British Colonies- Paper Types

Early 20th century, many colonies according to scott catalogue printed stamps on "ordinary", "surface colored" and "chalky" papers. How cay I tell the difference?

In that era, the yellow papers and the green papers require some attention. For instance, the first green papers are green all the way through (i.e., front and back), while some papers used for a couple years in 1913 and 1914 were only green on the surface. The backs of the stamps are still white. "Surface colored" refers to these white-backed stamps.

Some of the later greens have pale olive or olive backs before switching to emerald both front and back. Scott notes the olive backs with separate sublistings (at least in the Classic edition). The various greens are the papers you will typically encounter on the one-shilling values around the colonies.

Yellows have their own progression, including the surface-colored papers in 1913 and 1914.

Chalk-surfaced papers had a coating applied which is water soluble (so think twice about soaking them). Gibbons uses the term specifically for papers which will react to contact with a silver wire by leaving a black mark. I don't recall Scott mentioning the silver-wire test.

You'll see from the listings for King George V that often the ordinary paper is used for the lowest values in a set, and chalk papers start around the 3d values. The chalk surface helps to prevent the washing of cancels and subsequent reuse of the stamp, so it makes sense to protect the higher values.

You can get some great values buying Commonwealth stamps of this era from U.S. sellers who don't bother to properly identify them. As with most things Commonwealth, it is definitely worth picking up a Gibbons to get better listings. Older editions are fine, if you are more interested in the information than the current values.

This is a pretty superficial summary, but I hope it helps a little...

Thanks Cjd. That helps a lot. I guess I need to look for an old Gibbons.