kgvistamps
Member 
Posts: 201
What I collect: British Colonies - King George VI from all countries and King Edward VII & King George V from the West Indies.
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Post by kgvistamps on Sept 7, 2022 12:49:03 GMT
I have been spending some time with Peter Fernbank's book on the King George V keyplate issues lately. (King George V Key Plates of the Imperium Postage and Revenue Design). In addition to complete coverage of all the Colony issues that used the De La Rue Keyplates, he has an excellent section on the colored papers that were used.
My initial focus has been on the Yellow paper which was used for the 3d and 5/ values which are on the paper watermarked Multiple Crown CA from the Cayman Islands, Leeward Islands and a number of other Colonies. He lists all the printings and describes the characteristics of the papers. Although eight different papers were used from 1912 to 1920 due to supply issues, five are listed in the Stanley Gibbons Catalogue: Yellow, Yellow with White Back (which Scott calls surface colored), Lemon, Buff, and Orange-Buff. The best way to sort the paper color is to look at the back of the stamps.
Based on my comparisons of the stamps in my collection, I created an ID chart for the 3d values and for the 5/ issues. Keep in mind that there were several color shades of Yellow and Lemon that are subtly different but not catalog listed. So if you have a stamp that doesn't seem to exactly match it might be for this reason. Please double-click the image to save it to your PC for reference if you want a copy. If you would like to purchase a copy of Peter's book, I ordered my copy from Pennymead.com.
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REL1948
Member
Posts: 583 
What I collect: 1840-Pre-Decimal, GB and Colonies, 1840 1 penny reds, Postal Histories
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Post by REL1948 on Sept 7, 2022 14:12:20 GMT
kgvistamps, an exceptional post, thank you for sharing. I've used Pennymead a couple times for RPSL books, they're a great source. The only downside is GB shipping.
Rob
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kgvistamps
Member
Posts: 201
What I collect: British Colonies - King George VI from all countries and King Edward VII & King George V from the West Indies.
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Post by kgvistamps on Sept 8, 2022 12:29:15 GMT
I buy a lot of my books from them, and the shipping is a problem. But these books are not widely available, so you have to go pay the freight if you want one.
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kgvistamps
Member
Posts: 201
What I collect: British Colonies - King George VI from all countries and King Edward VII & King George V from the West Indies.
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Post by kgvistamps on Feb 26, 2023 14:34:51 GMT
I realize this post does not belong under Great Britain, but there is no British Colonies folder, so please feel free to move it if there is a better place for it.
We have been discussing the King George V Key Plate issues on another forum and I thought I would share some of my ID Charts here.
The Key Plate was developed by De La Rue and was used for stamps from the 1890's to about 1952. It consisted of a Frame area the contained the basic design with the current monarch's image and value of the stamp inserted as needed. This is fairly easy to see on a two color stamp because a different color was used for each of the two impressions. Peter Fernbank's book "King George V Key Plates of the Imperium Postage and Revenue Design" has shed a lot of light on the stamps from the King George V era. Seventeen Colonies used the basic design during his reign. It was an inexpensive way to produce stamps because only the Colony name and the value needed to be inserted in the image.
If you look over the catalog listings for these stamps, you will see a reference to Die I or Die II with a small image inserted in the catalog showing where to look for the aspects of the Die. Shown below is an enlarged image of the Die I and Die II stamps showing where to look to differentiate them. I am also including three enlarged scans of the three primary areas to compare. These areas were chosen because they are the ones shown in the catalogs. If you collect British Colony stamps, feel free to save the images to your PC for use.
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REL1948
Member
Posts: 583
What I collect: 1840-Pre-Decimal, GB and Colonies, 1840 1 penny reds, Postal Histories
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Post by REL1948 on Feb 26, 2023 15:04:16 GMT
Another stunning chart from kgvistamps. Thank you so much for sharing. This information is wonderful.
Rob
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brookbam
Member
APS 236261
Posts: 226
What I collect: US...everything until I decide what I don't want to collect! And now thanks to a TSF give-away I'm adding Space topicals!
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Post by brookbam on Feb 26, 2023 19:22:03 GMT
I realize this post does not belong under Great Britain, but there is no British Colonies folder, so please feel free to move it if there is a better place for it.
We have been discussing the King George V Key Plate issues on another forum and I thought I would share some of my ID Charts here.
The Key Plate was developed by De La Rue and was used for stamps from the 1890's to about 1952. It consisted of a Frame area the contained the basic design with the current monarch's image and value of the stamp inserted as needed. This is fairly easy to see on a two color stamp because a different color was used for each of the two impressions. Peter Fernbank's book "King George V Key Plates of the Imperium Postage and Revenue Design" has shed a lot of light on the stamps from the King George V era. Seventeen Colonies used the basic design during his reign. It was an inexpensive way to produce stamps because only the Colony name and the value needed to be inserted in the image.
If you look over the catalog listings for these stamps, you will see a reference to Die I or Die II with a small image inserted in the catalog showing where to look for the aspects of the Die. Shown below is an enlarged image of the Die I and Die II stamps showing where to look to differentiate them. I am also including three enlarged scans of the three primary areas to compare. These areas were chosen because they are the ones shown in the catalogs. If you collect British Colony stamps, feel free to save the images to your PC for use.
It never ceases to amaze me that the oh so slight differences on a stamp that makes a stamp different from one that...to the naked eye...appears identical to the one next to it. It's not until you get out the magnifying glass...or in my case a microscope...that you see the differences.
I was watching a YouTube video a couple of months ago of a couple of Storage Wars type of scavengers that bought abandoned rental storage sheds and then videoed themselves going through the proceeds. Anywho...this said couple found some red George Washington stamps and they got to looking around for a price and they found an "identical" one that sold for over $10,000 and they had 100s of these! Man...he was just giddy with excitement because he figured there was $500,000 worth of stamps in this bag! $500,000!!!!
In truth...they were most likely some common variety worth about 5 cents each....because of those little microscopic differences.
I hope the letdown was easy. Mike
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