News 2021

Machin News - Issues in [2021]

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2021 Summary

Date	Issue	Source	Value	Printer
1st Jan	Tariff Rate changes	Post & Go		Walsall
14th Jan	National Parks	Retail Booklet	6x1st	Walsall


16th Feb	Only Fools and Horses	PSB	£21.70	Cartor
	Only Fools and Horses	Retail Booklet	6x1st	Walsall

23rd Mar	Machin 2nd Class NVI with QR code	Business Sheet	50x2nd	Walsall
29th Mar	Queen Retail Booklet II	Retail Booklet	6x1st	Walsall

21st Apr	Queen's 95th Birthday	Coin Cover	£19.99

28th May	Music Giants V - Paul McCartney	PSB	£20.25	Cartor
	Music Giants V - Paul McCartney	Retail Booklet	6x1st	Walsall

June	Counter Sheet changes	Counter Sheets		Walsall

1st Jul	Dennis & Gnasher	Retail Booklet	6x1st	Walsall
22nd Jul	Wild Coasts	Retail Booklet	6x1st	Walsall

2021 General Notes

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) codes are allocated on a company by company basis. The four current printers hold the following FSC codes :-

	Company	FSC Code
	Cartor	C100572
	De La Rue	C020244
	Enschedé	C017480
	Walsall	C023216

International Security Printers is a group name that includes Cartor and Walsall. Thus, when this is quoted by Royal Mail, the FSC code needs to be referred to in order to determine the printer in the group that actually printed the product.

January 2021

New Tariff Rates came into effect on 1st January 2021. The 2nd class rate rose from 65p to 66p, while the 1st class rate rose from 76p to 85p. Some of the other NVI rate changes include :-

Rate	Old Price	Prices from 1st Jan 2021
Second class	65p	66p
First class	76p	85p
Large Second class	88p	96p
Large First class	£1.15	£1.29
Europe (20 gms) World (10 gms)	£1.45	£1.70
Europe (100 gms)	£1.70	£1.70
Worldwide (20 gms)	£1.70	£1.70
Worldwide (100 gms)	£2.50	£2.55
Royal Mail Signed For First	£2.06	£2.25
Royal Mail Signed For Large	£2.45	£2.69
Special Delivery (to 100g)	£6.70	£6.85
Special Delivery (to 500g)	£7.50	£7.65
Post & Go Collectors Strips : Second Class rises from £1.53 to £1.62 and First Class from £10.11 to £13.84.

To view the Royal Mail Price card effective from 1st Jan 2021 - Click here

New Machin and Country Pictorial values were issued on the 23rd December 2020 to cover these Tariff rate changes - Click here to view.

The Post & Go Collectors strip of six now has the NVI Tariff Rates - 1st. 1st Large, Euro 100g / World 20g, Worldwide 100g, Europe Large 100g and Worldwide Large 100g.

The four higher NVI values from the Collectors Strip of Six

The first special issue for 2021 took the theme - National Parks and was issued on 14th January 2021. A Custom Retail Booklet accompanied this issue and was printed in gravure by Walsall on self adhesive paper. The Booklet of 6x1st contained two 1st class NVI special issue stamps - 'Peak District' and 'Snowdonia' while the 4x1st class NVI Royal Mail Red stamps had the iridescent codes of 'MCIL' and 'M21L'.

February 2021

A set featuring the television programme - Only Fools and Horses was issued on 16th February 2021. Associated with this issue were Custom Retail and Prestige Booklets. The Custom Retail Booklet was printed in gravure by Walsall on self adhesive paper and the 6x1st were two 1st class NVI special issue stamps - 'Del Boy' and 'Rodney' with 4x1st class NVI Royal Mail Red stamps having the iridescent codes of 'MCIL' and 'M21L'.

The Prestige Stamp Booklet will be priced at £21.70 - yes, Booklets now costing over £20 ! The Machin pane (pane 2) contains 3x20p, 2x2nd NVI and 3x1st NVI Machin definitives all with the iridescent codes of 'MPIL' and 'M20L'.

March 2021

New Machin 50x2nd Class NVI with QR Codes in Business Sheets .

A new version of the 2nd Class NVI (66p) stamp was issued on 23rd March 2021. The stamp itself is larger than the standard definitive size and attached along side it, on the right, is a QR code.

