Hello, How is everyone after Christmas    Well I hope. Didn’t eat too much

So back to stamps and none of this idle chat from me about non stamp topics.

Tonight I thought I’d show some stamps you maybe have not seen before, and maybe you don’t have in your collection.  These are not that difficult to find but often are overlooked in my view. The catalogue prices are generally quite low even though they were issued in relatively small numbers and in a relatively small geographic area of the UK, as far as I am aware. There are a few exceptions. GB SG 568 a  1 1/2d stamp with watermark Multiple Crown has a Stanley Gibbons catalogue price of £80 for a used copy, and SG 605a  ( which is a 2d light brown stamp with 1 phosphor band and watermark St Edwards Crown)  has a SG cat of £150.  Neither are in the scan below, not that you could tell from the scan.

These four are from the first issue in 1957 with the St Edward Crown watermark and are SG 561, 562, 563 and 566. I don’t have many spares of the other two in this issue.

These stamps were issued in connection with the introduction of experimental sorting machinery in Southampton, in the UK. A comment here – if you are ever looking through old envelopes with GB Wilding heads on always look at the postmark and date and if around this time 1957 – 58 have a close look as you might have a graphite issue.

Anyway, on this issue, two graphite lines were printed  beneath the gum except on the 2d which has one graphite line. One of the things I always check for with these stamps is do they have phosphor (lines) on the front/ face of the stamps as well. If you do see the phosphor line then the stamp was from a 1959 issue.

To confuse you a little bit more, also look closely at the watermark because from 1958 the stamps were issued with a Multiple Crown watermark ( with an exception on 1959 but I wont go into that issue here) . There are also varities, and a copy of the SG Concise catalogue is a good guide to help you distinguish between the stamps.

One final tip, always check the 1 1/2d green and 2d light brown stamps carefully as they have the high catalogue values in their varieties.

So you want to add these to your collection    ( I wont send the creased copy you see in the scan by the way).   Ok  send me an email to cddstamps@gmail.com , include your mailing address please – I may have your address but it makes my life so much easier if you add your address given all the emails and records of addresses I have  thank you J - and tell me the name of the city where these experimental graphite stamps were first issued.

I am going back to sorting a few before dinner. How pleasant an evening is that

Oh, one final thing I wanted to mention. I have added a new link on my favourites; see Suzi's Stamps. I recommend a read when you get the time.

Enjoy your stamps………….. Best wishes…..Michael.