Jim Bryden's Book Part I: Stamp Collecting  1:::Stamp Tags is a free program to help you print framed boxes for identifying stamps  2 :::Stamp Tags screen shots  3 :::Download Stamp Tags free  4 :::History: Stamp Collecting in the 20th Century 5 :::Great Britain Machin heads, Phosphor Bands, etc.  6 :::Machin Head List  7 :::About Precancels   8 :::Precancels: San Francisco Breaks  9 :::Kans & Nebr Overprints  10 :::Revenue Stamps of Mexico   a Timeline of Human Transportation and Communications    The D indicates they are pre-decimal.  Here are two head varieties, notice the head on  the right is more centered on the stamp. Both stamps have two bands.

Machin info & pics Or, How I spent my Summer. With some good information about phosphor, flourescent, tagging, and stuff like that. On this page: 1. different types of Machin Heads 2. about bands, tagging, phosphorescence, glowing 3. Links to Machin sites A Machin Head is a stamp based on the plaster bust of Queen Elizabeth that Arnold Machin designed. The bust was actually designed so that they could take a picture and use the picture on the stamps of Great Britain (and other Commonwealth countries). The design of the stamps is incrediby simple: just the bust and the denomination. And yet there have been over 1500 varieties of Machin Heads issued by the British Post Office. Machin is pronounced "MAY-chin"  First, there are lots of different denominations, including pre-decimal and decimal currency. Over the years (first introduced in 1967) there have been many color changes, plus different types of flourescent and phosphorescent tagging on the stamps (used to make the automatic cancelling machines work). There have been different perforations (surprisingly few, but including the strange-looking elliptical perforations.) There are different shapes to the Queen's head, the value has been moved and squeezed and shifted. There are different types of gum used on the paper, and lots of other little fly-speck varieties. But there have never been any watermark varieties. from Jim Bryden at STAMP TAGS.

It is not my intention to have a giant Machin page with everything you ever could want to know. Rather, I wanted to share with you some of what I learned as I got into the Machin craziness. Most everything here is about USED stamps. Please visit some of the links at the bottom of this page, there are some really excellent sites! Click here to see my Machin list.

Pictures above are Decimal Machins. You can see the wide and narrow values, and normal and elliptical perfs. Here are the 9 categories I have divided my list into:

1. Pre-Decimal stamps are the ones denominated in pounds Sterling, and shillings. Pence are denoted with a "D". They were in use from 1967 to 1970.

2. Decimal issues are the small issues since 1971. It includes a majority of the Machin stamps.

3. The anniversary issues include a portrait of Queen Victoria as well as the usual Machin portrait of Queen Elizabeth. Issued to celebrate the 150th anniversary of first postage stamp, the Penny Black. Issued 1990.

4. The large size decimal Machins were issued in 1970, and then a "tall size" was in use from 1977 to 1987. They were the high values of their time.

5. No value indicator ("NVI") stamps are valid for their rate of postage regardless of rate increases. "1st" indicates first class mail. They first appeared in 1989, and are still in use.

6. Isle of man issued only four Machin heads, in 1971.

7. Northern Ireland Machins include the Right Red Hand heraldic symbol of Ulster. Issued 1971 to 2000.

8. Scotland Machins include the Lion of Scotland heraldic symbol. Issued 1971 through 2000

9. Wales and Monmouthshire Machins have a Dragon of Wales heraldic symbol. Issued 1971-2000.

Machins are still in use in Britain, but there is a new definitive set which was started in 2001. The main new issues since then have been the NVI issues for airmail and other rates.

There are almost no varieties of the 1½p, while the 1p has dozens, including elliptical perfs as seen here.	Some varieties can be sorted by color. The stamp on the right exists only with phosphor coated paper (0 bands).
This 9d stamp is one of only four stamps with the denomination on the right.	Coil strips and Booklet Panes are extremely popular ways to collect Machin heads.
Notice the color variety on the black anniversary issues. Trimmed perfs are from booklet panes ("cut") so help in identifying the variety.	No Value Indicator, plus another anniversary stamp. Imperfs (on one or two sides) come from booklet panes and are a collected variety..
Here are some green stamps: normal perfs, elliptical perfs, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales Regionals.
Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, and Metallic Gold

Three varieties of the 50p decimal issue. The castle issues are definitives and have a Machin head on them, so are sometimes included in lists of Machin Heads. Most Great Britain commemoratives of the era have the same profile of Queen Elizabeth.

Large size Machin heads, engraved and "tall size"

Wide and narrow 75p values, some orange stamps, and a fake virtual stamp.

The bands on Machin Heads are tagging, used to let the automatic cancelling machines "see" the stamp to cancel. All Machin Head stamps have: two bands (2B), one center band (CB), one left band (LB), one right band (RB), or phosphor coated paper (0B, no bands) Two bands was for 1st class mail, 1 band for 2nd class.	With most stamps you can see the bands by viewing them under a bright light, with low light, at an angle, or a combination. Sometimes you may need to view with an ultraviolet light to see the bands. Originally and theoretically, the bands are phosphorescent, which means that there is an afterflow after you remove the source of the ultraviolet light. This, unfortunately, is sometimes very difficult to see, especially on used stamps.
There are several types of Ultraviolet Light:: longwave, midwave, and shortwave. Just for bands, any of these types may help you to see the bands. But what you really need to see everything is a filtered shortwave UV light. You don't have to wait for the afterglow, that is really an extra. Look at a stamp under filtered shortwave UV and you will really see a LOT more than you can see otherwise. This is true of virtually every tagged stamp ever issued, from any country.	FILTERED SHORTWAVE UV The filter on the UV light is just a hard piece of dark violet colored plastic or glass. I understand that if you put the light through a tiny elliptical shaped hole, you may be able to make your own filter. The filter helps you see tagging with longwave and midwave UV bulbs also. Unfortunately, shortwave UV bulbs are very expensive and burn out rapidly.
The yellow bands on Machin heads are very easy to see with any UV light. Some blue bands as well. The placement of the bands makes a difference too. Sometimes there are different colors mixed. Used stamps can have their tagging migrate, can even be nearly erased. Because there are so many variables, you have to draw a line somewhere, and say "this is what I consider to be a different stamp." Even the stamp dealers list their stamps to a certain point, and no more.	If you are mounting your stamps, you need to know that all modern papers have brighteners added to them, so the album paper will glow too. Often that glow is enough to overpower the glow from the stamps. You may need to find old paper to use. (UV is also used to detect old covers and repaired stamps that are not really old.)

A Stamp Tag is a text box used to identify stamps and collectibles. home Blog EMail EBay
This is Jim Bryden's Book	Part I: Stamp Collecting	Part II: Photos, History, Genealogy	Part III: Denver & Driving