The Machin head

The Machin head of The Queen has become an icon of Britain. With an estimated 180 billion stamps printed (so far!) it is one of the most reproduced images in history.

It was agreed in early 1965 that a new, profile portrait of The Queen was needed to  replace the Wilding and Gillick heads. By the end of 1965 five artists had been commissioned to provide one: Reginald Brill, Stuart Devlin, David Gentleman, John Ward and the sculptor Arnold Machin.

Machin had been successfully working on the head for the new, as yet unissued, decimal coinage. Photographs taken by Lord Snowdon were the source for the new coins, and were now used for the new stamp profile. 

The Stamp Advisory Committee preferred Machin's work, and he worked to refine his designs. By October 1966 he had produced a very simple design taken from a plaster cast of The Queen wearing a tiara.

Other photographs were taken by John Hedgecoe featuring the diadem worn by Victoria on the Penny Black. This made a strong statement about the iconic significance of the new design, and Machin revised his sculpture to include the diadem. 

When essays were shown to The Queen the head was couped, or cut off at the neck. She said that she would prefer a corsage and Machin obliged, creating the final, classic bust. The Queen chose a dark olive-sepia shade for the inland letter rate, deliberately to emulate the colour of the Penny Black. The first stamps with the new head were issued in June 1967.

Machin’s commemorative head

Machin’s head with diadem was intended for definitive stamps, standing alone apart from the value. For commemorative and special stamps a smaller version was needed to replace the small Gillick/Gentleman cameo.

Machin found that simply reducing the definitive head did not work. He created a new, plaster cast without the diadem but with ribbons in the hair, like Gillick's work from 15 years earlier. This could be used as a detailed drawing or as a simple, solid silhouette. 

It was first introduced in 1968 and has been used for nearly all special (and some definitive) stamps since.