Victoria 5 Pence Duty Stamp. More Info Please.

Any info on these types? What year is this and what were duty stamps used for? Thanks!

A few other Victoria pence stamps, not duty..

I believe your 5d Stamp Duty design was first used in 1891.

Victoria maintained three categories of stamps, two for revenue purposes and one for postal purposes, up until the Post Office Act of 1883. At that point, everything became valid for everything. A revenue stamp intended for Stamp Duty could thereafter be used to pay postage. The stamps continued to bear the Stamp Duty inscription for reasons that aren't clear to me. Perhaps someone can chime in on why they didn't change to "Postage and Revenue" as did so many other places in the Commonwealth? It was many years until they switched to a "Postage" inscription. (This same general design is found with the "Postage" inscription in 1901.)

SG317 is purple brown, and SG317a is pale reddish brown (1893).

[edited to add: Gibbons says that they elected to base the unified stamps off of the Stamp Duty stamps because they had the most values already in existence. I get that. But why would a stamp designed in 1891 still use "Stamp Duty"? That, I don't understand.]

Thank you CJD. Very interesting.

The aim of the postal authorities at that time was to have a a complete series Stamp Duty adhesives that could be used onwards from the start of 1885. If the stamp had been marked as postage, it would go against this aim. This situation remained in place until federation which then necessitated the separation of postal and revenue stamps. The states still produced their own stamps until the kangaroo series of Australia was released. Of interest is that when the 5d stamp was released, there were also issues of 1.5d, 2.5d and 9d. Surprisingly, the 1.5d and 9d were not inscribed "Stamp Duty". An internal memorandum questioned this but it was determined that there wasn't a legal requirement for them to be inscribed.
The classification of Victorian stamps with respect to "postal fiscals" is unusual and is not like the situation of many other countries in the world. the postal fiscals assumed the role of postage stamps, rather than supplementing them.
I've taken this information from The Stamps of Victoria by Geoff Kellow.
Hope this makes sense, Stephen

Thanks for taking the time to dig out that information.

The 1897 and 1890 semi-postal stamps are inscribed "postage" with no reference to Stamp Duty. Any idea if their use was limited to postage, only?

I'm not sure which stamps you are referring to that are inscribed "postage" from 1897 and 1890. If you are referring to the 1.5d and 9d stamps mentioned above, they were not inscribed with postage nor stamp duty. The 1.5d was the denomination rate for the UPU foreign postcard rate. The 9d was the charge for the inland parcel post. They weren't produced for stamp duty use but there is no reason why they couldn't be used. Both these stamp designs were later released in the early 1900's with postage inscribed on them. Obviously, they couldn't be used for stamp duty.

If I've missed something with your question, let me know.

My hands weren't listening to my brain when typing...the 1897 and 1900 semi-postals, or charity stamps. In Gibbons, SG##353, 354, 374 and 375.

The 1900 Empire Patriotic Fund stamps for the Boer War were 1 shilling [SG374] and 2 shillings [SG375], but paid postage of only 1d and 2d, respectively.

All four are inscribed "Postage." Do we know if they were valid for revenue purposes, too?

That's fine. I thought you were probably referring to these stamps. The reference I have is very clear in its answer. Since the stamps were inscribed "Postage" they were intended for postal use only and "could not" be used for fiscal purposes. However, according to the post office act of 1883 they were legally interchangeable. There was no amendment made to exclude these stamps from fiscal use. Therefore they could have been used fiscally but there are no known examples of these stamps being used in this manner. Cheers, Stephen

Thanks for finishing that off.

Good stuff! Thanks!