daniel
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Post by daniel on Jun 16, 2021 19:38:50 GMT
Here are some examples of the various sheet markings found on Modern British Stamps.
Starting with the Investiture of HRH The Prince of Wales issue from 1st July 1969, Stanley Gibbons nos. 802-806. Cylinder Numbers on the left and Colour Registration Marks (commonly referred to as Traffic Lights) on the right on the 5d stamps which were printed in 8 different colours. The 9d value was printed in 4 colours and the 1/- in only 2 colours. Cylinder Numbers only shown for these last 2 stamp blocks.
 Scan_20210616 by Daniel, on Flickr
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daniel
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Post by daniel on Jun 16, 2021 19:55:06 GMT
British Ships from 15th January 1969, SG Nos. 778-783. Unfortunately, the Cutty Sark 9d stamp is missing. Cylinder nos. shown on all blocks, partial traffic lights on the 1/- stamp block. 4 colours used on the RMS Queen Elizabeth stamp, 6 on the Elizabethan galleon and East Indiaman block and 7 on the SS Great Britain and RMS Mauretania block.
 Scan_20210616 (2) by Daniel, on Flickr
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daniel
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Post by daniel on Jun 16, 2021 20:03:28 GMT
First Flight of Concorde issue from 3rd March 1969, SG Nos. 784-786. All shown with both Cylinder Nos. and Traffic Lights.
 Scan_20210616 (3) by Daniel, on Flickr
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hdm1950
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Posts: 1,886 
What I collect: I collect world wide up to 1965 with several specialty albums added due to volume of material I have acquired. At this point I am focused on Canada and British America. I am always on the lookout for stamps and covers with postmarks from communities in Queens County, Nova Scotia. I do list various goods including stamps occasionally on eBay as hdm50
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Post by hdm1950 on Jun 16, 2021 21:04:23 GMT
Seeing this thread I remembered I had these pairs with street lights on the 1970 Philympia, London Philatelic Exhibition set showing stamps on stamps.  |
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stanley64
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What I collect: Canada, USA, Netherlands, Portugal & Colonies, Antarctic Territories and anything that catches my eye...
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Post by stanley64 on Jun 17, 2021 7:18:43 GMT
It is not all cylinder numbers, colour registration entries or printer markings as in this example,
UN Vienna 1993 Endangered Species Sheet (SG n.º 353-356) featuring several species including the Spheniscus humboldti (Humboldt penguin)
A similar sheet was issued in 2002 as part of an on-going series and this time featured among the endangered species the Spheniscus demersus (African penguin).
Happy collecting!
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Jun 17, 2021 12:03:06 GMT
I used to love the plate imprints on Canadian stamps. They were simple and to the point. Plate numbers were easy to understand. Here is 465B the $1.00 Centennial definitive "Edmonton Oil Field" painting by H. G. Glyde upper right plate #1...
This was how stamps were identified for years.
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Jun 17, 2021 12:05:47 GMT
Now all manner of data is printed in the margins...
Here we have the lower value Beneficial Insects 25¢ definitive. If you want a plate block, or rather corner inscription block, buy the whole sheet! One cannot buy just a corner block anymore, unless you are at a stamp shop!
This stamp was issued in December 2012 Unitrade 2238ii, with white transparent gum.
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stanley64
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What I collect: Canada, USA, Netherlands, Portugal & Colonies, Antarctic Territories and anything that catches my eye...
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Post by stanley64 on Jun 18, 2021 10:03:52 GMT
The scroll or lathe work in the margins of French stamps is easily recognised, but this printer's mark is a bit of mystery,
1992 Airmail - Completion of Landing Strip at Dumont D'Urville Research Station, Adelie Land ( (YT n.º 124)
This postage stamp features the work of French artist, Bernard Buffet and depicts both Pygoscelis adeliae (Adelie) and Aptenodytes forsteri (Emperor) penguin species. If I am not mistaken, the value in the corner margin or selvedge is the sheet number from the total number printed, but if someone can show otherwise, please do tell...
Happy collecting!
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daniel
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Post by daniel on Jun 24, 2021 5:10:45 GMT
Two more cylinder blocks, this time for the 4d Christmas 1969 stamp. Second class post was introduced by the British Post Office in 1968. This lead to the dilemma of whether or not to have a second class stamp for the Christmas issue the following year. After much discussion and planning, a late decision was made to include the 4d second class rate. This caused the printers, Harrison and Sons, problems when it was discovered that 3/4 of the way through the printing that a thick phosphor bar been used in error which would show as First Class in the Post Office ALF (Automatic Letter Facing) machines. The error was corrected for the remainder of the print run but the thick phosphor bar stamps had already been delivered.
