portrait of the Queen, presented in 3D by the light artist Chris Levine. Entitled Lightness of Being, the work was created in 2004 and shows the Queen in a formal setting, wearing her crown and a fur trimmed robe, but with her eyes seemingly shut.

It will be interesting to see if the Machin portrait is included the line up. Alongside the portraits by various famous artists, The Queen at National Portrait Gallery also features archival material, postage stamps are said to be included so it is feasible some reference to Machin may be made.

Perhaps the the mould which is held as one of the Treasures of the Archives "The Machin Head", sculpted and cast by Arnold Machin will be shown.

Art and Image at National Portrait Gallery will take place from Thursday 17th May - Sunday 21st October 2012.

Mystery Machin Display

There is a pattern to this Machin display. The first person who can tell me what it is by leaving a comment will win a Machin prize. You must include the name for this type of arrangement. The contest is open until November 10 unless someone supplies the correct answer, in which case I may close it sooner.

--Larry