GB Scott A40 Type

I came across this stamp from 1881 I believe. It appears to be the Scott A40 type, 1p Lilac. Apparently the 14 dot one is worth a few bucks and the 16 dot one is not as it is pretty common. Does anyone know much about this issue?

Cheers... marc

Your stamp has 16 dots, so it is Die II.

Die I (14 dots) was used to make 8 plates, but was only used for a few months.

It was replaced by Die II (16 dots), which was used to make many more plates and had a much longer print run. That is the reason Die I stamps have a higher catalog value. Stamps of Die I were printed with fugitive ink, so be careful when trying to remove hinge remnants or paper adhesion from used stamps. The ink won't disappear completely, but will change color slightly with longer exposure to water.

I do not know why Die I was replaced by Die II.

Thanks Kim. Interesting. In that case it isn't worth anything. Still an old GB stamp and nicely printed. I wish I could figure out the year of the cancel. Oh well...

May(?) 21, 1901

Jan. 26?....I'm really confident about the '01 part...

It's either January or March, but I'm leaning toward March.

March 26, 1901

May would be MY.

I'll lean towards January

I'll agree the rightmost leg of the M appears to be there...a little too strong to be a "J" (no bend), and yet...nothing of the rest of an "M" appears to be there...there should at least be a bit of the middle? What's the "city" part of the cds?

Ah, thank you. I think I have the month abbreviations saved on the computer somewhere for Canada too, so I should have known.

26 was a quick typing mistake. My birthday is on the 26th if that gives me an excuse, otherwise I had a brain typo.

1901 I got right, yay.


What would the 32 on the bottom of the cancel mean?

That top of the cancel ?.W.?. is that Great Western Railway GWR ?

And if it is then what does the 32 mean?

No, that's a London Cancel Puzz.

It will be W.C. ?

a number in West Central London.

I have a March 93 cancel and its "MR", so I'm sticking to my initial gut feeling, which was January 26th. I had a brainwave of checking the day of the week. If it were a Sunday, that would rule out an option, perhaps. March 26th was a Tuesday, Jan 26th was a Saturday. So no help there, then...

Oh yes, and can I just ask, 16 dots vs 14 dots - which dots should I count?

You count the complete dots, or pearls, more correctly, in the corners.

Regarding the comparative pricing of the two versions, not always the case. Die II was issued on December 12, 1881 and consequently, covers with an 1881 date are somewhat scare and pricing would reflect that.