1969 Great Britain Machin 4d

Anything to do with the Machin definitives issued from 1967 to 2022.
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bubu
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:00 pm

1969 Great Britain Machin 4d

Post by bubu »

Image

hi,everyone.this is a gb qe2 machin 4d stamp found in my stamp album and i noticed that the eye is totally difference.look like a ghost eye or tear.there are also missing part such as eye bow,ball and lip replaced by the ghost eye or tear.is this common for this machin stamp?have you ever seen this before?what actually happend to this stamp?hopefully someone can answer all of my questions.thank you and have a nice day
jake
Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:00 pm

Transfer from previous board: original post 447

Post by jake »

I've enlarged the image, and as you say, there is a significant vertical flaw throgh the eye. Have you checked there is no damage to the paper, like a scratch? I assume there isn't.

The cancellation is November 1967, about 5 months after the 4d. sepia stamp was issued, so it will have been the very first issue, with Gum Arabic on the back (SG U11), and the Stanley Gibbons specialised catalogue Vol 3 does not list a permanent variety like this one. (Although interestingly they list a 'white patch over eye and hair' variety on the later PVA gum issue, but it does not look like yours).

This may have been caused by a small piece of debris like a fragment of paper on the printing cylinder, probably on this sheet only. I have not seen another flaw like it. If this is so, it is classed as a 'fly-speck' or non-constant variety and is not of great philatelic value, but nevertheless you can make an interesting item on an album page by enlarging the flaw and placing the illustration next to the stamp. Maybe explaining how these things come about

However possibly this IS a more permanent variety, and if so I'm sure others will have come across it.
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