Australia Postage Due 8th Series On 3rd Wmk Paper (Sg D91 - Sgd98)

I recently bought this page. It is the 2d value in the yellow-green frame shade. This was printed by John Ash in July and October, 1928.

The frame plates were printed first (they were common for all values), the duty (value) plates were printed when needed.

The value is printed in red, a distinctive shade that is much scarcer than any of the other shades (and not to be confused with the carmine shade which is far more common). Having acquired less than 20 examples in 45 years of collecting this stuff, to get a page that more than doubles my holding was a nice item to acquire.

I will post my collection page from distilled from this new acquisition next week.

I've been putting in some hours in writing up my collection for this series.

My aim for each shade variation is to have mint, used, pen-cancelled examples along with the earliest dated copy I can find.

I then want to demonstrate how these were distributed around the country with examples from as many states as I can find.

Finally, I want an example used on cover. This will have to be a smaller cover to fit across an A4 page in portrait format. Solo usage is preferred but these are not always available, I will display the best I have.

I am not against pen-cancelled examples. They represent proper postal process so I welcome them to my collection.

Very, very nice presentation on a difficult subject. I like the different originations of the envelopes. Keep up the good work.

It really is a spectacular presentation.

Here are the pages for the 1d value, six shade groups make my eyes tired!

From time-to-time the Universal Postal Union members would meet and agree policies to be adopted until the next meeting.

One of them was to set minimum charges to apply for the recovery of postage due.

From 1 January, 1922 to 1 October, 1925 Australia adopted a minimum of 1½d for unpaid or underpaid letters from within the British Empire. A stamp of this value was not issued until February, 1925.

For the period from February, 1925 to 1 October, 1925, this value could be used on its own for recovery of this taxation calculation.

The post card on the first page is one of just four from this period that I have seen. All originated in the UK, all have the 1½d adhesive pen-cancelled.

I am unclear as to why this value was continued after 1 October, 1925 but further printings were made in 1926 and 1929, usage continued into the late 1950s.

Here are my collection pages.

Now for the 2d value. I have identified an additional value plate shade in the bright yellow-green frame shade group. The red centre is a noticeably darker shade than the regular carmine description. I have noted it in other values too.
















The above page was distilled from my previous accumulation of stamps plus the page first shown at the start of this thread.

The 3d value is an interesting one. Value plate flaws are not illustrated in 'Commonwealth of Australia: The Postage Due Stamps 1902 - 1963', R.P. Hyeronimus, Hawthorn Press Melbourne, 1980. Only seven major flaws are illustrated in the 2020 edition of 'The Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalogue, Postage Dues (including New South Wales and Victoria)', Brusden White, Sydney, 2020 pp10/107. I am working through these flaws and hope to publish an illustrated guide here later this year.

Here are the six shade groups:

The 4d value was introduced in 1922 but was not required after 1925. It was reintroduced in 1930 with a new perforation as a result of postage increases in August, 1930.

The final value in this series was the 6d value, replaced in 1934 by the CofA watermark perf 11 (this a rare stamp) and usage continued into the early 1940s.

That's it for the introduction to the eighth series, 'third' watermark issue.

This series lasted around 10 years until replaced by new paper. It was initially printed in single panes of 120 stamps but a new printer, A J Mullett, split the panes of 120 into two panes of 60 with a central vertical gutter. The printer's name, called an 'imprint' was shown at the bottom of this gutter.

While these stamps were printed in 'red' and 'green', you can see from the above images the variation in this colours is large.

The volume of stamps printed on this paper was much higher than in previous issues. This caused a number of really interesting flaws that were largely left in place, without repair.

The initial printer, T.S. Harrison produced the stamps, Mullett continued that but from 1928 when John Ash took over, repairs were made to the printing plate and a new range of interesting items were generated.

None of the values in this series are expensive, particularly in used condition. It is an interesting series and a great basis for a specialised collection of Australian postage due stamps.

These pages are from my collection, you can see spaces for items I do not possess. If anyone has any of this material that they would like to dispose of, please let me know.