Trying To Identify Both The Denomination And Country.

Can I get some help identifying this stamp please.

Great Britain, twopence-halfpenny, from the Queen Victoria "Jubilee" issue, 1887 ff. Don't soak it - many of this series have fugitive ink. British stamps don't show a country name.

Agree.

Scott #114
Lovely multiple !
This is one of my favourite British Stamps, love the colour mix.

Postmark KILBURN SO NW (Duplex Hammer numeral 60)
Time at top.
SO = Sorting Office
NW = North West London
February 21st 1898

Numeral 2 at Bottom

New discovery for the Pmk Database
EKU (Earliest Known use) was 7th June 1900
Yours beats it by 2 years

Exists: Numeral 7 at bottom

Looks great information!
Have been to Kilburn many times!

Yes, saw a Kilburn Sorting Office 2018 on Google.
Going Strong.

You will become familiar with all the images of British monarchs eventually, including all the versions. They're on many stamps of the empire/Commonwealth.

Great Britain decided never to include the country name on their stamps, figuring the monarch's image was enough. Certainly, there have been other countries that have done this at times, but Great Britain still leaves out the country name to this day.

I'd like to begin by thanking everyone who has assisted me in gaining knowledge into this scott#114. I thought coins were challenging, and they are. However, stamps, I just hope I'm up for it.
Now, rod222 you mentioned new discovery for the pmk database EKU(earliest known use). I'm on coin community, and have made certain discoveries in numismatics. What's the process here for acknowledgement of this particular discovery?
Brandon

Wanted to add, everything is new to me with philatelics. I was told not to soak this stamp. What is soaking(terms of a stamp), and is this a common practice?
Brandon

Soaking stamps is common and is done to remove stamps from paper. There are also other methods which you can find many discussions and directions here and on the web. There are some issues that react very badly to soaking and most modern self-adhesives don't soak off.

"Soaking" is exactly what it sounds like: leaving the stamp in water to release the glue, thereby separating the stamp from the paper/envelope ("cover") to which it's attached. "Fugitive ink" is ink that's water soluble, so when wet it runs and ruins the stamp.

Generally speaking, though by no means absolute, an unused stamp with intact gum/glue, seen in listing as "MNH" (mint never hinged) or " ** " is considered most-prized. Next might come an unused stamp with disturbed gum, no gum, or the remnants of a hinge. Then used stamps that have a cancel and no remaining gum.

However, in some cases, a stamp is made more valuable or interesting for the letter or card it's attached to, the postmark on it, or the other stamps it's next to. For example, used French stamps from the early 1870's are reasonably common, but those affixed to letters sent during the Siege of Paris (Balloon Mail) are far more valuable. In your case, the latter two: three cancels of two types with a date of significance for this issue, and an even row of three identical stamps.

So, leave this one be. Keep it safe in a stock book or mount it (no hinges!) in an album; perhaps give it its own page with a write-up about the issue and that as of late-2021, this is the earliest known use, making it sui generis in its own way.

Philately is exceptional in that the hobby is quite seriously what you make it: some collect thematically, or geographically, or by era. German Southwest Africa. Japanese occupation of British Asia. USA plate blocks. Catapult mail. POW mail. Crash mail. Complete runs of Penny Reds or Blacks by plate. Errors. Post offices. Cancels. Expect your interests to develop and change over the years, as you finish or get bored with one angle and move to another.

I am not aware that this stamp has fugitive ink. I think it would be safe to soak the piece. The stamp's not worth much, but the triple cancel is particularly nice, so worth preserving intact for that reason.

Regarding there being no country name, this is a privilege Great Britain is allowed, stemming back to the Penny Black, the first ever stamp which had Queen Victoria as the main design. Britain maintained the practice of using the monarch's effigy in place of a country name by formal arrangement with the postal authorities, but all other countries are required to put their name on their stamps. As hy-brasil said, there have been occasions when other countries have done this but they are pretty uncommon. Generally, a stamp like this, it's a safe bet it's Great Britain if it has no country name on.

Towards 1881, the UK adopted an act that allowed the use of certain revenue stamps for postage and postage stamps to be used for levying revenue.

The post office always had been paranoid about re-use of its stamps. The inland revenue was even worse.

To prevent cleaning cancels for the purpose of re-using stamps that were valid to pay revenue duties, stamps were printed in double fugitive inks; i.e., the colour would wash when cleaned with water and oil-based chemicals. At the time only the lilac and green pigments were double fugitive. Stamps, mostly, were printed in those colours.

This stamp is from a series that succeeded the so-called lilacs & greens that were disliked by the public. As they were first issued in the year 1887 when Queen Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee, they are known as "Jubilees." These reflect the wider range of fugitive pigments that had become available.

Yours is in a colour that is particularly fugitive, but not as bad as 1881 - 1887 stamps. Soaking them (putting them in water) could cause the colours to run.

Collectors, generally, do not like washed colours. They do like clear cancellations, clean stamps, clean and full perforations and multiples. Your item ticks quite a few boxes. Most stamps were heavily cancelled (same reason as for use of fugitive inks).

There is, of couse, no reason, aside from a personal aesthetic, not to hinge this or most other stamps.

I'll speak semi-frankly, yet honesty and for myself. To gain a particular piece of knowledge on anything is a wonderful accomplishment. To gain knowledge on something that kindles passion and a love, is special for me. The wiser I become in this tremendous thing that philatelics is, I'm brought aware of one thing. I can never know it all. But I'll surely try.
Brandon

@VanNessbullion I've been collecting since I was a child. I have always found this hobby to be intriguing and illuminating at every turn. This ongoing obsession has been happening to me for about 50 years.

I learn more in this forum in one day of reading then I have on any day before I joined this forum. Everyone here knows a lot about one or two things, each one doesn't know everything. This forum is the Alexandria Library of Stamps, few know of its existence, yet it is whispered of in the halls of all knowledge. You place a post and someone will answer, with knowledge you never knew existed and then you get links to specific websites that relate directly to the stamp and issue you are working on.

This is truly the best to learn and understand this amazing adventure into philately.

"The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know."
- Albert Einstein


Perfect explanation of why the more I learn, the dumber I feel.