Machin Postage Stamps 3

I've done some investigation into Machin stamp designs that take into account colour vision deficiency (CVD). In particular, I looked at CVD-safe colour schemes and visual representation of numerals for the denominations. See those three web pages for more details.

The numeral scheme I finally came up with (after a lot of experimentation) is as follows:

The symbols have the following properties:

1. The number of small dots is the value of the digit.
2. Each has a high-contrast, CVD-safe colour (from the 'Chilliant Pale/Deep 19' palette).
3. The outlines are distinct.
4. They all fit within a circle the size of the grey ring zero.

For dark backgrounds, simply switch the pale/deep pairings:

The names I've ascribed to each of the symbols are:

• 0: grey ring
• 1: slate circle
• 2: brown oval
• 3: purple triangle
• 4: cyan cross
• 5: green bowtie
• 6: pink star
• 7: blue heptagon
• 8: orange square
• 9: mint lozenge

Machin Postage Stamps 1

There is a web page to accompany these blog posts.

I was sorting through some old family papers when I came across my father's stamp collection. He had a number of unsorted UK stamps that I (being me) decided to organise.

Arnold Machin

The Machin series of UK postage stamps are named after the sculptor (Arnold Machin, 1911-1999) who designed them. His profile of Queen Elizabeth II has been used on many coins and stamps:

Pre-Decimal Machin Stamps

The original, pre-decimal stamps to use the Machin profile (from 1967 onwards) came in denominations of:

½d, 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d, 6d, 7d, 8d, 9d, 10d, 1/-, …

Each denomination had a different colour, although I'm fairly certain there was no systematic colour scheme.

I found all of the denominations, up to and including the shilling, in my father's collection, so I thought about how to mount them in a display. These stamps aren't very valuable, so permanently sticking them to a bit of card isn't so terrible.

My first thought was just a grid:

Or perhaps a circular layout:

At this point, I was reminded of a clock face. Alas, there was never a "11d" Machin stamp, but one could swap the half penny and shilling stamps and use "½d" for eleven o'clock and "1/-" for twelve o'clock:

Here's a mock-up of a clock built around this layout:

I also built a JavaScript demo loosely based on a beautiful CSS-only clock by Nils Rasmusson.

Decimal Machin Stamps

Next I moved on to the Machin stamps used after decimalisation in 1971. These had all the half-penny increments up to and including 13½p, so two rings could be constructed:

Or, with axis-aligned stamps:

These templates are available on the web page as SVGs with absolute measurements: each stamp is 21mm by 24mm. You can print out the desired page at 100% scale and use the templates when mounting the stamps. Unfortunately the "double ring" layouts don't quite fit on a single sheet of A4 so you'll need to crop and rely on symmetry to physically flip the template.

Mounting

I decided to mount 23 stamps (my father never acquired a "11½p" Machin) using the last template within a 240mm-by-300mm frame:

1. Print out the template at 100% scale.
2. Carefully cut along three sides of each stamp "window" with a scalpel.
3. Position the template over the mounting card.
4. Secure the template to the mounting card with masking tape. Try to avoid sticking the tape directly to the front of the card. (Figure 1)
5. Stick the appropriate stamps on to the card using double-sided tape through the windows. (Figure 2)
6. Carefully remove the template and insert the mounting card into the frame. (Figure 3)

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

There's a conspicuous gap where the missing stamp should go. I could fill it by splurging a couple of quid on ebay, but the gap itself has a story.

Another project would be to affix a cheap battery quartz movement to a similar clock face. I had hoped to use an old CD for the circular face, but I don't think twelve stamps quite fit.