Unable To Identify Qell 50p Green

I can not identify this stamp. I have looked in my Stanley Gibbons Catalogue (1997) and also searched Google using the scanner. No luck so far. I think it could be Scottish. Anyone any ideas on issue year and SG number if possible.
Thanks

Scott Great Britain 2086g issued in 2002.

It is a so-called "decimal" Wilding. The Wilding stamps are named for the photographer Dorothy Wilding, who took the picture of H.M. Queen Elizabeth used for the first series of permanent stamps of her reign. The first stamps of the series were issued on 5 December 1952. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the issue, Royal Mail issued decimal variants of the original designs from 2002. As these are "definitives," they, no longer, are valid for postage.

It is nice to find a used 50p stamp. It was issued in a sheetlet with different values. So, someone broke up a sheetlet for franking.

In the late 1950s, regional stamps with the Wilding portrait were issued. This led to the change of watermark because Queen Elizabeth II was not the second Queen Elizabeth of Scotland. Consequently, the cypher E2R was dropped from the watermark. Decimal regional Wildings have also been issued. They were valid throughout the UK, as were the original regional stamps. Yours, however, is not a Scottish regional design.

The regionals

The stamp doesn't have an individual SG number, because it was only issued in a miniature sheet. The SG number for the miniature sheet is MS2326.

It's unusual to see a stamp from a miniature sheet used for ordinary postal purposes, but it's possible that your stamp comes from a first day cover, which is less unusual.

The placement of the cancellations is not usual for a first day cancellation. It looks like this was cancelled at the Medway Mail Centre, 1 Knight Road Rochester. It has its postcode ME2 2EE.

This is a perfect example of the importance of having access to up to date stamp catalogues.

The OP stated


Well since the relevant item wasn't issued until 2008 no wonder the OP coulnt find it
in the 1997 SG

For British stamps, the website Parcelpostguy provided a link to is a good one.

OP's stamp is from the earlier, 2002, issue for the national Wildings. A second sheetlet was issued 20 May 2003. There also were issues from a prestige stamp book on 6 February 2002, known as the "Wonkey Wildings" for the placement of the watermark.

Here are the two sheetlets issued in 2002 and 2003. The bottom right stamp in the top sheetlet is OP's stamp.

"The bottom left right stamp in the top sheetlet is OP's stamp."

You are right. Corrected that.

(Re my suggestion that the cancellation might come from a first day cover) You're right, NSK, as usual. The proof is in the layout of the miniature sheet: there's no stamp to the right of the 50p to receive the second cancellation.

So my next suggestion is that a stamp dealer or collector had a damaged or superfluous miniature sheet and decided to use the stamps for postage - possibly quite a long time after the MS was issued. Are these stamps still valid for postage since the Great Invalidation of 2023? I think they ought to be, since they're commemoratives not definitives, but they may be treated as an exception. (It's a basic rule with Royal Mail to introduce baffling complexity whenever possible.)

They are definitives without barcodes and were marketed as definitives when issued. See below the date. They have never been considered commemoratives. So they should no longer be valid.



Interestingly, the folder with images of stamps that were invalidated do not appear to show the Wildings.

Posted by Norvic on Stampboards.


His posts suggest Royal Mail does not know itself what stamps have been invalidated.

I don't understand how stamps issued exclusively in a commemorative miniature sheet can be considered definitives, but that's by no means the only thing about Royal Mail's recent activities that I don't understand.

As you suggest, my failure to understand Royal Mail is probably shared by Royal Mail too.

mustangsally2010: can you help us with any indications of the possible date when your stamp was used?