Direction Of The Watermark For Portrait And Landscape Format Stamps?

Hello,

I don't have much knowledge about Australian stamps but have some piles of them which I want to sort one day. I have the Scott Classic catalog as well as Michel Classic and the regular Michel Australia. But nowhere I find detailed information about the watermarks. So I wonder, if there is a general rule how the watermark is oriented, if it's not a normal definitive stamp with the normal horizontal watermark.

So for example these stamps are in a longer format, portrait or landscape:
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/A...tamps/g0172/
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/A...tamps/g0181/
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/A...tamps/g0191/
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/A...tamps/g0155/

Is there a rule that the crown points always to the left or right (seen from back or front)? Or do both directions appear always?

About the older stamps like KGV I found all information I need and all watermark orientation are also listed in the catalog. But the time after KGV, like in the links above, I only find "vertical" or "horizontal", not the direction of the crown.

I know there is a special stamp catalog for Australia :), but as I don't own many Australian stamps I just wanted to ask this so that I perhaps don't need another catalog.

Thank you.

Stamperix, on the Peace 5.5d green (stampworld 174), Princess Elizabeth 1d (stampworld 181), Scout Jamboree 2.5d (stampworld 191) and the Australian Imperial Forces stamps, the top of the crown points towards the right from the back of the stamp.

This is not the case for all sideways CofA watermarks - the 1s3d Hereford Bull (stampworld 182) has the crown pointing to the left from the back of the stamp.

The current Stanley Gibbons Australia catalogue value for this 'One Pound Jimmy' stamp is GBP1.00 for sideways CofA watermark with the top of the crown pointing to the right from the back of the stamp.

If you find one of these stamps with the crown pointing to the left from the back of the stamp, the catalogue value rises to GBP1,500.00.

Thank you very much for your helpful answer. So it's indeed the case that the Australian catalog makes these differences.

May I add the following stamps (hopefully my last ones):

Crown pointing to the left here?

25th anniversary of coronation of KGV:
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/A...tamps/g0125/

Platypus 9d and Sheep 5d stamp:
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/A...tamps/g0133/

Victoria stamps in landscape 1890:
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/V...tamps/g0112/

But pointing to the right here?
Black swans 1890, 1898 and 1902:
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/W...tamps/g0034/
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/W...tamps/g0044/
https://www.stampworld.com/stamps/W...tamps/g0049/

thank you very much, all my questions answered. I will look today or the next days at all my stamps and show any scans where I am not sure (in a new thread).

Happy hunting for those inverted watermarks!

My apologies, I just had another look at these issues.

In fact, there are different orientations of the CofA watermark for the two printings.

The 1938 printing, perforation 14 x 13.5, has the crown to the right from the back of the stamp.
The 1943 printing, perforation 14 x 14.75, has the crown to the left from the back of the stamp.

Thank you again, that's important and good to know.

Are there other stamps which have such a differentiated watermark orientation depending on the perforation or the year of issue? (but still showing exactly the same design)

And by the way, the old HALFPENNY stamps of the colonial issues (those with this small format), is the orientation of the crown mentioned in the SG Australia?

(until now I haven't found any candidate for an inverted watermark...but the Western Australia swans could be interesting)

Hi stamperix

There are two types of watermarks for the 1946 Peace stamps, the 2½d and 3½d have the watermark upright and the 5½d has the watermark sideways with the top of the Crown facing right, all have multiple Crown C of A watermarks.

The 1940 A.I.F. stamps have the multiple Crown and C of A sideways with the top of the Crown facing left.

The 1d Princess Elizabeth has a multiple Crown C of A sideways with the top of the Crown facing left.

The watermark can be seen both in vertical and sideways format.

Rob

Or the opposite directions as seen from the back of the stamp as per my posts above.

Thank you both.

I am thinking about buying a catalogue, but I am not sure if I should choose SG or Scott. I don't need the ASCS as I don't want to specialise, so I am even not sure if the SG catalog has too much information. But of course I would like to have the information about the watermarks.

Does anybody have the Scott Australia catalogue (I think it's called now "Scott Australia Standard Postage STAMP catalog 2020")? If yes - is there for the mentioned stamps (and others) the information about sideways watermarks in which direction the crown is pointing?

I don't know about Scott but the AUSTRALIA STAMP CATALOGUE 2019 STANLEY GIBBONS 11TH EDITION has a footnote indicating the directions of the watermarks, as seen from the back of the stamp.

In the meantime I was told that in Scott Australia the orientation of the sideways watermark is not mentioned.
As I have to wait weeks for shipping the SG Australia to me I have decided to make my own "add-on", so I just write by hand in my Scott Classic catalog to give the sideways orientation.

Your answers in this thread were my starting point, and I found all stamp in the Australia section until 1950 as images in the internet, also thanks to the great images of the back of the stamp at Fair Dinkum Stamps!

So I have found all watermarks for Australia (Australian States is another topic, but I have very few stamps from there anyway).

What I just still would like to know about Australia (from 1913):

Is there any other example than the 9d Platypus and the "One Pound Jimmy" stamp where there are 2 orientations of the sideways watermark for the same design?

The perforation 14x15 9d chocolate platypus is the only one from the 1937-49 series with the crown to the left of CofA from the back of the stamp on the normal issue.

It is possible that the watermark could be inverted on any of the others - some of these have not yet been found and may or may not exist (big $ if you find one), some are quite common (e.g. 2d scarlet KGVI from booklets) and some are very rare and listed in the catalogue for big $ (e.g. P.15x14 4d koala).

Thank you - I was only thinking about the sideways watermark. As for the normal watermark it's easy to see an inverted one, but for the sideways watermarks you never know which direction should be the normal one.

I only know the 9d Platypus and the One Pound Jimmy now, so I guess there are no other inverted sideways watermarks which are known for the same design (Australia from 1913)?