Great Britain: Modern

My last scanner started showing color shifts and had to get a new scanner.

A complete sheet of the 2/6 Castles stamp. Looks like Stanley Gibbons SG595a Bradbury Wilkinson 1st July 1963 (the cheap one!), plate 13. Attractive as a sheet nonetheless.

I can remember watching most of these as a child. Muffin the mule was the earliest, Sooty & Sweep with Harry Corbett, (I believe his son carried on with them after Harry passed). Thunderbirds was a classic, I think the next one was the Clangers, didn't like that one much then Dangermouse was fairly amusing. I've still got 2 Sooty egg cups bought from the Sooty museum in Yorkshire so that would have been in the 1950's. Lots of other similar childrens programmes around at the same era, Watch with mother stuff like Rag Tag & Bobtail, The Wooden Tops. I'm surprised Bill & Ben the Flower Pot Men never got a stamp. I'm going by memory, what's left of it these days?? LOL.

Thanks for putting the record straight Kevin,  Just shows memories are not always a good record, wasn't sure if it was the Moomins or Clangers either.

Daniel, Yes, for many years Royal Mail have given each of their employees fifty First Class Christmas stamps each December but with clear instructions that they are for their own personal use and NOT to be sold.

The 2021 1st class Christmas stamps, new size with the 2D barcodes:

I rarely do the decimal QE II, but as is often the case acquiring albums always includes a few. In with a recent lot which included a whole bunch of commemoratives there were four examples of the 8.5p Eisteddfod - SG 1010 'British Cultural Traditions' - from 1976, and a previous owner has written in pencil, on the card "miss print" (nice girl by the way). I've spent hours looking through a lens but can't really see what the error might be - other than the fact that there is a colour shift such that the woman's hand becomes separated from the clothing - usually it touches the clothing - see the attached picture. This shift also affects the colour of the man's fingers on his left hand. Is this a known variation?

thanks vikingeck - am sure you're correct - I notice in fact that this flesh colour also appears to shift to the left. When I was a lot younger and collected, I recall the 1967 British Wild Flowers from Rev. W. Keble Martin, and remember something like a missing violet or leaf, but I've looked at a lot of those in recent times and don't see that error. Generally, I don't look for errors, and usually stop at the end of LSD - too much time spent just trying to get the normal stuff into some sort of order:-)

These Castles high values with Dorothy Wilding head, are possibly the last of the great-looking recess-printed stamps, though found as individual stamps they're not easy to id  -  perhaps a bit easier if mint and with selvedge possibly.            They started life in 1955 and via Waterlow/DLR and finally Bradbury, Wilkinson came to a stop I think in 1968  -  all had been withdrawn - due to decimalization in the U.K. - by March 1972, and as issued originally from 1955 - 58, they carry SG 536 to 538.            Have a feeling I'd have been hard pushed to id all of the buildings - in fact I thought Carrickfergus was Caernarvon  - don't think these are the first U.K. stamps to show images other than abstract designs or just a monarch's head  -  that honour may go to a couple of George VI 1951 high values, showing The White Cliffs of Dover and H.M.S. 'Victory'.       
Don't know why Lynton Lamb, the designer, didn't add the castle names  -  am sure other people may also have been unsure as to their id. -  very many commems. post decimalization have some text to explain the image.       Any cheap oldish SG catalogue from around 1970 explains the history of this high value group and ways of differentiating the printer and date, but it really isn't easy.     

The only wmkd. stamps here (St. Edward's Crown) are the paler of the two blues, so that could be either Waterlow or DLR  -  unfortunately, SG speak of 'Ultramarine, Pale Ultramarine and Dull Ultramarine' from 1955 - 1958, then there is a 'blue' from DLR printed in 1959 -  so take your pick - as with similar situations a reliable conclusion depends on comparative sampling with guaranteed and known examples.    It's possible that this pale blue 10/- is SG538 or even 538a  -  but I'm guessing really.  
The brighter of the two blues is without wmk. and is likely from the 1967 - 68 Brad. Wilk printing - along with the 2/6d., 5/- and £1 black, so these four might all be SG 759 to 762, where SG describe the 10/- as bright ultramarine. 

Both Waterlow and DLR appear to have always wmkd. their printings  -  it's seems it's only the later printings from Brad. Wilk. that lack a wmk. 

Reading the SG catalogues and trying to unravel this group, it does appear that conclusions are assisted by a combination of sheet markings, perfs, face colour and watermark   -  am sure others here will be better informed than me, so if you'd like to correct me or add something useful, please go ahead.   thanks. 


 

Should I have started a new thread for this subject  -  never quite sure  -  apologies if I've gone wrong.               

this U.K. 4d. singleton  -  one of three low values for Christmas 1967  -  is SG 757 - 'Madonna and Child' from C17 Spanish artist Murillo, and the point of the post is to show the rather large 'speck' on the left side of the stamp.       No idea what guide lines the quality control guys work to, but assume they're not bothered by something rather obvious like this.           Would folk who collect such things be called 'Specsavers' ?           P.S.   Widnes is in the U.K. county of Cheshire.