Australian KGV Stamps Explained.

Great thread! Time to pull out my Australia glassines of KGV and do the final sort!



But it does have 4 CLEAR margins! Which is better than many of my imperfs.

KirkS: your humour is contagious. Great stuff from all.

"OS" Overprints.





The Federal Government's official stamp overprint.

Stamps 1 & 2 : 2d red, 4d olive with small multiple watermark is a complete set.

Stamps 3~ 7: 1/2d orange, 1d green, 2d red, 3d blue, 5d brown with C of A watermark is a complete set.

Bottom row: variety, Hollow "S"

Stamp 1: 3d blue with a black shaded area in the top curve of the overprinted "S".

Stamp 2: 3d blue with thin black line for the top curve of the overprinted "S"; called a Hollow "S"

Stamps 3 & 4: ~ 4d olives "as above".

The Two Surcharged Overprints.



Stamps 1: with the change of the registration plus letter rate from 4 1/2d to 5d an overprint of five pence was used.

Stamps 2: with the change of the letter postage rate to 2d the older letter rate of 1 1/2d was used up by overprinting two pence on them. An example of Ash Imprint pair.

I really like that Ash Imprint pair -- the selvage is nice, and the watermarks are GREAT!

Thanks for sharing,
KirkS

John Ash was IIRC a noted scrooge, and at times would abhor the destruction of some of the more poorly printed KGV sidefaces, and used them as Officials
as the OS perfins, evidence to this can be seen in some of the poorly centred examples, which is a good story to accompany what would otherwise be a poorly rated stamp, that some would discard.

KGV man,
be aware the 4d violet "line through fourpence"
has jumped to $6000 mint and $1,500 used
according to my records 2003
Hope you find one.

Thanks Rod. The most famous 4d flaw of them all. Everybody wants one! Great example, especially as it's the most expensive 4d being a violet. One day I might find one in a bulk lot. That seems to be my only chance on my budget. Thanks for the image.

Printing Flaws & *Tin Sheds*.



The term *tin shed* originates from the stamp printing room that was a corrugated iron shed, very hot in summer & very cold in winter which led to many printing flaws. The *tin shed* one off type printing flaws are basically of novelty interest. Any printing flaw should be considered a *tin shed* until proven to be a constant printing flaw. It's the constant printing flaws that are of great interest. Some of the reason for the constant printing flaws include corrosion during storage & the odd rat having a chew on the printing plates!

Image stamps 1 ~ 4: *tin shed* examples

I have often wondered if stamp 4 is an example of "dry ink" print.

Good info, I knew about the hot conditions under which they were printed, but not of the "tin shed" vernacular. Thanks

Compartment Lines.




Compartment lines are not constant printing flaws & are found in between the print of the stamps. A build up of ink in the area is the probable cause & the cleaning of the printing plate removes them. A four sided compartment line stamp is rare. Some ink flaws of this nature do fit into a description of a constant printing flaw & are well documented.

Stamp 1 has 4 compartment lines: left side of stamp on the vertical under a digital magnifier can see the perf tips with a compartment line & qualifies as a 4~sider.

Rod: I've opened up a K.G.V Australian Commonwealth specialist's catalogue [2007] to 4d violet plate 2 line through four pence mint AuD$ 35,ooo. Used AUD$8,ooo.

Have seen 4d orange used with line through four pence sell at auction recently for over AUD $1,ooo +; used cat AUD$150.

The 4d orange is more common. The 4d violet flaw was retouched very early in its printing.

Bulk lots of 4d orange are still around at times in auctions & I still keep bidding & looking. One day I might find one!

Goodness gracious, havn't they shot up in price!
I may revisit my collection in the shoebox.
I like the sidefaces, not as much as the Roos,
but they are a fine, quality representative of what a stamp should be.

I must dig out some scans I kept from a usegroup posting years ago,
some green sidefaces with "humungous" margins, I have never seen anything before or since, I must give you a dekko, to see what you think.
They looked like Cinderellas to me.

Here is another I cannot find in the catalogue.

Here they are KGVman, from a usenet query 2005
Have you ever seen any like this before?

Very interesting, Rod. Thanks for posting.

No I have not seen them before. The 1d greens look like perforated cut~outs from pre~stamped envelopes. Extremely small perforations.

Your 2d perf 11 QEII has got to be a very clever Cinderella.