Hi, More on Royal Mail. Seems I cannot get enough of them!!! A friend of mine in England kindly collects the stamps from the office mail. Lots to sort through and mostly Machins, actually these days 100% Machins. In the last packet I received this week, of some 400 stamps, not one GB Commemorative stamp. Pretty sad eh!! and a sign that used GB Commemoratives, as I have said many many times, will have good value in the future. If cleanly franked. Read on. So, what about cleanly franked. What about the scan above. Seems Royal mail are not satisfied in gouging collectors by issuing far too many commemoratives. They have now decided that even though they have non soluble gummed, security printed Machins, they want to stop the hobbist from collecting used Machins by this disgraceful postmark which obliterates the image on the stamp. Yes I think it is deplorable but typical of Royal Mail's attitude these days. Second, I think it is defacing the image of Her Majesty the Queen and something should be done to stop that. I believe it is a offense to deface her image. Is it not? someone will know. This is not just some unlucky positioning of the stamp and franking. No the stamp placed in the top right hand corner, as it should be, is, through the franking machine, defaced by just a franking the extends just the size of the stamp. Not the more common wavy lines and boring advertising slogans we are used to seeing. See the image below and you will see what I mean. And, were these odd cases? No, some 10% of the stamps were franked like this. We love you Royal mail. NOT!!

Hope you can find a way to continue enjoying your collecting. Michael