4 States Of The 8d Tiger Cat

Master Plate 1
Sheet C, (R9/6) Row 9, 6th stamp from the left. On one electro exists four states.
Variety s (state I) was first seen in December 1961, and involved recutting to eight lines over the animal's ear.
Variety sa (state II), first seen in December 1962, fresh recutting involving 11 lines.
Variety sb (state III), first seen in October 1963, involved a burnishing off of the old cutting and fresh engraving, is more finely executed; the branch over the animal's head has been in large part removed.
Variety sc (state IV) has been called the "Typhoon" retouch, and was first seen in April 1964. It involves very extensive recutting of the entire top right corner of the stamp. The "Typhoon" retouch is very scarce, since the electro was withdrawn shortly after its execution.

Thanks for that Rob.
That is an excellent representation of the differences in the four states. The colour pictures make it so clear.

Hi StevieG

Thanks for the comment. collecting the 4 states of recutting was difficult, but once I collected them all, I knew many collector's would like to see what the set looks like, especially the "Typhoon" recut.

Rob

Agree with StevieG's comment about color pictures helping to make things stand out better. My books don't do it justice. Now I have to look through all of mine again ...

Thanks for posting Rob.

Hi Partime

Colour images is the best way to go, and for this much queried recut, it describes the recutting precisely.

Rob

Hi Rob,
Do you know whether the electro featuring this stamp was withdrawn earlier than the other electros for the same stamp due to the inherent problems with its engraving. Also, is it known how many other electros were produced for this stamp?

Is there a "state 0" known for this plate position before any recutting?

Those images are great, Rob. I only wish that ACSC's images of recuts and retouches were as good. If you don't mind, I'll put copies in my ACSC QE2 Catalogue.

Here are the ACSC pictures. They call the original "State I" - Position ShC R9/6 - catalogued as BW358(II)s. The three other states shown by Rob are catalogued as varieties sa, sb and sc. A final, ninth printing was made on helicon paper (BW359) using this plate but variety s is not listed for that stamp.

Hi itma

I also have the Helecon version, I have the Helecon paper but do not have the varieties of the Helecon paper, though some varieties do exist.

Rob

Rob:

I'm not entirely convinced that this variety does not exist in the helecon issue. (You'll note that I weaseled out by saying it is "not listed.") The variety is on Sheet C and BW list one of the other non-helecon varieties in the helicon listing.

Frank.

Hi Frank

Apologies, that was a mistake I made earlier, I shortly after corrected that by mentioning that some varieties do exist on Helecon paper. There is a typhoon recut on Helecon paper, I spoke to a friend who specialises in Australian pre-decimal stamps and he confirms there is, but at present I do not have the Helecon version, the Helecon version isn't listed in the ACSC.
The typhoon recut was the reason why the plate was discarded, this recut was short lived, I forgot that the plates used for the ordinary paper was also used for the Helecon paper, so therefore the flaw would have been transferred to the newer paper format.

All the states shown belong to the 2nd master plate.

Rob

I can certainly see the Typhoon (State IV) variety existing on Helecon. Since the same electros were used for both papers and since all of the plain paper printings were completed in 1964, the electros could only have the Typhoon variety when the 1965 helecon printing was made.

Just to confirm, when this State IV is referred to as the Typhoon variety, is this a reference to the Tornado shaped lighter area extending upwards from the Tiger Cat's head?

Frank.

Hi StevieG

I believe there were two to three electros used.

Rob

Hi Rob,
Thanks for answering. Electros, plates, dies etc. They do my head in.

Hi Frank.

The 'typhoon" recut can be found on both the ordinary paper (1964) and on the Helecon paper (1965). The "tornado recut" (I have no idea why it was called that) is the heavy slanted lines from the animal's nose to the middle of its back.

Rob