Help On ID 2d Victorian Stamp

Hi guys,
I have been going through an old cigar box of stamps my grandfather gave me. I haven't touched stamps since I was 12, so 36 years ago. My grandfather always said I could have his stamp collection when he died and last time I went to visit him he gave them to me. Yup the old boy is still alive.
Anyway, I have to admit, the stamp bug has bitten me hard and Im loving going through all these old stamps and trying to work out what they are. A few have me stumped though, the Vic watermarks and perf's seem to be the most confusing of all. The first stamp I need some help with is the following. SG #387 was the conclusion I came to but Stanley Gibbons doesn't list a sideways watermark for die state 1 which I believe this is, hard to guage though considering the top right corner is missing. Perf is 12.5.
Any help would be much appreciated, I have only had these things since Christmas and Im still on a very steep learning curve.
Wayne

Gyrza,

The die II flaws appear to have occurred due to damage to the die during the manufacture of plate II.

i.e. Plate II had both Die I and Die II stamps on it.

It is therefore possible that sideways watermark stamps may be found with either die characteristics present, presumably the reason for the non-specification of die on that entry in the catalogue.

Cool. So this can go in my album as SG #387e (albeit a very sad specimen). With a couple of thousand more stamps to go through, cross fingers I can find one in better nick. Thanks heaps for the reply, and I hope you found some value in the post code lot you bought off me last week Fairdinkum (that is assuming it is the same person).

Ok here is 3 more im struggling with.

-2d Vic 1st WM stamp has perfs of 13.5, 12.8ish,12.5,12.2 ( clockwise from top). The 12.8 side is hard to measure. My assumption that this is SG 132 and they were having a few issues with the machine. A lot of my stamps from Vic around this times seem to have some strange perfs.

- 1/2d Pink WM? . Perf 12.5 . Im really struggling with all the Vic watermarks. Is there any sure fire way to tell them apart. The SG catalogues state the differences, but a lot of the time I just cant see it.

- 1 1/2d King George Head Large Multi WM. How the hell do I find out what colour this is? I have tried to purchase a colour key but the only ones I can find seem to be listed on ebay at outrageous prices. This probably wont help either because looking at the stamp it seems darker than my computer is showing.

For me, color on the KGV heads are very difficult to determine, and you can read multiple threads about trying to determine colors based on different monitors, etc. However, your KGV head has the "Secret Mark" as shown in the circle below. Nice one.

In my experience, colour keys are pretty useless.

I have observed posts about British stamps that quote completely different colours from Scott than I read in my Stanley Gibbons catalogues.
I collect Irish stamps and have a Hibernian catalogue that lists the 1922-1935 overprints on British stamps. Hibernian uses different colours for many of the basic stamps than does Stanley Gibbons.

If you go through the Stanley Gibbons Concise catalogue and sort out the Prussian blue stamps, you will notice differences between all those stamps. You can do the same with Queen Victoria and Edward VII lilac stamps. Some even have similar designs. In part, this is due to your brain mixing colours. So you have to use a part of the design that has a solid colour.

This is not a foolproof method and assumes that the majority of stamps are used shortly after purchase and that Post Offices mainly have stocks of the later or latest printing.

Firstly, your stamp is 1d, not 1½d. Secondly, your stamp has a very nice FEB 20 postmark. Thirdly, the printing prior to February 1920 of the 1d with Large Multiple watermark has an earliest known use of 17 December 1919. And finally the Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalogue (ACSC) gives the five following colour options for the late-1919 printing of BW 74:

• BW 74A - Carmine-Pink
• BW 74B - Deep Carmine-Rose
• BW 74C - Pale Carmine-Rose
• BW 74D - Carmine (Aniline)
• BW 74E - Deep Carmine (Aniline)

The following can break the options to one of two groups:

• BW 74A, B and C have a bright red reaction under UV light.
• BW 74D has a similar shade to 74B in daylight but the reaction of it and 74E to UV light is bright purplish red.
• BW 74D and E used aniline ink and normally this makes the stamps colour more visible on the back of the stamp.

As a first cut, I would rule out the the earlier BW 73 printing because of its relative rarity. (The earlier printing also has a different UV reaction.)

Beyond that, I am unable to suggest a refinement to the colour other than by comparison with with other stamps.