Stanley Gibbons and Serious Readers
When every detail matters.
George James is Head of Philately at Stanley Gibbons, where a shade of colour, a watermark or a repair you can barely see decides what a stamp is worth. He grades under a Serious Light, and so does the rest of his team. In the film below he picks up a Falkland Islands stamp that is worth £1.50 with an upright watermark and £4,250 with an inverted one, and shows you how he tells which one he is holding.
George James grades stamps for Stanley Gibbons, where a watermark can be the difference between £1.50 and £4,250. He works under a Serious Light, and so does the rest of his team.
George James | Head of Philately, Stanley Gibbons
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Watch George grade five stamps under one.
He works through a watermark, two forgeries, a thinned penny red and a regummed stamp, and shows you what the light is doing in each case. It runs a little under six minutes.
A watermark, two forgeries, a thinned penny red and a regummed stamp, in under six minutes.
Before this, he was squinting at a stamp over a black background, and some dealers still reach for watermark fluid, which can damage what they are testing.
Find the light for your own collectionThree things he checks, and what the light does for each.
None of this is about how bright the lamp is. It is about putting the right light in the right place, at the level that makes one particular thing show up.
None of this is about how bright the lamp is. It is about where the light goes, and at what level.
Watermarks, without fluid and without guesswork.
He narrows the beam, lays the stamp against the lit head, and turns the wheel on the back until the watermark comes up. Paper from some periods is thick enough to hide one completely. On his Falkland Islands stamp the difference between an upright watermark and an inverted one is £1.50 against £4,250.
An overprint hidden under a cancellation.
Used is worth more than specimen, which is why a forger covers a specimen overprint with a fake cancellation. Hold the stamp up with the light behind it, or bring the head round to the right angle, and the overprint shows through from the back.
Thins, bends and regumming.
Rake the light across the surface and texture changes stand out: a thinned edge on a mint penny red, the odd curl a stamp takes on when new gum shrinks at a different rate to the paper, and perforation tips that have gone sharp because the fluffy fibres soaked up the gum.
Why Stanley Gibbons work under them.
Stanley Gibbons has been dealing in stamps since 1856. Every opinion its specialists give, every valuation and every catalogue description starts with looking very closely at something small, and what they can see depends on the light they are looking under.
Serious Readers lamps are used across their specialist departments for expertisation, valuations and catalogue descriptions. In their own words, they chose them for the clarity, consistency and adjustability that detailed philatelic examination demands.
Every opinion we give, every valuation we make and every catalogue description we write begins with careful observation. Serious Readers help ensure we're seeing every detail exactly as it should be seen.George James, Head of Philately, Stanley Gibbons
Colour you can compare. Many artificial lights are warm enough to shift a printed ink, which makes shade comparison harder than it should be. These rebuild the balanced spectrum of daylight instead, and hold it at 98% accuracy.
Brightness you set by hand. The wheel on the back takes the level up and down with no steps in it, so you can creep up on a watermark rather than jump past it.
A head that goes where you need it. Light skimming across a stamp brings out hinge remnants, gum disturbances and bends that overhead lighting can hide completely.
The light on their benches, and the one that travels.
Stanley Gibbons work under the HD Pro, which is the one with the shapeable beam and the brightness wheel. Everything George does in the film, he does with those two controls. If you also examine away from your desk, the HD ROAM carries the same daylight to a fair or a viewing room.
Stanley Gibbons work under the HD Pro. The HD ROAM takes the same daylight to a fair or a viewing room.
HD Pro
You shape the beam down to a single stamp or open it out across an album page, and the wheel on the back sets the brightness with no steps in it. The head swivels through 350 degrees, so you can bring the light round to rake across a surface rather than fall straight onto it. Fit the optional battery and it runs with no cable at all.
Shape the beam down to a single stamp or out across an album page, and set the brightness on the wheel with no steps in it. The head swivels through 350 degrees.
Perfect for close examination at a desk or a bench.
90 days to use it on your own material
5-year warranty, lifetime on the arm, and a replaceable light engine
Free delivery, and we collect it free if you send it back
Checked over by hand before it leaves us
HD ROAM
Auction viewing rooms, fair halls and exhibition tables are lit however they happen to be lit, and you rarely get a say in it. The ROAM is cordless and light enough to carry, so the light you examine under is the same one every time.
Cordless and light enough to carry, so the light you examine under is the same one at every fair.
Perfect for viewing rooms, fairs and exhibitions.
