Machin News - Issues in [2022]

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2022 Summary

2022 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 rebranded 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 2022

The sixth in the series Music Giants was issued on 20th January 2022 featuring the band The Rolling Stones. A prestige booklet accompanied the issue and was produced by Cartor and was priced at £20.85. The Machin pane (pane 3) was printed in Litho on normal gummed paper and contained 2x10p, 2x20p, 2x50p and 2x£1 definitives all with the iridescent codes of 'MPIL' and 'M21L'.

As with previous Prestige Stamp Booklets, printing was done at Cartor Security Printers on their Heidelberg Speedmaster SM74 seven unit printing press. The first five litho units print the ordinary colours; the sixth unit prints the iridescent code overprint and the finally the seventh unit prints the phosphor overprint. For further information click the following link :-

February 2022

The roll out of new Machin's with QR Codes (2D Barcodes) gets into swing on 1st February 2022. Both NVI Counter Sheets and Booklets appear in this phase of the programme. As well as the QR code, new colours have been used replacing the prevailing Bright Blue and Royal Mail Red colour scheme.

The stamp design follows that of the 2nd QR Code (2D Barcode) of 23rd March 2021 issued in business sheet form (and then the Christmas 2021 Special Issue NVI's). As well as these new Machin's now appearing in a larger size as individual stamps, the '2nd Large' and '1st Large' NVI stamps will no longer be larger versions of the basic '2nd' and '1st' NVI values - all will be the same stamp size (again, following sizes first introduced for the Christmas 2021 issues). New colours have been introduced for the four NVI values as follows :-

2nd	1st	2nd Large	1st Large

The individual stamps are part printed in gravure - the Machin stamps themselves with the Counter Sheets having a 'printing date' in the sheet margin. Separately, the QR codes (2D Barcode) are printed on the right hand side of the stamps by an inkjet printing system. As the inkjet printing is a supplemental process, the QR Code dates on individual stamps may differ from the counter sheet margin dates and so interesting combinations may emerge.

Part of the System for printing the Ink Jet QR Code and stripping the matrix

The QR Code / 2D Barcode data can be obtained by scanning the code (for mobile phone/tablet users 'Apps' are available to download). The QR Code / 2D Barcode is unique for each individual stamp giving a datastring, the first 37 characters of which is broken down into the following fields:-

Various fields will apply to / be unique to various issues, with new ones being added over time. The following two field code(s) identify :-

The Counter Sheets have 50 stamps per sheet, printed in two panes of 25. The stamps are printed sideways so that the 'ROYAL MAIL' wavy line text underlay of the self adhesive substrate appears vertically when viewing single stamps in landscape

Five new self adhesive NVI Retail Booklets were issued on 1st February 2022. The number of stamps for these new standard booklets has changed, now being four or eight stamps. The Booklets of eight are a new format size and have the code : MEIL. All have the FSC code 023216 and are as follows :-

An issue celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee was issued on 4th February 2022. Accompanying the issue was a prestige booklet produced by Cartor and was priced at £19.50. The Machin pane (pane 1) was printed in Litho on normal gummed paper and contained 2x2p, 2x10p, 2x50p and 2x£1.50 definitives all with the iridescent codes of 'MPIL' and 'M21L'.

Four new Business Sheets were issued on 28th February 2022 all with the QR code (2D Barcode) stamps. The 2nd and 1st NVI's are now in a reduced Business Sheet size format of 50 stamps. The Top Panel FSC codes are C023216 (Walsall).

March 2022

New tariff rates were announced on 4th March 2022 with the second class rate rising from 66p to 68p and the first class rate rising from 85p to 95p. These changes will take effect from 4th April 2022.

April 2022

New Tariff Rates came into effect on 4th April 2022. The 2nd class rate rose from 66p to 68p, while the 1st class rate rose from 85p to 95p. Some of the other NVI rate changes included :-

To view the Royal Mail Price card effective from 4th Apr 2022 - Click here

In respect of the New Tariff Rates on 4th April 2022 four new International denominated Machin values were issued on the same day. The designs include the QR code (2D Barcode) and are on self adhesive paper.

