Hello, yes I am back from the last trip.  Another to the UK. I managed to pick up a few nice stamps for my collection while there and a few others which will, when I get a few spare hours, go into the cddstamps online store. 

This se-tenant pair is from the recent  Ladybirds Book issue. I think you might find a nice clean used se-tenant pair hard to come by  - coming to the cddstamps online store soon.  This issue was released at the London Stampex 2017 show back in September.  I have no idea why as I cannot find any materials about a commemorative event.  Perhaps a reader will know?

As I write it is Halloween tonight. have a great a safe time.

Best wishes       Michael        cddstamps.com

 A change of topic tonight.  I hope you enjoy seeing this cover.

The Great River Road is a collection of state and local roads that follow the course of the Mississippi River through ten states of the United States. It formerly extended north into Canada serving the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.

The term "Great River Road" refers both to a series of roadways and to a larger region inside the US and in each state, used for tourism and historic purposes. Some states have designated or identified regions of state interest along the road and use the roads to encompass those regions.

The Cover say “the longest parkway in the world, 5600 scenic miles from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico” .

Anyone know the reason for this issue. I cannot find a date that would commemorate this issue date of 1966?. 

 Enjoy your stamps   and all we can learn from them.    Michael     cddstamps.com

Hello,  Enjoying Machins - Part III  - Here is the final piece on SG 2124.  I thought It worth adding this final stamp.

4 copies now, left to right -  Walsall printing. De La Rue printing,  Questa printing and now the 4th stamp which is another Questa but from a booklet, it has perforation 14 and is listed as SG 2124d.  The first three have perf 15 x 14.

Now one additional comment - I commented in Part II that one way to determine De La Rue from Questa was to look at the distance between the top of the crown and the margin.  My thanks to Ian Norvic for his excellent feedback - Ian comments that the distance between the top of the diadem and the perforations is not really workable because the perfs can vary.  I should have mentioned this but was generalising a bit too much.  Sometimes it is easier to see than others.   Technically the distance should be the gap between the base of one image and the tip of the diadem on the image below.  Can be hard when we have only a single stamp to look at. Thanks Ian - his work is always brilliant and readers interested in more can read Ian at   http://www.norphil.co.uk/articles/mildefins/miltypes.htm

My own additional comment is that I have been looking at perforations (thus this Part III - and perf 14 is only Questa so I have used that as a further "guide" to helping me differentiate between De La Rue and Questa  because one can clearly see the closeness of the diadem to the margin on the perf 14 stamp.  Sorry if I am overly complicating this now.

There is one other aspect  for study you might enjoy - and that is looking at the phosphors. I have not got into that yet but I do have a picture from a random selection of 30 I looked at today, which I thought you might enjoy seeing. I  even found a few "thinner" left and "thinner" right phosphors.     my brain will surely be aching if I start studying all these!!!!!!! 

Enjoy your Machins and have a great weekend

Michael cddstamps.com

visit our online store and get yourself a few more Machins: fill a few gaps in your collection from the 2500+ plus that we have for you to choose from. Especially clean stamps - well a few maybe heavier postmarks, but no creases tears, missing perfs like we see in so many other stores - just being honest with you. Go for our quality. Just try us once and I think you will be a repeat customer. These four will be loaded over the coming days. Thanks Michael

Hello, continuing with the GB Machin SG 2124 theme. But first, thanks for providing likes to last nights piece. It does help me know what collectors enjoy reading and therefore what to write about.
Tonight, how to tell the difference between a Questa and De La Rue printing.
I mentioned yesterday that one of the stamps I showed was printed by both De La Rue and Questa. Here are three copies now and an enlargement of the top of the crown of the right two stamps.
I hope you can see that on the right stamp the top of the crown is touching the margin perf while on the left stamp there is a noticeable gap. The right stamp is a Questa printing and the left stamp is the De La Rue printing. It is that easy, and, I should add, this difference is distinguishable with a reasonably good magnifying glass.
Enjoy your Machins

Michael cddstamps.com visit our online store and get yourself a few more Machins: fill a few gaps in your collection from the 2500+ plus that we have for you to choose from. Especially clean stamps - well a few maybe heavier postmarks, but no creases tears, missing perfs like we see in so many other stores - just being honest with you. Go for our quality. Just try us once and I think you will be a repeat customer. These three will be loaded over the coming days. Thanks Michael

Hello, today I have spent some time enjoying Machins.  I hope you seeing these two images and perhaps get you to have a closer look at your copies, or at least be aware when you do get some copies of this stamp.  SG 2124 issued in 2000 as the "New Millennium" definitive 1st class stamp.

They were printed by De La Rue, Questa and Walsall printers.  The two I show may look to be the same but they are not. The stamp on the left is the Walsall printing and the other is either De La Rue or Questa printing (actually De La Rue but that is getting a bit too much for this piece)

Anyway the second image shows one (of 7 I know of) difference to help tell the Walsall and De La Rue or Questa printings apart from one another. I find this one of the easiest identifying differences.

Have a look at what you have and see if you have a copy of both.   Next I will show how to tell the De la Rue and Questa printings apart.  Enjoy your Machins.

Michael   cddstamps.com