Why Did Australia Not Issue A Stamp Commemorating The Coronation Of King George Vi?

Great Britain and 56 other Commonwealth nations simultaneously issued one or more stamps on May 13, 1937 to commemorate the coronation of King George IV.

Australia was not among them.

Why was that?

No idea why there wasn't a commemorative but Australia did issue stamps on May 10th, a 1d green of Queen Elizabeth and a 2d of King George 6th.

I suspect - but do not know - that those are definitives. I don't have a catalogue for Australia.

Perhaps this was Australia's contribution to - but issued prior to - the event?

This article on this topic may be of interest:

http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/sn...ay-2010.aspx

Thank you, 22crows: that explains a lot.

I have to assume that because they are definitives rather than commemoratives and their first day of issue was May 10, instead of May 13 like the rest of the Commonwealth, is why these are not considered to be part of the KG6 Coronation Series.

Checking my Stanley Gibbons catalogue, I would say that the majority of Commonwealth countries did not issue their sets on May 13; most appear to have been issued on 12 May. Canada's coronation set was issued on 10 May, as was Nauru's. Your table mentions Papua, New Guinea and Niue as having the same design. That should be Papua, New Guinea and Nauru. Niue and Cook Islands used overprinted versions of the New Zealand set.

There is no known data relating to as why no issues of the Coronation were printed at the time of the ascension of King George VI and the Queen Consort Elizabeth.

Australia and a few other countries did not join the many Commonwealth countries issuing omnibus stamps (all stamps from the contributing countries adopted the same design.

Australia issued the first of its coronation series on April 1, 1938 with the introduction of the 5/- and 10/- Robes, and on November 1, 1938 the £1 dual effigy of the monarchs were issued; these were printed by John Ash.

Ten years later on January 27, 1948, a year after John Ash retired, the new government printer W.C.G. McCracken issued a a reprint of the 5/- Coronation stamp, and on November 17, 1948 the 10/- issue was reprinted; and in November 1949 the £1 value was reprinted; again there is no explanation as to why.

Several reasons;
1) there was not enough time for a Coronation issue because obtaining suitable photographs of the new King proved very difficult.
2) PMG desired the King and Queen to be shown wearing the Coronation regalia (Crown); it was considered bad luck to show the King wearing the Crown before the Coronation as advised by the High Commissioner. His desire culminated later, in the 1s, 5s and £1 stamp issue, when the photographs of the King and Queen wearing the crown was available.
3) a design prepared with the King wearing the dress of Scottish Highlanders was sent to the Palace, but the King's private secretary informed Mr. Bruce, the Australian High Commissioner, that the King was not connected to that regiment. This rejection meant there was not enough time for a new model to be prepared and approved.
4) the new permanent series to be introduced phasing out the stamps issues of the KG Vth reign was then decided to be sufficient, given the time constraint to produce a Coronation issue.
5) The common design was for only the Crown Colonies and Australia was outside the ambit of a Crown Colony.
6) and by common consent, the Australian 1d green (Queen) and 2d Red (King) is included in the Coronation stamps, although strictly not a Coronation issue.
cNA

I get "Page not found"

Try this:

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/Sea...spx?B=861623

Very interesting information, canadian - thank you!

1) the file linked by '22crows', is the High Commissioner's file maintained in England by Bruce.
2) The counterpart file of the PMG Brown is in https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/Sea...px?B=1892017
3) The printer's file is not in NAA holdings, but with the Bank.
cNA

Thanks Jill,
Thanks Canadian, I join with FDS, very interesting. Saved.

I had just presumed, it was too late to produce anything for the coronation, after the burning of the King Edward Vlll sets.

"The odium of public criticism"
One wonders if the public really cared so much about such an issue.