MACHIN HIGH VALUES

On the 2nd February 1977, four new high value Machins were released. They were printed by Harrison and Sons Ltd. and were intended to be used as make-up values in combination with other stamps to pay the relevent postage rate. These remained in use for 11 years, finally being replaced by the 1988 "Castles" stamps.

3rd August 1983	28th August 1984	17th September 1985

2nd September 1986	15th September 1987

From 1983, an additional value was released specifically to cover the minimum inland parcel postage rate (for parcels below 1Kg). With postal rates increasing with each year this lead to a new value being released each year. This lead to each value only being used for a comparatively short period.

The main usage of these stamps was on parcels and as such typically received heavy smudgy cancels, as well as suffering damage in transit. Despite this it is still not too difficult to get the long-lived £1, £2 and £5 values, but the remaining short lived values are very difficult. This is reflected in their catalogue values which are around £5 to £6 each for good used.

However they would also be used to pay registration fees or on telegrams which generally recieve light CDS cancels (or, in the telegram above, no cancel!), although these seldom appear on the market.