Also on 4th April 2022, saw the completion of the QR code (2D Barcode) roll out for the Low and High value counter sheets. The stamps took a new form from the 'Classic' Machin design - a 'Cameo Head' similar to the Millennium Head of 2000, the 'Cameo Head' Machin itself , a solid value tablet both within a framed lined border on an unprinted background. These continued to have the iridescent overprint including year codes. The Low values range included :-

Similarly, the High values took the same form and to say the least, look pretty uninspiring - nothing to set them apart from the pence values. The three High values were :-

May 2022

On 5th May 2022 a Special Issue with the theme Unsung Heroes : Women of WWII was put on sale. A prestige booklet accompanied the issue and was produced by Cartor and priced at £20.75. The Machin pane (pane 3) was printed in Gravure on self adhesive paper as a block of six (five stamps plus a label) to accommodate the larger sized QR Code / 2D Barcoded Machin stamps. The matrix has not been stripped away during manufacture. The stamps themselves are 2x50p and 3x£1 'Cameo Head' Machin's with the iridescent year code 'M22L'. The source code 'MPIL' has not been used.

'Cameo Head' Machin pane from Unsung Heroes PSB

August 2022

Country Definitives with QR Codes (2D Barcodes) were issued on 11th August 2022. Each country has three values - £1.85, 2nd NVI and 1st NVI. They are Litho printed on self adhesive paper.

1st Scotland - Lion Rampant

Since the Country Pictorial stamps needed to be web printed (in order for the "finishing process" of printing the QR Codes (2D Barcode)) they had to be printed in Wolverhampton on Cartor's ten unit web fed Goebel litho press. Thus the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) code is C023216 (the old Walsall code).

September 2022

On 1st September 2022 a Special Issue featuring 'Transformers' was issued. A prestige booklet accompanied this issue and was produced by Cartor and was priced at £21.25. The Machin pane (pane 5) was printed in Gravure on self adhesive paper as a block of six (four stamps plus two labels) to accommodate the larger sized QR Code / 2D Barcoded Machin stamps. The matrix has not been stripped away during manufacture. The stamps themselves are £1 and 50p upper row and £1 and 50p lower row 'Cameo Head' Machin's with the iridescent source codes 'MPIL' and year code 'M22L'.

'Cameo Head' Machin pane from Transformers PSB

November 2022

A set of six Christmas stamps were issued on 3rd November 2022. Also issued, two Christmas Retail booklets containing 8x2nd NVI (£5.44) and 8x1st NVI (£7.60) with self adhesive Christmas stamps respectively. The stamps in the booklets have the QR codes (2D Barcode).

The centenary of the finding of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun tomb by Howard Carter is marked with a special issue on 24th November 2022. A prestige booklet accompanied the issue, produced by Cartor and priced at £21.55. The Machin pane (pane 3) was printed in Litho on self adhesive paper as a block of six (five stamps plus one label) to accommodate the larger sized QR Code / 2D Barcoded Machin stamps. The matrix was not stripped away during manufacture. The stamps themselves are the £1.85 Classic Head Machin row 2; and the 10p and 20p 'Cameo Head' Machin's on rows 1 and 3; all with the iridescent source codes 'MPIL' and year code 'M22L'.

'Cameo' / Classic Head Machin pane from Finding a Pharaoh PSB

Its not believed any of the Prestige Booklets were available on 24th November due to 'supply problems'. A date of 12th December was toted although its unclear if anyone received them for this date.

This is the first time we have Machin web printed litho stamps. So its likely all definitives (whether Gravure or Litho) will be now printed in Wolverhampton and not France as has been the previous case for Litho stamps. The requirement for web printed stamps was in order to facilitate the "finishing process" of printing the QR Codes (2D Barcode) and so they needed to be printed in Wolverhampton on Cartor's ten unit web fed Goebel litho press.

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