1955 UK 3-P Strip, Watermark?

I would like to show you this British couple stamps from 1955, which reacts to UV Light, I am not able to clearly distinguish the watermark, in the rest of my stamps UK 3p 1955 I do see the crowns of the brand perfectly, but in this one I am not able to distinguish it well...could be in vertical orientation but I'm not sure...

Sideways, from a booklet, rather than vertical, I think.

What you are seeing is a lack of fluorescence.

Edit: the spot at the top is contamination.

Were you using a shortwave or longwave UV lamp?

The stamp has the 'Multiple Crowns' watermark sideways. These come from the sideways-delivery coils.
If they do not have two phosphor bars, they are Stanley Gibbons nr. S70d (specialised)/ 575a (Concise) (24 October 1958). You need a shortwave lamp to detect the phosphor bars. I think it has phosphor bars. There are a couple of varieties of those.

Phosphor bars bring booklet stamps into scope.

Is the rough separation at the base an indication of a booklet stamp?

It is possible, but it also could be due to the cutting from a coil.

Thanks NSK - always something to learn!

Thanks for your help!! I'll investigate those lines...I honestly don't know what type of UV it is, it's a large fluorescent tube...let's see if I can find out. Right now I was watching this other one from the same series, with this other watermark, it doesn't look like the one with crowns, but an E...

I do not know what I was thinking. These can only be booklet stamps. As I wrote 'sideways delivery.' The pair should have been horizontal. Being vertical, it leaves only a booklet as a source.

1. The 'large fluorescent tube' sounds like it is a longwave UV lamp. That is good for detecting fluorescence on British stamps. It can detect phosphor bars from the 1990s onwards. However, for the earlier 'Machins' and 'Wildings,' you should use a shortwave lamp to detect phosphor. The phosphor bars come in two widths and three fluorescent colours.

2. This is called 'St. Edward's Crown' watermark. It has the Crown of St. Edward over the cipher 'E2R.' Without the royal cipher of Queen Elizabeth II, it is called '(Multiple) Crowns' watermark. The cipher was dropped in the late 1950s, when regional stamp were first issued. Since Elizabeth Tudor never was Queen of Scotland, the Scots were not too happy to have a watermark on their stamps that referred to the first monarch of Scotland named Elizabeth be called Elizabeth II.

Thank you so much! I must look at this calmly...how should I classify them? By phosphorescence and different watermarks? Is each brand from a different series than the others?

Or you translating from another language that uses something like 'marka' or 'Marke'? In English, these are (postage) stamps.




Some of us are quite mad an collect all types. (Guilty as charged!)

Stanley Gibbons Concise will list

Watermark
- With / or without graphite lines
- With graphite lines and phosphor bars
- With phosphor bars only
As separate sets.

The 'Wildings' know many variations. These are listed in the Stanley Gibbons GB Specialised and organised by value and then, chronologically, by variety. And for Each variety, you can also find whether from sheets, stamp books, or coils and with different watermark orientations.

Most basically, they are listed by watermark
1. Tudor crown (a simpler, flatter crown than on your stamp that also has the E2R cipher),
2. St. Edward's Crown (the correct crown for Elizabeth Windsor's reign, as on your stamp and with the E2R cipher),
3. Crowns (like St. Edward's Crown, but without the E2R cipher).

Some, not all watermarks have graphite lines on the back (below the gum) these are black lines that run from top to bottom.
These graphite lines can also have phosphor bars on the front.
The 'Crowns' watermark stamps also exist with phosphor bars on the front, but these never have the graphite lines on the back.
These 'Crowns Phosphor' come in three fluorescent shades
1. green
2. blue
3. violet.

The ones with violet phosphor bars come from phosphor bars with a width of either 8, or 9 1/2 mm. that were applied over adjoining stamps. They can be identified as singles as the latter have a shorter distance between the side bars. Some stamps have just one bar, but those always can be assigned to the same types.

So, take your pick:
You can collect them as 'Wildings', by watermark, by watermark with graphite lines, graphite lines and phophor bars, and phosphor bars, or as the latter but with phosphor types and widths. In the latter case, reserve a room at the local madhouse: there are hundreds.

Murusama, get a Stanley Gibbons great Britain concise, catalogue unless you are bothered about nominal vlue a used one will do.I have the SG specialist catalogues but I find them way to complicated for most purposes. There is not much concise about the concise one. It shows the watermarks, perf details issue date etc. When trying to distinguish between a Tudor crown watermark, and a ST Edward crown watermark note the top of the Tudor crown is one curve, a St Edward crown dips in the middle. I always think of a Tudor crown as looking like a cartoon of a meat pie. finding the watermark on a Wilding stamp is always difficult sometimes you can only see a tiny bit of the watermark. by the way the original Wildings of the 1950s and 60s are in values denoted by d from the pre decimal era of shillings and pence. The d was still an abbreviation for penny. only after 1971 when decimal currency arrived was a penny shown as P. Until recently the old pennys were callled pennys and the new decimal Penny was referred to as a P pronounced Pee. Old pennys were 240 to a pound where new pennys are a 100 to the same pound.

Finally I have organized them in this way following your advice
1952 watermark letters with Tudor crown
1955 watermark letters with Edwardian crown
1958 watermark of Eduardo crowns, non-phosphorescent
1960 watermark of Eduardo crowns, phosphorescent
I have also pointed out those with the crooked or inverted mark. I do not have any with a line of graphite. I still don't have both types of UV light, but I hope to get them soon.
I am really very grateful for everything I am learning with you, I am enjoying my stamps more than ever...

That sounds good.

One small thing:



'Edwardian' is often used to refer to the reign of a King Edward, most commonly, King Edward VII. The crown in the watermark is that of Saint Edward, called 'Saint-Edward's Crown.' Saint Edward, or King Edward the Confessor wore the crown in the 11th century. It was destroyed and a similar crown was made in the seventeenth century. It is one of the Crown Jewels.