Cyprus Mint Stamps Help

Thankyou
I now try to catalog using Scott
Thanks for all your help
Appreciated

NSK
Ignore my ignorance!
What is a key plate……?

A key-plate stamp is a stamp in a common design that has part of the image altered.

The engraving of a plate for printing stamps was expensive and constituted a fixed cost. For short runs, this could be inefficient. Consider a small colony or a stamp with a value that is rarely used. I sent an eight-page letter across the continent to my girlfriend. Over a century ago, I would have been quite wealthy to pay for the 50-grammes letter abroad. An international stamp for the second weight step will have had rare use.

A way to save on the cost of printing stamps in smaller numbers is to print stamps from two plates. The head or key plate prints the main design such as the head and frame. The duty plate prints the value and country name. Now, you can use the key plate to print stamps in multiple values or for multiple colonies.

The work is in the key, or head plates. If you print stamps from a single plate, you must discard the plate even after a short print run for a small colony or value that is not used much. If you print them from a key plate and a duty plate, you only discard the duty plate and re-use the key plate.

Your stamps have the same design for each monarch. Only the value changes. The bicolour printing is a giveaway that a key plate was used for the portrait and frame and a duty plate for the territory's name and value. There are several issues by European colonial powers that are similar for different colonies except for the colony name and, maybe, the value.

Thank you for the explanation. Much appreciated.

The Victoria overprint top left is one of numerous types which have a forged overprint (although this one seems good), plate numbers are a good way to check if its ligit or not. Having said that, used stamps are catalogued considerably more than mint stamps. Plate numbers for these stamps are 174, 181, 198, 193, 196, 201, 205, 208, 215, 216, 217, 218 and 220. The two middle stamps should have a clearly identifiable plate number 14 or 15.
The 1/2 piastre overprints have 'CA' or CC under crown' overprints but the size and composition of the overprinted value (Gibbons would be a good source) have a huge difference in catalogue value.
The monochrome stamps in the second row have either CA under crown or CC under crown watermarks of which the stamps with 'CA under crown' being divided into die I and die II.