Malta - Watermarks And Shades

Greetings! I picked up some pre-1940 Malta the other day and in going through the lot today, I find some anomalies.

The entire group is brown / red-brown (including overprints), and there are both used and mint of most issues after the Victorian. I see many different shades, and also watermark oddities -- inverted, inverted sideways, and missing altogether.

For Malta, I only have the Scott catalogues (Classic and Standard), and there is nothing mentioned of shades or watermark errors.

Can somebody tell me whether these shades / errors are common, or do I need to run down a specialized catalogue someplace?

Without seeing images, it's impossible to tell. However, you could try looking at a recent Gibbons Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps 1840-1970. It's likely to go into more detail than a Scott.

Hi tonymacg -- thank you for your response. I'd hoped to frame the question in a general way as to whether Malta has a lot of this kind of thing, but you're right, images will help. Maybe. (I'm bad at this...)

First question is from 1901 Valletta Harbor stamp. There are 2 mint and 3 used in the image below. Of those 5, 4 have the watermark orientation turned 90 degrees to the right. One has it turned 90 degrees to the left. I see some differences between these stamps in terms of color, but my real question about this issue is... is there any differentiation on these for watermark orientation?



The second image is also Valletta Harbor, from the 1904-1911 definitive issue. Scott actually shows two colors for this one: brown and red-brown. So again, my question on this relates to watermarks. The first and third watermarks, below, are turned 90 degrees to the right; the 2nd and fourth to the left. (or vice-versa. This is getting me mixed up. haha)




The third image is strictly a shades question. Does anybody else see them, or am I just tilting at windmills?




And lastly -- I don't think the scan is showing it well for some reason, but the two "One Farthing" overprints are very distinctly different colors. The one to the right is almost a pinkish.

The bottom row is "Malta" from the 1922-26 definitive issue. The left stamp is mint, the right is used. The left stamp's watermark orientation is turned 90 to the left (if viewing from the back), and I can't find a watermark at all on the right stamp.




So.... these are what led to yesterday's post. Are these shades and watermark varieties common?