News
Mauritius 1947 'Post Office' 1d on cover
British Library treasures on show as part of Festival of Stamps
The British Library is showing off more of its great rarities, and offering tours by its curators, as part of its contribution to this year's Festival of Stamps.
The permanent philatelic exhibition frames on the upper ground floor of the Library have been reorganised to include some treasures which were not previously on display.
America 1765 1d revenue proof sheet
Commonwealth rarities include one of the famed 'ball envelopes' bearing the Mauritius 1847 1d 'Post Office', as well as an unused 2d from the same issue, an unused pair of the Canada 1851 12d black, a used Cape of Good Hope 1861 4d vermilion error of colour se-tenant with a normal 1d, and a unique cover bearing two examples of the India 1854 4a with inverted centre.
From Great Britain, an unused 1858-79 1d red from plate 77 is on show, as is a significant part of the stunning Tapling collection.
Amongst the American material is the proof sheet of the America 1765 1d revenue, hailed as the stamp which sparked the Revolution, as well as a used Hawaii 1851-52 'Missionary' 2c and an unused USA 1918 24c 'Inverted Jenny'.
Very rare Hawaii 1851-52 'Missionary' 2c used The British Library's contribution to the Festival of Stamps also includes a programme of tours and presentations.
CONSERVATION CENTRE TOURS
Tours of the Conservation Centre are available on March 10 and May 11, for which free tickets must be booked in advance. E-mail: philatelic@bl.uk under the subject heading '2010 Tickets'. Tel: 020 7412 7635.
THEMED PRESENTATIONS
Also being held are six different philatelic presentations, some of which will be delivered more than once:
 
Current machins us the typeface designed by Jeffrey Matthews in 1983.
_ British Library Rarities
_ Conservation Issues
_ Fakes & Forgeries
_ 1919 Newfoundland to England Transatlantic Flights
_ British Library Research Resources
_ British Post Office on Picture Postcards.
Again, places should be booked in advance.
E-mail: boxoffice@bl.uk Tel: 01937 546 546.
The British Library is at 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB.
France charity stamp helps Red Cross with Haiti earthquake relief
Haiti's former colonial power, France, was quick to issue a stamp to raise funds the Red Cross relief effort, after the devastating earthquake that hit the Caribbean country on January 12.
The Marianne NVI definitive was printed in a larger format than usual, with the label-like extra space on the left explaining that the face value of €1 includes a 44c donation.
Seven million stamps were released on January 19. If all are sold, the Red Cross will receive more than €3 million.
 
In these prestige stamp book panes, the 5p and 54p are clearly in a different typface Rogue typeface creates new Machin varieties
The wrong typeface was used for the numerals on the 5p and 54p definitives in January's Classic Album Covers prestige stamp book, due to a production error.
Only the numerals 4 and 5 are obviously affected. The 4 has an open rather than a closed shape, and the 5 more fluid angles than normal. The 10p, 20p, 22p and 62p stamps in the book appear to have the correct typeface, although a minuscule difference is suspected in its weighting.
The font used for Machins is supposed to be one designed by Jeffery Matthews in 1983. It is thought the rogue font is one of the Garamond family.
Machin catalogue publisher Douglas Myall said: 'All printers contracted to Royal Mail are supplied with the Machin head and values in digital form. For some as yet unknown reason, the printer, Cartor, used numerals from a typeface from the Garamond family in error. It seems that all the other numerals are from the correct Matthews font, although the zero on the 10p and 20p appears thicker than hitherto.'
An investigation will be underway into how the mistake happened, and why it was not picked up on proofs of the panes.
Machin specialist and Stamp Magazine contributor Don Staddon says: 'Two new stamps have been created, sufficient for them to be given catalogue status.'
This prestige book marks the first appearance of the 5p, 10p, 20p, 54p and 62p printed in lithography.
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