Discovery! New South Wales Postage Due

When Geoff Kellow and Rod Perry took over the Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalogue, a number of listings that had been carried through from other catalogues were deleted 'pending confirmation of their existence'.

The second edition of the catalogue (2014) reinstated a number of listings deleted from the 1999 first edition as evidence of existence had been proven.

I don't yet have my copy of the third edition but the second edition does not list this stamp.



It is the 2d perf 11.8 x 11.5, printed in 1902 on chalk-surfaced paper. It has the same green quality to the ink that was prevalent in the initial Australian issues.

This is not the greatest copy, tear bottom right, toned, missing perf near tear but nice to identify something not previously known.

Nice find 64idgaf!

How can you tell that this stamp was printed in 1902.

Langtounlad,

It is from the colour of the ink.

The initial printings of the New South Wales dues were a dull green colour. The chalk-surfaced printings had an emerald hue.

I check it this way. The NSW 4d perf 11 x 11 is only known on chalk-surfaced paper. I have 25 examples of that stamp so that gives me a certain reference point for the colour.

In natural light, I compared the colour of the 2d with the colour of the 4d.

Looking around on the web last night, I found an image of another example, posted by Iain Craven from the UK. It came from a very nice collection he broke up for sale a few years ago.

I should have googled harder - just found two more examples in Millennium sale #70.

https://www.millenniumauctions.com.au/catalog.php3

There is nothing new under the sun.

Iain clearly identified his stamp on Stampboards as the 1900 printing not 1902. This is what I initially thought but as these are not a strong point for me I had to ask.The Millenium examples were also stated to be 1900 not 1902.

From my experience with Kangaroos it is clearly not possible to identify a particular printing by colour alone unless it has been established that the colour is unique to the printing.

The NSW printer used the emerald green for the first time in 1900 according to SG and again in 1902 when he printed the Federal provisional issue. Logically there would be no need for a NSW branded special issue in 1902 as by then the federal period first issue would have been well advanced in planning and the plates would have been with the platemakers for alteration early in 1902 for printing the federal issue.

Regards
Frank

Frank,

Just my (incorrect) recall of the printing date. You are correct that they chalk paper first appeared Oct 1899 (1d), July 1900 (2d), unknown date for 3d (they only date on stamp I have is 1903) and July 1900 (4d).


John

Another new discovery this week, they are still out there, lying dormant in collections, you just have to look.

The 4d perf 10 x 12 is reported in the 2020 edition of The Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalogue: Postage Dues (including New South Wales and Victoria).

Four used copies are stated to exist, three in the HL White collection (so never to be available for public purchase). Paul Fletcher, the owner of the ACSC at the time had the fourth example.

In the image, the left and centre copies are new discoveries from a $120 ebay purchase this month, the one at the right I have had for some years, I bought it in an accumulation.

Nice find! I only have the 1p, 2p and 5 shilling NSW Postage Dues, so nice to see something interesting.