30 days to try it
1-year warranty
Free delivery, and free returns if you post it back
Checked over by hand before it leaves us
The specifications, and how the two compare
HD Pro
3,600 to 7,200 lux at 50cm depending on how wide you set the beam. 98% CRI, 4,000K, 630 lumens.
Head swivels through 350 degrees. Stepless brightness on a wheel, with a memory that brings your level back at the next switch-on. Optional remote, and an optional battery that runs about six hours and recharges in ninety minutes.
Replaceable light engine. 7 watts, so it costs pennies a week to run. 5-year guarantee on the light, lifetime guarantee on the arm.
HD ROAM
Cordless, rechargeable and portable. Fixed beam, dimmable. Black or Heritage White.
1-year guarantee. 30 days to try it, and free returns if you post it back.
See our other lights, or let us help you choose.
HD Original
The same daylight and the same shapeable beam as the Pro, with a thumbwheel rather than the Pro's finer control, and no option to run it cordless. It is hand-built in Great Britain.
Perfect if you work at one desk and never need to move it.
90 days to try it
5-year warranty, lifetime on the arm
Hand-built in Great Britain
HD Essential
Full Serious daylight with a fixed wide beam and a press-and-hold dimmer. There is no beam shaping on this one, so it lights a whole desk rather than concentrating on one stamp. It is hand-built in Great Britain.
Perfect for general desk work rather than close examination.
30 days to try it
5-year warranty, lifetime on the arm
Hand-built in Great Britain
If you would rather talk it through, call free on 0800 085 1088 and an adviser will help you choose. We can also send you a free guide.
The Serious Readers story
I built the first HD Light for my mum.
By 1988 our lights were already on production lines and in laboratories, and then my mum began losing her sight to macular degeneration. I built her the first High Definition home reading light so she could carry on reading, and stay independent, in her own chair.
Every light on this page descends from hers. You do not build a cheap lamp for your mum; you build the best one you can, and then you keep making it better. That is still the rule for every light we make, and it is why a stamp under one of ours looks the way it does.
Not all light is the same.
We fuss over mattresses, diet and exercise, yet light rarely gets a thought. We have spent a long time on nothing else.
We have spent a long time on nothing but the light you work under.
An ordinary desk lamp lights the desk and leaves the detail flat.
It is not about brightness. An ordinary bulb gives out a thin, uneven slice of daylight, so colours drift away from what they really are and small differences between them close up. That is junk light.
Read how the light works
True daylight, indoors, keeps a colour where it belongs.
Daylight Wavelength Technology™ rebuilds the full spectrum of noon daylight with 98% accuracy, so a shade you are trying to place reads as itself rather than as whatever the bulb makes of it. See the independent research.
Built to put the light exactly where you want it.
The head swivels through 350 degrees to bring the beam round at the angle you want, slow-start technology fades it up gently, and every adjustment holds exactly where you set it.
What opticians tell their patients.
More than 500 UK opticians recommend a Serious Light to their patients. These five say why.
Lighting has a huge impact on our ability to see. Serious Readers lights are well designed, simple to use, and provide accurate colour and detail representation.
Serious Reader Lights simulate strong natural daylight, relieving eye fatigue and improving reading. The range of styles, warranty and customer care means I recommend with confidence.
The clarity a Serious Readers lamp provides is second to none. Patients are amazed at the difference. Just like correct prescription glasses, the right lighting is so important.
Serious Lights are among the best I have come across. They provide natural, high quality light that improves comfort and clarity, easily adjusted to direct light exactly where needed.
The right light is as important as the right glasses. It reduces strain for close work, vital for anyone with cataracts or macular degeneration. Patients really appreciate the difference.
What owners tell us.
From more than 10,000 five-star reviews.
We now have 4. Once you've tried them, you can't revert to ordinary lamps.Mrs Fisher, Devon
“It's like being given a new set of eyes.”
Mr Hurford, Lincolnshire
“Worth every penny. I wish I'd bought one years ago.”
Mr Ross, Bridlington
“I have AMD and have not read a book for over 2 years. Now I have.”
Mrs Simmonds, Guildford
You will be in good company.
Stamps are graded under one on the Strand. Lifeboat crews, air traffic controllers and telescope engineers work under one too. When yours arrives, you will share a light with every one of them.
The Serious Light that arrives at your door carries the same engineering.
Before you order.
A few straight answers, starting with the one collectors ask first.
Which light does Stanley Gibbons use?
