British Colonies - King Edward VII Stamps Overview

The King Edward VII stamps were produced during a very short time frame - 1901 to 1913, even though the King died in 1910. As a result of the limited time period, many of the stamps were only printed one time, and the higher values were not printed in a very large quantity. It is not unusual to find that there were only 2,000 issues for some stamps.

Identifying the stamps issued during the reign of King Edward VII is typically a matter of three components:

1. The watermark - Either Crown CC, Crown CA, or Multiple Crown CA. See your catalog for details on the appearance of the watermarks.

2. The paper - you will find that some issues were printed using both chalky and ordinary paper. As a general rule for the KEVII stamps, chalk paper tends to be a higher quality image. You might see a shiny element when looking at the face of the stamp, or you might feel a slick feel (rather than a drag) as you lightly rub your finger over the surface. If the stamp is on the Crown CC paper, lightly rubbing a piece of silver over the stamp will produce a pencil like line. This does not appear to be true for the other two watermarks.

3. The color - unlike later eras, there is not a lot of color variation because there were not very many printings, but some do exist. Each of the catalogs have different listings, but it helps if you have a few copies to compare when making your decision about colors.

If you become interested in collecting from this time period, there are three catalog options you might consider:

The Scott Catalog will give you a general overview of these stamps, The Stanley Gibbons Catalogue will give you a more specialized view with more shades and watermark varieties, and the Commonwealth Five Reigns Catalogue (which has been out of print since 1980) will add some additional shades beyond the other two catalogs.

Thank you KGVIStamps

Over 20 years ago now, when I used to go to the bourses around Sydney, I noticed two things. One was the popularity of KGVI stamps and the other was the difficulty in obtaining KE7 stamps, other than the most common values.

The clincher that swayed me away from collecting KE7 stamps was the colour changes in the stamps that occurred around 1909. I decided on KGV stamps and I'm still collecting them.

That Montserrat stamp is lovely - art in miniature indeed!

Thanks Bobby.

I started collecting King George V and King Edward VII stamps from the British West Indies in the 1980s. I live in the Chicago, IL (USA) area and there were a number of shows and lots of dealer's shops at the time. So it gave me the ability to find some of the color shades.

I switched over to the King George VI stamps when I realized I could get 10 times the material for the same price. But I had a number of the sets, so when ebay came into being I set about to finish the sets. It gave me a chance to just focus on these issues and notice they have some distinctive characteristics - like the chalk paper that is different from some of the KGV or KGVI chalk paper issues. I am in the process of publishing my findings, so I am happy to hear someone enjoys them also.

I was trying to choose between the Antigua or the Montserrat 5/ issues, but I agree with you they are really a work of art.