Standard 2nd NVI and new 2nd NVI with QR Code

This issue will form part of a trial for new technology. The base stamp is printed in gravure and has the iridescent codes of 'MBIL' and 'M21L' and centre phosphor band. The QR code is digitally printed as a separate process and it provides a datastring that includes a unique identifier for each stamp.

Initially, the stamps will be available in self adhesive Business Sheets of 50 in the following format :-

Top Panel 2x2nd NVI

Four Panels of 12x2nd NVI (3 rows of 4)

The Barcode for the Business Sheet is 152943 and a whole sheet will be priced at £33.

Business Sheet 50x2nd NVI with QR Codes - top panel

To facilitate the printing of this new style of stamp, Walsall in Wolverhampton part of International Security Printers (ISP) has installed a new printing system. This is a Digital Hybrid system having components by A.B Graphics (die cutting and sheeting module), Domino (four colour Domino N617i UV inkjet digital print) and Lake Image Systems (automatic image inspection system).

ISP Digital Hybrid Print System

A new 6x1st NVI Retail Booklet was issued on 29th March 2021. The stamps are Special Issue definitive size and feature the pop group Queen band members.

April 2021

A Limited Edition Coin Cover will be issued on 21st April 2021 in respect of the Queen's 95th Birthday. The cover has a brilliant uncirculated £5 coin along with a pane of eight stamps (similar to a Machin pane from a Prestige Booklet) and will be priced at £19.99. The pane is made up of the following with a central '95' label :-

Value		Colour/Design	Process	Code	Year
4x1st	Machin	Royal Mail Red	Gravure	MAIL	M21L
1st	England	Lion & Shield	Litho	n/a	n/a
1st	N. Ireland	Patchwork Fields	Litho	n/a	n/a
1st	Scotland	Lion Rampant	Litho	n/a	n/a
1st	Wales	Dragon	Litho	n/a	n/a

The pane itself has a face value of £6.80, but at this stage its unclear whether these will be available to be purchased separately.

May 2021

The fifth in the series Music Giants was issued on 28th May 2021. The featured artist being Paul McCartney and accompanying the Special Issue stamps were Custom Retail and Prestige Booklets. The Custom Retail Booklet was printed in gravure by Walsall on self adhesive paper. The 6x1st stamps were two 1st class NVI special issue stamps - 'McCartney' and 'McCartney II' album covers with 4x1st class NVI Royal Mail Red stamps having the iridescent codes of 'MCIL' and 'M21L'.

The Prestige Booklet was priced at £20.25, with the Machin pane (pane 4) containing 2x2p, 2x10p, 2x50p and 2x1st NVI definitives all with the iridescent codes of 'MPIL' and 'M21L'.

June 2021

New printings of the 1p, 5p, 10p, 20p and £3.25 became available late June 2021 all with a printing date of March 2021. The Counter Sheets now exhibit the Barcode twice in the right hand margin - by row 1 and row 5. Previously, the Barcode only appeared by row 1.


£4.20 - Date 01/10/20	£3.25 - Date 23/03/21

Value	Colour	Code	Year	Printing Date
1p	Maroon	MAIL	M21L	15/03/21
5p	Ask Pink			16/03/21
10p	Light Tan			16/03/21
20p	Bright Green			16/03/21
£3.25	Aqua Green			23/03/21

July 2021

A new Special Issue was put on sale on 1st July 2021. The theme was the Dennis the Menace cartoon from the Beano comic. Accompanying the issue was a Custom Retail booklet printed in gravure by Walsall on self adhesive paper. The 6x1st stamps were two 1st class NVI special issue stamps - 'Dennis' and 'Gnasher' with 4x1st class NVI Royal Mail Red stamps having the iridescent codes of 'MCIL' and 'M21L'.

Wild Coasts Special Issue went on sale on 22nd July 2021. Accompanying the issue was a Custom Retail booklet printed in gravure by Walsall on self adhesive paper. The 6x1st stamps were two 1st class NVI special issue stamps - 'Orca' and 'Grey Seal' with 4x1st class NVI Royal Mail Red stamps having the iridescent codes of 'MCIL' and 'M21L'.