These stamps were intended primarily for training of post office workers. They were known to have been used as far back as the 1860’s. These stamps were made postally invalid by applying think black ink lines, which made them useless for anything other than for training purposes.

A 20p training Machin

As time progressed the stamps where printed with the black lines on them, to achieve the same result. These stamps had no postal purpose, and as such the black lines were applied with little care or attention. stamps exist with the lines in different places and there is currently no catalogue of all the different permutations that exist.

It seems that all different denominations were used, and the stamps are still used in this way to the present day. Currently, from information received, I believe only definitive issues were used in this way.

During the early 80’s a series of training stamps were produced, which were purely a block of colour with a value in the middle. These were not used for very long, purely because as a training aid they were useless as they bore no relation to the real stamps!

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