Show And Discuss Your Malaya & States Stamps

Makes me think there was a stock of security paper made available for stamps by the Crown Agents and used by different contract printers. Clearly Gibbons tells part of the story, but not the whole story.

Straits Settlements issued a long set of definitives during the KGVI era, featuring the King and 2 palm trees as below:



Several values were issued using 2 different dies. For some collectors, identifying the 2 die types is challenging and the images in Scott's Specialized are quite small.

Here are the 2 dies of the same denomination/color combination side-by-side.



Scott mentions that Die 1 was printed in a single pass, while Die 2 was printed in 2 steps with separate head and frame plates. Scott's also mentions differences in the bottom palm fronds, however I have always found it easiest to separate the 2 dies by how the fronds differ in their relationship to the oval around KGVI.

Since Die 1 was printed in 1 step, there are places where the palm fronds connect to the oval. See arrows over Die 1. Die 2 was printed from 2 plates, thus the fronds do not connect with the oval around the King- see the arrows over Die 2. A white line is clearly visible in Die 2 printings and can be seen with minimal magnification, if any.

Knowing how to spot both dies is important for some values of the Straits BMA set as well. While on that topic, for me the BMA set is much more interesting then the basic Straits KGVI set. There are many more printings of the BMA set, with multiple paper and die combinations. And despite the many printings Gibbons lists, there are many more shades that can sorted and collected beyond Gibbons. Accumulating multiple examples of the BMA set will certainly yield much in terms of finding multiple printings to display in your collection. And no need to duplicate the scarce and expensive $5 green and scarlet as it only comes one way!

KGVI, who is a frequent poster in this forum, has a well-illustrated and highly informative page devoted to the BMA issues, which I use as a reference. Note that he documents more than 50 die, paper, and shade combinations! http://www.kgvistamps.com/articles/...MA-1945.html

The design seen in the Straits and BMA sets was also used for definitive sets issued for Malacca and Singapore. Gibbons does not mention Dies 1 and 2 with respect to Malacca, so I've never studied this set.

The Singapore issue has 2 perf variations, 14 and 18, which are easy to see by eye. Numerous values only exist in 1 perf type or the other. Gibbons mentions some interesting info regarding Die 1 and 2 usage in the Singapore set (e.g. single color stamps printed (mostly) from Die 1, and 2 color stamps being Die 2). However none of the Singapore stamps are listed as being issued in both Die types.

Thanks for pointing out the differences in the oval. I was not aware of that one. I always look at the left tip of the right palm frond. It has two leaves in Die 1 and one leaf in Die 2. I have never studied the other design to see if there is more than one die. It will be worth taking a look.

Good deal. You're a much better researcher and student than I am so I would enjoy hearing about additional findings you make.

There is also an area on these stamps, just above the split/single frond tips you mentioned, where in Die 1 the frond is full and large and in Die 2 it's much shorter and cut off. Very easy to see. See image below.

Thanks for pointing these other areas out. Sometimes I can't see the palm fronds on used stamps because they are hidden by the cancel.

Very nice website! Thank you for sharing.
Chris

KGVIStamps,

the Palestina stamps are on paper with specially broken gum with a pattern that can be seen at the front as well. It has nothing to do with "striated" paper. BTW, substitute paper is COATED paper that does NOT react to the silver test!

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopi...885&start=50

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopi...per#p4590381

https://www.linyangchen.com/Philately

Rein

Technically speaking, Bale refers to the paper on the Palestinian stamps as horizontally ribbed. This paper appears to have been printed in 1937. Unfortunately the process of how the paper was created is not explained. There is also a vertically ribbed paper that is much more common. It was used beginning about 1928. So both of these examples predate the striated paper found in the Malaya issues.

In the case of the King George VI British Colony issues (and earlier stamps as well), many of the original printings used chalk coated paper to prohibit cleaning and reuse. During the war a different type of paper was substituted for this paper due to shortages. The wording in the various sources gets a little sloppy and as a result ordinary and substitute paper tend to take on the same meaning, depending on the source you visit. But it does not react to the silver test.

That being said, Myles Glazer in his book "The King George V High-Value Stamps of Bermuda, 1917-1938" determined that "chalk" paper was not consistent and actually varied in chemical composition over the course of the years it was used for the Bermuda high value stamps. Myles was a chemist and he took fiscally used and damaged stamps and ground them up for chemical analysis. He determined the composition of "chalk" paper and documented changes that were made to it. So I guess if you need a completely literal definition you need to get a copy of his book and start chemically analyzing stamps. Unfortunately this is a destructive process, so it did not catch on with collectors. So for the rest of us - generalities will have to suffice.