Tonga - No Period After Surcharge?

I will appreciate your opinion... is it just a small period, or this is an example with the period missed...



here is an example from ebay with a period...

I don't collect stamps from this region, but I do have an old Scott catalog that recognizes the variety as Tonga Scott No. 24 (with period after the word "SURCHARGE" in overprint) or Scott No. 24a (no period after the word "SURCHARGE" in overprint). The latter is considered the more valuable variety.

I have no idea if it is still listed that way today. Someone with a current catalog should be able to confirm.

Higher CV if the overprint without the full stop is on the stamp perf 12 1/2 2 rather than on that with perf 12 x 11 1/2.

Gibbons classifies the missing stop as s.g. 24a if line perf. 12 1/2 or s.g. 24ba if comb. perf. 12 x 11 1/2. Yours looks like comb. perf.

The missing stop exists on 3 positions on the pane of 60.

Pagoda

My Commonwealth and Empire doesn't list a value in the used column for either perf variety on this stamp. Sandafayre has one listed in a current auction, unused, at a guide price of 45-50 pounds. (here, if anyone wants to bid... http://www.sandafayre.com/itemdetai...&return=true )

Thanks to all! Yes, this is comb perforation (12x11/2), but I didn't know is the dot missed on my example or not... it looks like that the bottom line of "E" is something longer than it should to be, but also doesn't like a full dot.

Also, this looks like an used example, but postmarks is not visible...

On the example at the auction I linked to above, the bottom line of the "E" is more or less the same length as the top line.

Used values of Tonga #4 and variants are cheap, so you have to have a skeptical eye when considering this overprint.

Yes, I agree with you, CJD.

But, however, here is the better scan...

Nice scan.