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| Machins
in print switch Printing of the high value Machin GB definitives – the £1.50, £2, £3 and £5 values – has been switched from the intaglio process to gravure, and the issues will become the first British definitives to be printed by De La Rue at its Byfleet plant in Surrey, England. A Royal Mail spokesman told STAMP MAGAZINE: ‘These stamps are the most valuable Machins. We are reprinting these in gravure – they were originally in intaglio. Also we are now shifting the colours back to the Jeffery Matthews palette’. The first high value Machin definitive was the £1 value of 1969, whilst the change to the decimal currency in Britain saw the arrival of the £1.50, £2, £3 and £5 values in 1971. The new 20x24mm-size stamps will be launched on July 1, 2003, and the release will be accompanied by a first day cover and a presentation pack. The stamps will be printed in gummed sheets of 200. The Machin stamps are so-called as they feature a bas-relief head of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as designed by sculptor and artist Arnold Machin. The first ever Machins were issued in June 1967 and the main GB definitive design has remained unchanged since. |
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