Australian KGV Stamps Explained.

A History of K.G.V Stamps

Australia began life as a penal colony of Great Britain & as such had no real identity of her own for the first 100 years or so of her modern history. All that changed with Federation in 1901.


Federation meant Australia became a Nation in her own right & along with the legislative work of how the new nation would be governed were smaller questions, such as the issuing of the new nation's very first postage stamp.


This took rather longer than one would think & the new nation didn't issue its first stamp until 1913. There was massive disagreement over the design for the stamp. There was a strong anti~royalist lobby within the Labor Party, which included the post Master General. The Royalists in the Liberal Party were staunch monarchists.


In true Australian fashion the Labor Party, which was in government, held a competition to choose a design for Australia's very first national stamp. It was a very popular competition & drew over 1 000 designs but the £100 prize was eventually awarded to a man by the very un~British name of Hermann Altmann. His designs included a head of King George V, flanked by a kangaroo & the shield emblems of each of Australia's states.


The Labor Party didn't think much of this design & the government commissioned the water colourist, Blamire Young, to come up with something more *typically Australian*. Young submitted 10 designs using an Australian map outline with a kangaroo & these were eventually issued in various colours for different denominations from January 1913 onwards at the instigation of the Labor Party. However the stamp wasn't particularly popular with protests that it was *child~like* & many people in the wider population were staunch royalists & felt their monarch had been slighted. Nor was it popular with Australia's Head of State, King George V, who received samples of the first stamps for approval, & demanded to know why he was not on Australia's first stamp.


The story of KGV stamps is intrinsically linked to the political power plays of the recently formed Australian government: Labor Party versus Liberal Party. The Labor Party, actively seeking to assert its Independence from English rule, acted directly against the Australian Head of State, King George V, pushing their anti~monarchy agenda by releasing the first kangaroo issue stamps without officially recording the date of issue. The earliest post mark can be traced to January 1913.


Six months later, when there was a change of government & the Liberal Party came to power, one of the first things they did was order new stamps with the monarch, King George V on them. The Liberals were so keen to establish themselves as a pro~monarchy government they allowed the Australian Treasury to print engraved KGV stamps because the stamp printer of the day did not have the facilities to do engraved printings. At the same time they requested plates from England to begin the topographical KGV issues.


The KGV engraved issue, like the map & kangaroo issues, has no recorded 1st day of issue, yet by July 14th, 1914, when the topographical KGV was released, the 1st day of issue was duly recorded.


King George V was an avid stamp collector himself & helped build the Royal Philatelic Collection into the finest collection in the world. At one point he was Honorary vice~president of the Royal Philatelic Society of London. His collection is privately owned by the Queen, not the nation, & has never been counted or valued. It contains many unique items. King George's collection is housed in the red albums & was originally expanded by King George while he was in the navy & able to collect stamps from all over the world. Eventually he restricted his collection to the stamps of Great Britain & her dominions, including Australia.


Index for Denominational Explanations & some main topics Bottom of Page 13.

KGV Collector,

Thanks for sharing this history of KGV Stamps.

Great history KGV really looking forward to the next installment.

Great history lesson KGV

Thanks for sharing.

Dianne

Excellent work, KGV Collector! Very informative... thank-you.

I know the "'roos" are a popular series of stamps to study. many folks from around the world study them. I would say an equal number study the KGV Heads as well.




Standard Canadian Joke: Yes, those who settled Australia were criminals... the ones who settled Canada were never caught!

Good on ya, eh?

David

My Australian KGVs hold a prominent place in my Australian collection...as do the Roos. Thank you 'KGV Collector' for the interesting history.
Allan

Thank You KG5_collector...very informative..i am afraid the George 5 heads and the Roos all look alike to me..i need re education..i had a mint 10 shilling roo fall out of a beat up album I got in a box lot..my first thouught was.."can it be real ? " but it appears to be !!

Well written synopsis.
Thank you for sharing.
KirkS

Indeed well written.
My only contribution is that I have one (1) Aussie KGV. And
only one Roo.

Thanks! Very interesting context.

How did the Kookaburra 6d get selected vs. just more KGV designs? It seems have been released around the same time.

Is there a story around the different dies and perforations changes?

With the election of the Liberal government, the new Post Master General set about immediately replacing the Kangaroo series. The original idea was to replace all denominations with a different design, and work was undertaken to produce designs from ½d to £2. The history is incomplete due to a lack of records, but the 6d Kookaburra was the only one that made it to issue. It was designed by R. Harrison, the son of T.S. Harrison, the Commonwealth Note Printer at that time, who had also printed the first engraved KGV head. The perforation and gumming was undertaken by Cooke however, the Stamp Printer.

The onset of World War I delayed the issue of further new designs, and then a new Post Master General was introduced who made the decision not to proceed with the new designs. The Kangaroo & Map series stayed on as the higher values, while the KGV Heads were issued up to 1´4. There are some proofs of two others of the new designs, the 2d and 1/-.

Balf

Thanks guys. Having a leetle trouble posting an image for you...

Thanks for your input Balf. Great stuff.

The Australian King George the Fifth side~face definitive issues of 1914~1938.









A complete straight set or simplified set, all denominations & standard colour issues.

Excellent history. Thank You.
Those stamps look very impressive when seen all together like that. I have just seen a few in person (so far). It would be nice if the catalogue publishers would display stamps just like this, all at once in a group as well as one at a time.

KGVCollector:

I saw you working hard to get that scan posted -- thanks for persevering. It was worth the efforts; very handsome set.

KirkS

Yep, that's a nice group. Thanks for posting it.

C