WIKI TIKI WEDNESDAY - STAMPING OUT HER MAJESTY

‘THE SAINT’
“THE SCALES OF JUSTICE”

From the IMDb:
Five members of the board of a company called Combined Holdings have all been murdered.

Each of those board members who were murdered (in a way which resembled natural causes) received a postcard telling them that they would die.  This was how Simon Templar was able to suss out the murderer – he had “sent” himself a postcard as well, addressed to his father whom he claimed had been murdered in a similar fashion.  But the father had died from the natural causes which the son would later emulate for his victims.  

However the father had died in January of 1968 and the stamp used on the postcard wasn’t issued until June of that year.  The son had forged the postmark. (O’Bservation - The episode was broadcast on December 1st of 1968, but probably took place in October of that year due to the apparent mildness of the weather in the episode.)

Wishing to learn more about the history of this particular stamp and the adherence to that history in this episode (for the ravenous blogbeast must always be fed), I consulted with renowned stamp expert Dr. Philately via his spokesman Eliot Wagner.

Dr. Philately’s reply:
These stamps are part of the Machin definitive series of UK stamps. Machin is the name of the designer. This series has been ongoing for about 50 years now.

The 2d stamp was issued in 1968. The 3p stamp is not that early. The UK changed from the old non decimal currency to the new decimal currency in 1971. The d is the notation for the old pence (d itself it goes back to the Romans), while p is the notation for the new pence. The 3p stamp was issued in 1971 when the currency change occurred.

He then directed me to Wikipedia:
The Machin series /ˈmeɪtʃɪn/ of postage stamps is the main definitive stamp series in the United Kingdom, used since 5 June 1967. It is the second series to figure the image of Elizabeth II, replacing the Wilding series.

Designed by Arnold Machin, they consist simply of the sculpted profile of the Queen and a denomination, and are almost always in a single colour.

After five decades of service, the series has encompassed almost all changes and innovations in British stamp printing. This has been encouraging an abundant specialised philatelic collectors' market and associated literature.

Arnold Machin's 1964 effigy of the Queen was replaced on British coins in 1984 by an older-looking effigy by Raphael Maklouf. However, the effigy on British Machin stamps has never been updated, and the last proposals to these ends were rejected by the Queen herself.

For more information… information… information, click here.

BCnU!