Australian Postage Due Stamp Identification

Firstly an apology to you all, I have strayed. I was tempted by the content and conversation available at the 'other' forum owned and run by the meglomaniac from Castlecrag in Sydney.

He is sick of me, I am sick of him, so I shall not stray again.

But to the point of this thread:

Australian postage dues are my passion and, to the casual observer, a very complex area. Over the years, I have been able to determine which stamp is which and offer this 'album' of postage dues to assist fellow collectors.

I would also welcome images from other collectors to help them determine which stamp is which.

*** Edited by Staff to remove YELLING. All capital letters is the internet version of yelling. Please don't do it in titles or posts. ***

If you have serious interest in this area of collecting, here are the best reference sources for you:

R P Hyeronimus: "Commonwealth of Australia: The Postage Due Stamps 1902-1963" Hawthorn Press, 1980

J R W Purves: "Victoria: The Postage Dues" Hawthorn Press 1960

The Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalogue: "Postage Dues including New South Wales and Victoria" 2nd ed, 2014

Stanley Gibbons: "Commonwealth and British Empire Stamps 1840-1970"

Throw away your Scott catalogues.........

I will use pages from my collection to illustrate my posts.

Australian postage due stamps were issued in two basic designs, the former, in green and based on the New South Wales design (this design plagiarised from the United States design), issued from 1902 until 1909 and the latter in red (value) and green (frame) from 1909 until 1963.



Victoria did not use the green issues. Occasionally these are seen with Victorian cancels but they are not valid but creations of stamp dealers looking to 'improve' ordinary mint stamps.

Overall, there were 14 different series, based on design, watermark and sheet format.

Welcome back. We are now requiring that folks who have strayed like this display the following avatar.


By wearing the large Scarlet A, it allows others recognize that you strayed to the 'A' forum!
Don

P.S. - Just kidding of course! Thank you for participating here.

I have a few pages here somewhere ,Better go find them.

The first series of stamps, comprising the values ½d, 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 6d, 8d and 5s, were adopted from the New South Wales design. The New South Wales printing plates were altered by hand with the letters 'N.S.W.' at the foot of the design being chiseled away, leaving a blank space.



There were three perforation machines used on these stamps. They measured 11 (holes per 2 cm), 11.5 and 11.8. The 11.5 gauge was used only until October, 1902. Stamps with the 11 gauge are scarcer than others. The 1d and 2d are found perf 11 x 11.5 (the 2d is scarcer) and the 1d is found perf 11 x 11 and is a very rare stamp, particularly in mint condition.

The 1d and 4d values with upright watermark are scarcer than those with inverted watermarks, the 2d value is scarcer with inverted watermark.

The ½d, 8d and 5s appeared in a scarce dull green shade.

The distribution of these stamps is a point of interest. Tasmania ordered far more stamps than it needed and all values can be easily found with Tasmanian cancels. The 8d is found only with Tasmanian cancels. The period of use extended into the 1920s.

All values except the 8d were sent to Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The 5s value is seen with 1925 cancels from Townsville (as is the 5s value from the second series). I suspect this was some form of late distribution, stamps cancelled with contemporary dates (1902 - 1909) are of interest.

The 3d value is often seen with New South Wales cancels, but there is no record of official distribution within New South Wales. Other values with New South Wales cancels are very scarce.

I won't go to this level of detail in future posts (unless you ask), but as I can find them, I also include identified printing flaws on the stamps. The abovementioned Hyeronimus and the ACSC catalogue assist with identifying and plating (i.e. locating within the sheet) of the flaws seen.

As the text of the page states, there are 23 identified flaws, but only three have been plated. Blocks of these stamps are required to assist with the plating of the flaws.

Hi 64idgaf

Are you still open to questions on this topic ??

Cheers

David,

I sure am,


John

Hi John, Thanks for getting back to me.

Recently I acquired a collection of postage dues from overseas and I am bemused as to the referencing system which all appear as "J" . My copy of the ACSC uses "D" as its prefix. This is my first attempt at postage dues but I have extensive experience in other Aust. stamps and their use of the "SG" prefix. I am guessing that "J" is probably used in the Americas and is not unlike their use of the Scott referencing system for SG. I guess my question is really, is there a reference I can refer to that tells me how to match up the Js with the Ds??

Cheers David

You are correct that the J-prefix is used by Scott to indicate Postage Due for all countries. I also have a very difficult time converting ACSC to Scott, so you aren't alone. In my experience, ACSC is much more detailed and complete for Australia, so there will be some ACSC numbers that don't convert to any Scott item.

I've attempted to make my own D to J converter, but not complete by any means.

David,

Post up images of each page, I'll do it for you,

John

Hi John - not sure if this going to work ??

That looks better, I traced over the pencil numbers to highlight.

Sorry about the double up. The next lot start at J39.

Thanks david