KGVI Reign - Part 11 - Ceylon

Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) is the "teardrop" island below the Indian sub-continent. A wonderful study for the KGVI collector who enjoys perforation and other varieties. For the longest time, Scott never listed all the perforation varieties... another reason that Stanley Gibbons is the catalogue of choice for British Commonwealth collectors. Here are some of the 3-cent stamps:






Note the extra dab of ink (a plate flaw, perhaps?) below The King's ear making it look like he has an extra sideburn.

Here is the 5-cent stamp, with the rare and famous "apostrophe" variety:




Here is a close-up of the apaostrophe flaw. It is located between the n and u. Thank-you to Bobgggg for sending this to me a few years past. He sent me a big glassine full of KGVI stamps, and this was in it.





Colour and shade varieties abound in Ceylonese stamps of the reign. There are more than the catalogues list, and there are people still studying these stamps and trying to figure out when these different shades were printed. Here is the beautiful 50-cent "Elephants" stamp, showing a known colour shade variety:





Lastly, the two basic shades of the 5R of the series, with a host of shade and colour varieties. I really like this stamp:





Check your Ceylon stamps!

David

You just answered a question for me. I was wondering what Ceylon was now called!
I'll check the few I've got.

Very Nice oh squire of Nepean..i shall check my Ceylon !!

Well written and illustrated , David.
As usual. Thanks for sharing.
KirkS

Thanks for the information, David. No apostrophes here, yet.

Hope you don't mind me adding three other favorites from this series. All in all, a beautiful set.

CJD:

Yes, the whole series is beautiful. Thanks for posting.

David

Isn't it amazing how a stamp printed in one or two colors can be so much more attractive than all the full-color issues of the modern postal administrations.

No chocolate, no scratch-n-sniff, no fragrance, no grapefruit-stamps-that-squirt-in-your-eye, just a couple colors and a master engraver.

KirkS

P.S. Some modern stamps are attractive and I don't mean to offend those who like them. I just think most of us have such affinity for the older issues.

Here is Ceylon 285 without a cancel...


Real art.

Ditto there, great reference material..Thanks for sharing knowledge.

My rogue Ceylon stamps, not KGVI

No apostrophe for me;

This is a truly lovely series. Of course, I prefer the KGV set, as is my wont.

I recently sold the following mint set, unchecked for perfs

We'd all agree that there is room in this world for both, but I would have to agree with you that the KGV set is my choice, too.

They're all nice, but the KGV Wild Elephants is especially nice.

My 2d.

Collin

These pop up occaisionally.
The Cave Company of Colombo.
The vended stationery-books and imported billiard tables

A nice eye catcher on a Ceylon page

Do you how this was used? Was the overprint akin to a perfin?

I like it.

Collin

The CAVE overprint was, indeed, their version of a perfin. Designed to prevent theft of stamps by employees.