Love Booklet January 2007.. and some answers

Hello everyone.. first let me say thanks for all your emails.. and secondly how embarrassed I am to be so far behind with my emails and getting prizes sent out.. I have had a difficult week.. no excuse maybe.. but we lost our very first dog this week and so things have not been such that I could spend the hours I usually do on my stamps, emails or blog writings… am slowly catching up though and you will hear prize results soon.. or get one in the mail as a surprise :-)

I was asked if I publish answers.. have been asked that a few times.. and I know I should even though I have been slack in doing so.. tonight some answers.. at least for the past 5 postings.. and I have to say mostly everyone is correct….. anyway if you were wondering.. here are the answers…….. ( for some stamp news keep reading.. :-)

Answer to anniversaries on the 1972 set: quiz on Feb 15th.. the other two stamps in the set were

1) the sesquicentennial of the British Coast Guard, and
2) - the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams

For the quiz on 13th February, The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer.

On February 11th I asked about the significance of the black bands on the George VI definitive.. the answer is that the black bands were added to the stamp for training purposes. The stamps are referred to as post office training stamps (or POTS)

And on February 9th as I asked about the history of the printing of the Penny Black.. the answers were:
1. William Wyon- Engraver for the Royal Mint. Created the medal which was the model for the portrait used on the Penny Black
2. Perkins, Bacon and Petch- printers of the Penny Black
3. Henry Coubould- made the drawings of the Wyon medal for the engravers
4. Charles and Frederick Heath- engravers of stamp. Some say Frederick did the work
5. 240 stamps per sheet of stamps

and finally.. on February 8th I asked why was I two days late in showing the two QE II definitives.. the answer was that I was 2 days late remembering the 53 rd year of Queen Elizabeth ascending the throne, on Feb 06.

So, to todays stamps:
The booklet I am showing here turned up in my PO Box today.. many thanks to you know who you are.. :-) bet you all wished you had friends like this… I do hope you all have friends this good… friends in another country who reliably send you those new issues even though they don’t understand why you collect stamps.. but secretly hope you will leave your collection to them in your will :-)

Anyway here is the booklet..

I am not going to write about it other than to say it was issued on 16th January and the Love stamp is the same as the 2005 Smilers pictorial definitive except that it has a ellipsed perforations and solid phosphor bands whereas the 2005 definitive had ellipses and vignetted phosphor bands. If I get the time tomorrow I will try to see if I can scan the stamps so you can clearly see the differences I am talking about.

How do I know this trivia you may well ask????. Well I read Machin Man .. and if you look at his web site at http://www.gbmachins.co.uk/html/news_04.html you will learn this and more. If you read his blog http://machinmania.blogspot.com you will never be short of the latest Machin News. I know I mention his sites a lot and yes he is a mate you could say but I also know he has THE news on Machins and I want you to know that too.

Well that was a long piece, Hope you enjoyed it.. oh yes.. one other thing….Do you remember I said there would be a prize for articles by you.. and published by me.. you as a guest writers.. I had two submissions.. .. I have published both.. but was surprised not to hear from more of you.. I enjoy your emails.. so go on, be daring.. write a guest piece.. any stamp topic.. next best one received before end of February 2007 will get a good used copy of GB SG 494 but I will probably give runner up prizes… :-) and finally.. I have updated the website …. http://www.cddstamps.com and the specials are only on until the end of this month, seriously.. :-)

Enjoy your stamps… Michael