Definitive series Elisabeth II. (Machin)
Queen Elizabeth II. Is a stamp series of Royal Mail . It is the current definitive series in the United Kingdom and has been issued since June 5, 1967. The stamp series designed by Arnold Machin is the second with the image of the British Queen Elizabeth II and is considered to be one of the longest-lived and most extensive definitive stamp series in postal history .
history
After Elizabeth II ascended the throne as queen, a permanent stamp series was published in 1952 with a photograph of the young queen by Dorothy Wilding (see Elizabeth II definitive series (Wilding) ). The same image of the Queen appeared at the same time, as has been customary on British postage stamps since 1840, on all special stamps of the British Royal Mail instead of a postal or country name. As early as 1961 there was discussion of replacing the image with a more vivid representation.
In 1966 Arnold Machin was awarded the contract to develop a new representation of the Queen. He created a clay sculpture of the Queen, the side profile of which he had photographed. In contrast to the previous series, Machin did without decorative elements such as coats of arms and flower tendrils; his design only contained the portrait and the number.
Between July 5, 1967, and the January 6, 1969 published 16 denomination value, size 21 mm × 24 mm, and on March 5, 1969 five large-format (size 30 mm × 35 mm) spending in the then still in Pound Sterling common non-decimal currency specified ( Specification e.g. 2d for 2 pence , 1/9 for 1 shilling / 9 pence, 1 £ for 1 pound).
With the conversion of the pound sterling to a decimal currency , new stamps in the same design with values in pennies (p) and pounds (£) have been issued since February 15, 1971.
In the 1980s there were several attempts to change the design of the postage stamps or to replace the definitive series. Queen Elizabeth II, however, let the Royal Mail know that she was very satisfied with the portrayal of Machin and that it would be difficult to replace it with an equivalent.
From 1989 stamps were issued in the value-independent postage levels "1st" and "2nd". "1st" and "2nd" stand for the two postage classes (standard letter First Class and Second Class for delivery on the following day or after two to three days) of the Royal Mail. The stamps were issued in order not to have to keep issuing new stamps given the comparatively frequent postage changes.
1990 special editions appeared on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the first issue of postage stamps in the United Kingdom, which in addition to the portrait of Elizabeth II contained the profile of Queen Victoria in the representation on the One Penny Black .
From 1993 onwards, an elliptical perforation was introduced in the side perforation of the brands , which serves as an additional security feature. Since 1997, a computer-generated representation has been used for the portrait of the queen, which gives the image greater detail.
As of February 2009, two elliptical punchings were embossed in the stamps as a further security feature in self-adhesive issues, which should make it more difficult to recycle unstamped copies. With this, and with the waiver of a water-soluble intermediate layer between paper and adhesive, the removal of the stamps for philatelic purposes was made much more difficult.
layout
The basically monochrome stamps of the series show a portrait of Elisabeth II in the side profile. In addition to the portrait, they also contain the respective value. Selected denominations appeared from 1971 as regional editions, which had a symbol of Wales (dragon), Scotland (lion), Northern Ireland (hand of Ulster) in the upper left corner . However, these have been replaced by stamps with pictorial representations characteristic of the different parts of the country, the so-called Country Definitive (in Scotland and Wales in 1999, in Northern Ireland in 2001, and regional stamps for England were issued for the first time in the same year). Up to the postal independence of the Isle of Man in 1973, some values were issued there with the triskele .
The stamps have the format 21 mm × 24 mm, between 1969 and 1984 selected values were also issued in the format 30 mm × 35 mm.
The most striking aspect of the series is the variety of colors. After extensive tests, 14 colors were selected for the first editions. With a few exceptions, the stamps were designed in one color, only with the value levels 1 / 6d and 1 / 9d were different colors used for portrait and portrait; the values for 10d and 1 / - had backgrounds that became lighter from left to right.
The dark olive-brown shade of the first stamp worth 4 pence, the most frequently used value class of its time, was personally selected by Elizabeth II, the color should be reminiscent of the One Penny Black. Due to the risk of confusion with the 5 pence stamp, especially due to franking machines and the poor legibility of the date in the postmark , this color scheme did not prove itself and was replaced after two years by a stamp in a shade of red .
Over the years the color palette has been expanded significantly. Colors of denominations that were no longer issued were temporarily reused for new denominations, but this practice was abandoned because of the risk of confusion.
Similar editions
Postage stamps with similar depictions of Queen Elizabeth II were issued in Canada , Australia and Hong Kong , among others .
In April 1996, the 1 penny stamp was issued briefly in an overprinted form in Somaliland .
literature
- The Machin definitives - development of postal rates after two fee increases on 20 August 1970 and 4 February 1980. In: Collector Service No. 25/1980, pp 1880 to 1884.
- Douglas Muir : A Timeless Classic. The evolution of Machin's Icon . The British Postal Museum & Archive and Royal Mail , 2007, ISBN 978-0-9553569-1-9 , p. 236.
- Douglas Myall : 40 Years of Machins. A timeline (= British Philatelic Bulletin # 13). Royal Mail , London 2007, p. 20, OCLC 784947864 .
Web links
- List of Machin stamps (English)
- Great Britain Machins by The 'Machin Nut' (English)
- Machin Mania (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Explanation of the Royal Mail Services ( Memento of the original dated December 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 24, 2013
- ↑ John M. Deering, "Machin Watch," Gibbons Stamp Monthly , February 2009, pp. 45-46 and April 2009, pp. 45-47.
- ^ Alderfer, David, "What to do about those unsoakable British Machin stamps," Linn's Stamp News , Jan. 10, 2011, pp. 24-26
- ↑ New Machin Definitions; pictorials for Scotland and Wales . Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
- ^ Northern Ireland regionals to be pictorial . Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
- ^ Regionals for England to be issued . Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
- ↑ Douglas Myall and The Complete Deegam Machin Handbook , 3rd edition , 2003; cd-rom, 2005, 2nd supplement, appendix 15, page A15-67 quoted in "Somaliland 1p Overprint Part 2", Machin Mania , 16 August 2009; retrieved August 19, 2009.