Over 270 million 4d stamps were printed. You will see from these 2 blocks, top with thick phosphor band, bottom with thin phosphor band, different plate numbering, either with or without a stop after the letter used when printing a double pane.
Note also, in the first block, some colours are slightly out of register.
 Scan_20210624 by Daniel, on Flickr
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radiocruncher
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What I collect: GB especially Wildings and Machins. Early Germany to 1945
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Post by radiocruncher on Sept 2, 2021 21:27:35 GMT
Hi daniel I was looking for a place to post my recent acquisition and came across your thread. I picked up this job lot of part sheets from a Facebook group. There are too many to actually lay them all out for a picture. The majority seem to have been separated at the half sheet mark. They all display marginal markings, cylinder numbers, traffic lights and some reference numbers. I assume someone has split them like this on purpose but my question is do I keep them as is and find an album to display them or do I split them up? Regards Graham  |
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daniel
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Post by daniel on Sept 3, 2021 6:00:23 GMT
Thanks to all those showing marginal markings from other countries. In the UK, at least during the period for the stamps that I have shown, the printers have concentrated, almost entirely on colour identification as a means for checking for missing colours or colour shifts. In addition to Plate Cylinder Numbers and Traffic Lights there are also the cross hairs, I don't know if these have a more formal name. Graham, radiocruncher , the Plate Cylinder Blocks are typically collected in blocks of six but this might vary if there are different stamps in a sheet. Not all of mine are in sixes but they were cheap  You might want to be consistent with the block sizes. Ultimately, t's your collection so it's up to you should you wish to have larger blocks and, maybe, use any excess for postage (if decimal currency) or exchange. All the best, Daniel |
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Post by michael on Sept 3, 2021 6:51:57 GMT
These sheet marking appeared on a few sets around 1969. |
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radiocruncher
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What I collect: GB especially Wildings and Machins. Early Germany to 1945
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Post by radiocruncher on Sept 3, 2021 8:33:23 GMT
Graham, radiocruncher , the Plate Cylinder Blocks are typically collected in blocks of six but this might vary if there are different stamps in a sheet. Not all of mine are in sixes but they were a cheap You might want to be consistent with the block sizes. Ultimately, t's your collection so it's up to you should you wish to have larger blocks and, maybe, use any excess for postage (if decimal currency) or exchange. Thanks for the reply daniel I spent some time last night putting them into their relevant sets. I will post some pictures or scans later as I’d like to know what parts of the individual sheets should be kept and what can be broken up. It was originally my intention to use them for postcrossing cards but as usual I’ve fallen in love with them 🙈 |
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cara
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What I collect: Germany (FRG, GDR, Berlin); occupied Germany 1945-1949, Deutsches Reich 1872-1945, Switzerland, USA (newbie)
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Post by cara on Sept 3, 2021 18:44:19 GMT
Last set of definitives from DDR (East Germany) issued July 1990.   |
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Ryan
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What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Sept 26, 2021 3:01:27 GMT
I've mentioned on the forum before that German collectors have a lot of info available to them regarding marginal markings. The Michel Deutschland Spezial catalogue includes info on some of these markings, with values or percentage increases listed for them, but you can get even more detailed than that. The German-language BogenWiki site lists quite the pile of catalogues and handbooks strictly dealing with marginal markings on stamps from assorted Germanies. Hooray for specialized catalogues! Especially for those dealing with relatively "normal" stamps which I might find in my "normal" collection.  Ryan |
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Sept 26, 2021 14:35:43 GMT
Wow, just for marginal markings. Whooda thunk? I remove most, unless there is something interesting on it - in my eyes anyway. Talk about details!
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drblade
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What I collect: GB Unmounted mint & Machin definitives Q.E.II Used commemoratives
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Post by drblade on Jan 14, 2022 8:19:24 GMT
Two more cylinder blocks, this time for the 4d Christmas 1969 stamp. Second class post was introduced by the British Post Office in 1968. This lead to the dilemma of whether or not to have a second class stamp for the Christmas issue the following year. After much discussion and planning, a late decision was made to include the 4d second class rate. This caused the printers, Harrison and Sons, problems when it was discovered that 3/4 of the way through the printing that a thick phosphor bar been used in error which would show as First Class in the Post Office ALF (Automatic Letter Facing) machines. The error was corrected for the remainder of the print run but the thick phosphor bar stamps had already been delivered.
