Wednesday started off with the left hand self service  machine (No. 21) dispensing the ‘Diamond Jubilee’ overprint – and this continued until the close of the show uninterrupted.  This was mirrored in the back office by machine (No.23) for the first day of the show.

The right hand self-service machine (No.22)  was fitted with ‘Birds 4 ‘ stamps (as the current issue) until Friday where it was (as the first day of issue) replaced by the new ‘Farm Animals- series 1 – Sheep’ stamps.

Things in the back office where slightly different as due to the large demand for the Sheep stamps both back office machines had to be brought into service to print these and so the overprint was temporarily  removed from machine No. 22 and used for ‘Collectors strips’ on Friday and Saturday. (It was re-introduced for a time on Friday and then removed again on Saturday)

Therefore Sheep stamps exist from machines 22, 23 and 24.

Diamond Jubilee stamps exist from machines 21 and 23 only

Birds 4 stamps exist from machines 22 and 24 only.

The back office machines produced collectors sets of 36 (6 x 6 ) or collectors strips of 6 for the Birds and Sheep issue or collectors strips of 6 for the Diamond Jubilee overprint.

The self service machines had been modified to prevent ‘pulling’ by some collectors/dealers to manufacture their own ‘varieties’- this appeared to be successful and although the odd ‘hiccup’ was noted where misprints did occur- those that did were ‘real’ !

Any questions ? As usual -please contact me at postagelabelsuk@gmx.com

Sheep stamps were printed in advance of First Day to ensure dealers pre-orders

were ready on first day- in these cases the receipts will show the FDOI.