My Answer To "Why King George V?"

I pulled these out for a one-page club exhibit, and I thought I'd scan them in and post them before putting them back in their spots, as an answer to a couple questions in my introduction thread regarding my interest in KGV. George V was a serious philatelist, and had a lot of input into the stamps of his day. To my eyes, these are classics in every sense of the word. While you don't see all of them everyday, none of them are expensive. Obviously, the theme was KGV; but only overprints.

Thank you for posting these CJD.

I have felt stamp design was headed in a certain direction with Queen Victoria but then with King George V's choices the designs took a bit of a turn and wiggle and a duck under to convention and came out looking like the stamps are trying to say something but are not saying it outright but still in a straight forward way. King George playing the masses but having his way also. What a great salesman.

Waxing philisophic, but these seems a certain feeling one gets from KGV stamps and another from ones before and after.

They are beautiful issues from what I call the "golden age" of philately - the era of engraved stamps. If I had the time and money I would like to collect worldwide from maybe 1910 to 1940 or 1950.

george 5 only lived from 1911 to 1936

The block of four and the single red stamp after it were over printed for use in Ireland.

an imaginative display...i like overprints..i would probably go with Edward VII myself but thats what makes stamp collecting ...we could never all collect the same topic !!

George lived from 1865 to 1936. He reigned from 1910 to 1936, but his coronation was in 1911.

The other overprints which may not be immediately obvious are:
N.F. and GEA are German East Africa. (N.F. stands for Nyasaland Force.) Scott lists them under German East Africa. Not surprisingly, there are some differences in the GEA overprints, so not all of them are listed under German East Africa, but there is a note to this effect in Scott Classic.
I.E.F. is the India Expeditionary Force. Scott lists these as "M" type stamps, at the end of India in the Scott Classic.
The Irelands are mentioned above, so the rest should be pretty self-explanatory.

There aren't a ton of semi-postals from the Classic-era Commonwealth, which makes the Straits Settlements Red Cross issue of two stamps interesting (to me).

I'll put together a short post of some of the KGV definitives later this week. There are some very striking stamps there, too.

Collin

Some more facts: Like FDR who lived during the same time, George V was a serious philatelist. His collection composes the major part of the Royal Collection, a great resource for folks interested in study of KGV stamps. Some of the more interesting overprints are the Trinidad WWI WAR TAX overprints, they are many and varied, to collect the lot should cost under $20, but finding them all is not that easy.

The N.F overprints seen above are easy to find, other Nysaland are not, KEVII and KGV Nyasaland Protectorate can get expensive, they are also full of revenues. Beware of any Nyasaland stamp bearing the double ring circle BLANTYRE cancel. This is a revenue tax cancel and thus is worth the price of a fiscal, which in the case of Nyasaland is close to nothing. There are four times as many as these cancels as there are any other. Genuine cancels from British Central Africa or Nyasaland, on other value than the 1d are rare and collectible, cleaned Blantyre cancels are common as well.

The Irish overprints were printed by different printers, the 1/2d block on the left was overprinted by Dollards, the 1d single on the right by Alex. Thom & Co. a local Dublin book printer and slightly more valuable. A limited number of overprints were sent to Harrison and Sons in London, this was not too popular with the recently independent public, and copies are hard to find (and expensive).

A note about the Semi-Postals, not only do you see them in the Straits Settlements, but you will see them on the KGV North Borneo stamps.

Congratulations on the Malta airmail. I have been trying to find that one for ages.

I'm thinking of making that stamp my avatar. It represents a lot of my interests (classic-era, BC, KGV, overprints, airmails), all in one stamp.

Thanks for adding information to this thread.

In my opinion George 5 was a serious philatelist...i would not put FDR in his catagory..George 5 had the good stuff..when you tour the Roosevelt estate the Parkie giving the tour tells you that the Roosevelt collection was not particularly valuable but the fact that it belonged to FDR brought higher prices...

Time for some more KGVs:

A few one-shillings...






Another Grenada...



And signing off for now with a couple Straits Settlements...



I guess I'll knock the size down slightly for the next scans...

This is also my era. The stamps of the reign of KGV are in a class of their own.

A few examples

No! please
They are great scans. maintain quality.

KG5 was very canny as well, he purchased a major Ausralian collection
for 1,500 pounds. I'll post the news item, if/when I can find it.

Lots of variety possible in a KGV collection...thanks for showing some more.

Whew ! that 5 shilling Sierra Leone is a beaut !!

That 5-shilling Dominica is a beaut, too...I thought I liked the 1-shilling best, for seeing the detail, but I might have to rethink that...