Machin News - Issues in [2021]

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2021 Summary

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 :-

International Security Printers was the group name that included both Cartor and Walsall until 2021. In late 2021 the group was branded under the name Cartor Security Printers. When Royal Mail quote either name, 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 :-

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 was 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 was priced at £19.99. The pane is shown below with a central '95' label :-

The pane itself had a face value of £6.80 but was not intended to be sold as such.

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 produced by Cartor and was priced at £20.25. The Machin pane (pane 4) was printed in Litho on normal gummed paper and contained 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

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'.

August 2021

The Industrial Revolutions Special Issue went on sale on 12th August 2021. Accompanying this issue there was a Prestige Booklet produced by Cartor and priced at £18.03. The Machin pane (pane 4) was printed in Litho on normal gummed paper and contained 2x5p, 3x10p, 2x20p and £1.70 definitives all with the iridescent codes of 'MPIL' and 'M21L'. Those 5p seen so far appear to be a very dark shade.

September 2021

The latest Special Issue featured American comic characters coming under the title DC Collection and was issued on 17th September 2021. Associated with this issue there were two Retail Booklets and a Prestige Booklet. The two Retail Booklets featured Batman and Wonder Woman. Both booklets came with the standard 6x1st stamps, with the special issue being 1st class NVI stamps - 'Batman' and 'Robin' and Wonder Woman. The Machin 1st class NVI Royal Mail Red stamps having the iridescent codes of 'MCIL' and 'M21L'.

DC Collection - Batman and Robin

DC Collection - Wonder Woman

The PSB was priced at £21.20 with the Machin pane (pane 5) containing 3x20p, 3x2nd NVI and 2x1st NVI Machins all with the iridescent codes of 'MPIL' and 'M21L'.

November 2021

A set of eight Christmas stamps were issued on 2nd November 2021. For the first time, the NVI values (2nd, 1st, 2nd Large and 1st Large NVI) from counter sheets have a QR code (as first used with the Machin 2nd NVI issued in March 2021).

Also issued, two Christmas Retail booklets containing 12x2nd NVI (£7.92) or 12x1st NVI (£10.20) with self adhesive Christmas stamps respectively. The stamps in the booklets do not have the QR codes.

Note : The 2nd Large and 1st Large NVI Christmas stamps with the QR Code are the same size as the basic 2nd and 1st NVI stamps (thus all four stamps are the same size). The counter sheets for these contain 50 stamps and are printed sideways on the normal SBP2 paper. This results in the wavy "ROYAL MAIL" substrate text appearing vertically in relation to the stamps. Presumably, this will be the model for the Machin definitives when they are printed with QR codes.

To access our New Issue Price List(s) click here. Please contact us with your 'wants lists' for new material

© Delta Stamps 2021