Great Britain George V 1912-24 1-D Red Watermarks

Hello

I am currently cataloging a newly purchased stock of British Stamps from George V. I am quite an experienced collector from this period but have come across a very strange watermark on one of the 1d Red stamps from the 1912-24 era. The stamp appears to have the normal Simple Cypher (w100-Stanley Gibbons)but it is on the far left of the stamp when viewed from the back. On the far right appears to be a different watermark similar in appearance to the "Garter" marks on Queen Victoria stamps. I have never ever seen such a thing before. Anyone got any ideas or comments on this? I would be grateful to hear from anyone who can explain this.

Welcome to Stamp Community Family, optdoctor!

I am not familiar with the entire layout of the watermark, but my guess is that you are looking at the lettering at very edge of the full watermark layout. It is not unusual for the very edges of the watermark to have a frame or lettering identifying the paper company, printer... The catalogs usually only show the repeating element of the watermark.

What you are seeing is part of the word POSTAGE due to the watermark being misplaced. It is a collectable variety and given a ya variety notation by Stanley Gibbons and would have a significant catalog value compared to an "ordinary" stamp.

Thank you for this helpful reply. This makes sense. It must be quite rare as I have never seen it before

A more "normal" stamp would look like this...



Your stamp is given the variety name of "misplaced watermark". It could be argued that a mis-cut sheet is just as likely. Anyway, I believe rare might not be quite true but uncommon is accurate as the misplacing of the watermark also gives rise to the no watermark variety as the opposite side of the sheet to where you stamp is located would be a corresponding blank space. So, it might not have the same cat val as a NO watermark but certainly way above a normal. Research. It is not quoted in Gibbons Concise so is a more esoteric item reserved for the Specialized Catalog.

Great pic, scotzm!!

Scotzm, Many thanks for this, I continue to learn about postage stamps even after 40 years + of collecting. I understand now exactly what has happened. Great photo!