The HD Pro. That is the light in the film and the one on the benches, in the table version. George and his team chose it for the two controls he uses throughout: a beam you can narrow onto a single stamp or open across an album page, and a brightness wheel with no steps in it, so you can bring the level up slowly until a watermark appears.
The HD Pro also takes an optional battery, which is what makes it usable at a fair or an auction viewing. If you only need the light away from a desk, the HD ROAM does that job on its own.
Will it replace my magnifier?
No, and it is not meant to. A magnifier makes something bigger. This makes it visible in the first place, which is a different job, and the two work together rather than against each other.
What George demonstrates in the film is a watermark, an overprint and a regumming, and none of those is a magnification problem. Each one only shows up when the light is at the right angle and the right level.
Is it any use for coins, banknotes or trading cards?
The same two things are at work. Raking light across a surface brings out wear, tooling marks, creases and repairs that flat overhead light closes up, and accurate colour lets you compare a tone against a reference rather than guess at it.
Stanley Gibbons also deal in coins and trading cards, so the lights sit alongside that material too.
Is this different from a daylight bulb?
Yes, in two ways. An ordinary bulb that calls itself daylight is still built on a blue chip that leaves gaps across the spectrum, so a colour arrives at your eye slightly altered. Daylight Wavelength Technology™ rebuilds the spectrum to 98% colour accuracy instead.
The second difference is the engineering around it. A bulb goes wherever its lamp points. This gives you the beam width, the brightness and the angle as three separate things you set by hand.
The only real test is your own material, which is why the trial exists. Work under one for 90 days, and if it is not for you, we collect it free and refund you.
Start my 90-day home trialMore questions
Table light or floor light?
For examination, the table light. It starts from the surface you are working on and the head comes in close over an album page, which is how George uses it.
A floor light stands beside you and brings the light down from above, which suits an armchair better than a bench. If you want one light for the desk and the evening both, that is the case for the floor version.
How do the lights compare?
Every light here carries the same Daylight Wavelength Technology™. What changes is the control you get over the beam, and whether it can leave the desk.
|
Used by Stanley Gibbons
HD Pro
The light in the film
|
HD ROAM
Goes to the fair
|
HD Original
Hand-built in Britain
|
HD Essential
Daylight made simple
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Close examination | Fairs and viewings | One fixed desk | General desk work |
| Beam | Adjustable, shapeable | Fixed | Adjustable, shapeable | Wide, even, fixed |
| Brightness | Stepless wheel with memory | Dimmable | Stepless wheel with memory | Press-and-hold |
| Cordless | Yes, optional battery | Yes, always | No. | No. |
| Home trial | 90 days | 30 days | 90 days | 30 days |
| Warranty | 5 years, lifetime arm | 1 year | 5 years, lifetime arm | 5 years, lifetime arm |
| Table light price | From £449.99 | £99.99 | £399.99 | £349.99 |
| Start my 90-day trial | Start my 30-day trial | Start my 90-day trial | Start my 30-day trial |
HD Pro
The light in the film
HD ROAM
Goes to the fair
HD Original
Hand-built in Britain
HD Essential
Daylight made simple
What does it cost to run, and what happens when the light source goes?
The HD Pro draws 7 watts, so leaving it on all evening costs pennies a week. It runs cool enough to sit beside for hours, which matters more than it sounds when you are working close to it.
The light source is a replaceable engine rather than a sealed unit, so when it eventually goes we change it and the lamp carries on. That is also why the guarantee is what it is: we repair these rather than replace them.
Why does it cost more than an ordinary lamp?
Almost none of it is the shell. You pay for the daylight spectrum, a head and a dimmer that hold exactly where you set them, and a build made to be repaired. A warranty is only worth the company standing behind it, and we have been making and repairing these lights since before most of the lamps you can buy today existed.
The home trial is there so you can judge that at your own bench before you commit.
How long does delivery take?
UK delivery takes five to seven working days by tracked courier, free on every light on this page.
The Pro's arm slots into its base and the rest arrive fully built, so you plug it in and use it the same evening.
See what George sees, on your own stamps.
The whole philatelic team at Stanley Gibbons grades under one of these. The only way to know what it does for your own material is to put it over your own album and look, which is what the 90 days are for.
Start my 90-day home trial90 days at your own bench. If it is not for you, we collect it free and refund you. Five years on the light, lifetime on the arm.
For advice, a free guide or to order, call free on 0800 085 1088, Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm.