Letters on the back of booklets at the bottom right

Anything relating to British stamp books and booklets.
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Dav6
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Joined: Sat Jul 27, 2013 6:00 pm

Letters on the back of booklets at the bottom right

Post by Dav6 »

Hi
I have been working on my collection and have found that many booklets have small black letters printed on the back cover at the bottom right hand side.
eg SG GA1 has a small ' e '
My question is what do they stand for? :?:
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admin
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Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:00 am

Re: Letters on the back of booklets at the bottom right

Post by admin »

A response from our QEII correspondent and booklet expert Ian Harvey:

"The question relates to the first window book issues and, specifically, the first second class book of four 13p stamps with a capital E (not small e) on the back cover.

Also, that book with four 13p stamps has F on the back cover on other books. These were specific codes to designate covers by stamp value, second class, first class and overseas, and four or ten stamps. Then, each value book had two codes variously on the covers. So, for all this issue, there were 10 codes, A to J, for 5 books. In the specific case, an E book denoted that it was the 13p book of four stamps prepared for sale at Post Office outlets. The F book was the same but reserved for retail outlets. To start, the proportion of Post Office to retail was 3:2, on the second issue the proportion was equal.

For all members who collect Decimal booklets of any type, I recommend the Bookmark catalogue, currently 7th edition but as so big being updated in parts as we speak. This catalogue is published by the Modern British Philatelic Circle - an amalgam of the original decimal society/booklet circle and covers all QE II now. Obviously, see website for details."
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