10p Vending Machine Booklets.

Perforation Types:-

Comb No. 1 and Comb No. 1a were used to perforate the sideways printed sheets for the machine dispensed books.

I.= Imperforate selvedge. (Fig 1 shows Imperforate margin and Imperforate with ½v cut.)

Pr. = Perforated selvedge with Rough edge.

Ps. = Perforated selvedge with Smooth edge. (Fig 2 shows Pr and Ps)

Fig 1 Fig 2

Both perforators give the following types of pane in the proportions shown:-

Of the 60 panes —
48 panes perforated through the margin and with either a rough or smooth edge
11 imperforate panes
1 only pane with the Imperforate (½V) cut edge
which explains the high catalogue pricing for the I(½V) pane.
Comb number 1 leaves the left selvedge of the sheet imperforate, and, after perforation, this is trimmed to binding width. The right selvedge is torn off, as is the bottom gutter, but a slanting cut is made at the bottom of the left selvedge, to make the operation easier.

Varieties:-

There are the usual crop of varieties on these panes, such as gashes, scratches, retouches extra pearl etc. but too much for an article such as this. For anyone really interested Stanley Gibbons Volume 4 gives details.

Phosphor cylinder:-

Back in 1973 I put 10p in a vending machine in Trowbridge, Wiltshire and when I checked the booklet later I was intrigued to find a part of a number 6 in the selvedge and sent it to Cyril Jonas in Keighley for his opinion.

His reply, in part, read...

Many thanks for the sight of the s/t pane enclosed. I should think this is unique, and the phos cyl only appears due to a probable displacement of the phos printing cyl. The other remarkable feature is that this is 250 screen.

A footnote after the listings in S.G. Vol. 4 reads :-

No. USB7a is the only example of the use of a 250 screen in booklets and the panes come from the February and April 1973 issues of the 10p booklets. The phosphor cylinder was B6 as examples of USB7a I(½V) exist with part of the number visible.

Cyril certainly knew his subject and though, unfortunately, not unique, the pane is very hard to find. The illustration shows the actual pane but with the part ‘6' ‘doctored' for illustration purposes.

This was real budget collecting. Insert a 10p coin and out popped a complete booklet. This little collection has a good selection of different illustrated booklet covers, it has a change of format giving four se-tenant pairs, different perforation types and phosphor variations — all for an outlay of £4.40.

Ah — Those were the days!.

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