Product Description
5 June 2017 50 Years of a Design Icon miniature sheet first day cover.Royal Mail first day cover
1. Royal Mail FDC postmark Stoke-on-Trent, showing the Machin head sculpture.
2. as above but cover also has the Machin Portrait stamp from 2007, postmark London, showing Machin's signature.
2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the issue of new Queen Elizabeth II definitives featuring Arnold Machin's iconic bas-relief sculpture which replaced the Wilding definitives. Arnold Machin's 1967 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II (sometimes referred to as the Machin head) has been reproduced over 200 billion times.
The stamp designs in detail:
1st Class January 1966: One of the many preliminary sketches by Arnold Machin based on the Penny Black
1st Class February 1966: Preparatory work by Machin using a photograph of his coin mould 1st Class April / May 1966: One of many essays with the Coinage head surrounded by country symbols
1st Class October 1966: Essay of the Coinage head cropped and simplified, with only the denomination
1st Class August 1966: Photograph by John Hedgecoe with The Queen wearing the Diadem
1st Class October 1966: Essay of the first plaster cast of the Diadem head, without corsage.
Background Image March 1966: Revised plaster cast of the Coinage head, with The Queen wearing a tiara.
