New Zealand: Newspaper Stamp & First Sidefaces - 1873-1878

cont...

1873 (1 Jan)
a) wmk "NZ"
p12.5 line perf. HM
SG 144 CP B1b

1873 (1 Jan)
a) wmk "NZ"
p12.5 x 10 compound perf. HM
SG 145 CP B1c

                                                            SG145a 10 x 12.5


Dave

cont...

1875 (Jan)
wmk "small star"
p12.5 VM
SG 149 CP B2a







1875 (Jan)
wmk "small star"
p. nearly 12 VM
SG 150 CP B2b




Dave

1874-1878 First Sideface Issue

SG152-186

Six stamps were issued, each with a portrait of Queen Victoria, in the denominations 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 6d and 1/-.
A ½d newspaper stamp had been issued the year before.

The plates were produced by De La Rue & Co - only one plate was used for each value. Each plate had 240 impressions, divided into 4 panes of 60.

The stamps were surface printed at the Government Printing Office in Wellington and issued on 2 January 1874.

The paper was watermarked NZ and star although a small printing of the 1d and 2d was made in 1875 on large star watermark.

Initially, the stamps were mostly line perforated 12½ although some of each value were perforated 10 x 12½. From 1878, they were comb perforated 12 x 12½. As the last printing of the 3d was in 1874, it does not appear with that perforation.

The stamps were replaced in 1882 by the second side-face issue.

On 1st July 1878, 2/- and 5/- stamps were issued.
The dies were engraved by Bock and Cousins of Wellington and the plates were made at the Government Printing Office in Wellington where they were printed. They were in sheets of 120, organised as two panes of 60.

There was only one printing of about 47,000 stamps of each value. They were printed on the same paper as the 1874 issue and the perforation was 12 x 12½. However the spacing of the impressions did not fit this perforation head and so many of the stamps are badly centered.

Most of the stamps were used fiscally and they were replaced in 1882 by the new fiscal stamps.

Acknowledgements: www.nzstamps.org.uk/p74/index.html


1874 (2 Jan) - 78
A) White Paper wmk. NZ & Star 6mm HM
a) p12.5
SG 152 - 157





Dave

1874 - FSF 2d Rose SG153 pair on cover from Alexandra to Wangarei.
Addressed to Mrs Sissons, Glencora, Wangarei, Auckland.
Postmarked Alexandra 25 Jan 74 with an Auckland 2x Jan 74 transit mark and Wangarei 28 Jan 74 arrival postmark.

Very early usage as was issued just 3 weeks prior on 2 Jan 1874.




Dave

cont...


1874 (2 Jan) - 78 First Sidefaces
B) Blue Paper wmk. NZ & Star 6mm HM
a) p12.5
SG 166 - 171


The 'Blue' paper is only relatively so compared to the 'White' paper issued at this time.
To me, it appears only slightly more 'grey-blue' than the 'white' paper.

Not really clear in this pic. but: 'White' on the left 'Blue' on the right




1874 (2 Jan) - 78 
B) Blue Paper wmk. NZ & Star 6mm HM
b) perf compound of 12.5 & 10
SG 172 - 177


Dave

cont...


1878
wmk. NZ & Star 6mm HM
p12 x 11.5
SG 180 - 186







Dave

This looks like a "nearly 12" perforation that CP says is only a rumor. It does not look like the 12 x 11.5 or the 12.5 x 12.5. What do you think?

Here is one of the rare perf variaties on the 6d, mixed perfs, perf 12.5 used to correct misplaced row of perf 10 on the bottom. Campbell Peterson catalogue suggests 10 or 12 copies known.




Philip

You might want to check out these articles

"Identification of First Sidefaces with line perforation nearly 12" The New Zealand Stamp Collector 64/3 87-91 K.J. McNaught

"First sideface 2d Mixed Perfs 12.5 and nearly 12" The New Zealand Stamp Collector 65/4 163 K.J. McNaught

"Origin of irregular compound perforations in Chalon and first sideface stamps" The New Zealand Stamp Collector 70/2 57-59 K.J. McNaught

"Checklist of mixed perforation varieties found in the 19th century New Zealand stamps" The New Zealand Stamp Collector 70/3 105-109 K.J. McNaught

I have a few compound and mixed pref varieties and will post them when I get a chance to scan them in.

Compound perf. = 2 perf. sizes on equal and opposites sides ie p10 x 12½ - p10 on top and bottom / p12½ left and right margins

Irregular compound perf. = 2 perf. sizes but found with 1 side with one perf. and 3 sides with the other ie p10 x 12½ - p10 on any 1 side & p12½ on other 3 sides (irregularly).
Or p10 on any 3 sides and p12½ on the other.

Mixed perforation = Stamp perforated all round with 1 perf. size but bad perforation on a side corrected with a perf. of another gauge ie p12½ all around but perforation fixed up with a p10. Looks like a 'double perf.' but has 2 lines of perforation on one side with different gauges.


I will try and dig out some examples later to show.



Dave

Thanks again Dave. So Philip's 6d above is a mixed perf and my 3 and 4d's are irregular compound perf. 

The following article has some interesting theories about how they occured. One being the 12-1/2 was used to perforate the rows where a wheel in the 10 perforator was not working. But the article also notes that since there are no 10 x 12-1/2 4d. this does not make sense suggesting that the 10 perf was used to perforate rows where the 12-1/2 did not work. 

"Origin of irregular compound perforations in Chalon and first sideface stamps" The New Zealand Stamp Collector 70/2 57-59 K.J. McNaught 

If there is no good answer to this, it might be my next area of research.

I just posted these into the 'SON' thread so thought they would be good in this thread also:

3 examples of the 1873-95 Newspaper stamp with lovely 'A' class cancels on about 95% of the stamps:





Dave

Hi Mark

Nice strip of the 2d value there.

This is not a double perf example, although I know why you think that :-)

As per CP:
Plates of 240 impressions, arranged in 4 panes of 60 with gutters between the panes.

Your example above shows the gutter between 2 panes.



Dave

I was fortunate enough to purchase recently a full page of NZ FSF 1d lilac's. Approx. 46 of them on a page.
Dated examples with the year of 1874 - the year of issue - are quite scarce. This page had about 3-4 examples, a couple in pairs!

I also noted that they had annotated 'Inv wmks' as well so was more than happy to pay the NZ$90 for them (approx US$60).





I was more than happy, and surprised, to find this one amongst them :



Not only is the wmk inverted, but, it is also reversed - making this SG152y - cat £1000

I am a very happy chappie :-)



Dave