Over 270 million 4d stamps were printed. You will see from these 2 blocks, top with thick phosphor band, bottom with thin phosphor band, different plate numbering, either with or without a stop after the letter used when printing a double pane.
Note also, in the first block, some colours are slightly out of register.
Scan_20210624 by Daniel, on Flickr Hi Daniel, also on your scans, the 2c is a redrawn 1, with 1A1 on your first scan/pane & a partial 1H1 on the second scan/pane. (the redrawn 2c should be on the dot panes according to Gibbons). |
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Post by gbstampcollector on Jan 24, 2022 18:25:31 GMT
What price premium can reasonably be asked for a GB QE2 cylinder block of 4 compared with a single mint stamp?
This is my first post. Apologies that it is rather basic, so basic, in fact, that I cannot see anything about it on TSF. Back in my schoolboy collecting days I would take great delight in getting hold of a GB cylinder block of stamps. Since then I have salted away many more GB cylinder blocks, and indeed, traffic lights and a few gutter pairs in the expectation that I would one day mount them in my collection.
Now, I have decided to concentrate on pre-1964 GB (and East Africa), so I have no need for my post-1964 GB. I am well aware that there was a boom and bust in mint GB stamps in the 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless why are there so very few cylinder blocks/traffic light blocks etc being offered for sale? they are not catalogued in Stanley Gibbons.
My question is: what price premium can I reasonably ask for a post 1964 block of 4 cylinder blocks/traffic lights, compared with a single stamp? Is there one answer for pre-decimal and one for post-decimal?
Hopefully this post will not count as a request to Buy, Sell or Trade, resulting in my getting thrown out before I begin!
Looking forward with interest to your thoughts.
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vikingeck
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What I collect: Samoa, Tobacco theme, Mail in Wartime, anything odd and unusual!
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Post by vikingeck on Jan 24, 2022 20:01:55 GMT
The decimal stamps between 1971 and about 1990 are sold for postage at 60% - 75% of face here in the UK. If you buy a £200 or so lot for postage from one of the major dealers in UK , traffic light blocks and cylinder blocks quite frequently turn up in the mix. That suggests that for most collectors and dealers there is no premium for commems with traffic lights. I confess to having destroyed a lot of these for postage.
On the other hand Machin sheets and booklet panes with Cylinder numbers do have a following and some do have a premium from collectors of these. They can provide information for research into printing
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daniel
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Post by daniel on Dec 2, 2023 3:08:25 GMT
gbstampcollector to give you a direct answer to your question, yes a cylinder block of four would attract a premium but we would be talking about adding pennies to pennies. Stamps from this era, the 1960s were printed in the millions. All of my examples, shown above, were purchased very cheaply. That's good news if you're buying, not so good if you're selling  Daniel
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daniel
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Post by daniel on Dec 2, 2023 4:03:34 GMT
Map Stamps 1991 This cylinder stamp set is interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the printing was split between Harrison & Sons and The House of Questa with 2 stamps each. Secondly, the 33p value was printed in no less than 12 different colours.  |
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rod222
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What I collect: Worldwide Stamps, Ephemera and Catalogues
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Post by rod222 on Dec 3, 2023 2:13:41 GMT
Great Britain
Sc# 32 1860 1.5d Plate 3 Marginal Accountancy.
(Not mine)
Plate 3 is aboard the stamp, just west of O in postage.
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rod222
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What I collect: Worldwide Stamps, Ephemera and Catalogues
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Post by rod222 on Dec 3, 2023 2:40:10 GMT
Members may wish to check their Brazil "Tintureiro" Issue 1891 Sc# 109
Brazils first bi colour stamp
Marginal markings in red left or right. or a red dot above the top frame
Scarcity : 10 x mint value, 183 x used value
circa $320 / $400
Source : Author Monograph Mr. Ken Deaver 2012 Stamp with no markings 
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rod222
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What I collect: Worldwide Stamps, Ephemera and Catalogues
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Post by rod222 on Dec 4, 2023 0:34:01 GMT
Sc# 31 and Sc# 32
Part marginal markings
"g the back"
"Hand side of the"
1860 1.5d Rosy Mauve , Prepared for use, but not issued Plate l 1975= £500 2012=£8,500 used £10,500
1870 1.5d Plate lll Rose Red large Crown Wmk 1975=£300 2012=£500 used £70
(well centred fine used +125% ) 
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You might want to be consistent with the block sizes. Ultimately, t's your collection so it's up to you should you wish to have larger blocks and, maybe, use any excess for postage (if decimal currency) or exchange.
