Part 5

Although no more of this issue were printed than of the One Shilling, rose-red, or the One Shilling, pale violet-rose, it is rather more common unused than either of those two stamps.

Issue 11.

_February 1877._

6d., pale yellow-green. 1s., bright vermilion-red.

The two values in changed colours were sent out to St. Vincent by the printers on December 30th, 1876, the consignment consisting of 300 sheets of each value; that is, 18,000 stamps of the Six Pence value and 9,000 of the One Shilling. They were both chronicled by the _Timbre-Poste_ of April, 1877, and must have been issued some time in February. The Six Pence remained current until the middle of 1880, and the One Shilling as long as Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. supplied stamps to St. Vincent. Besides the printing of the two values in December, 1876, one other printing of the Six Pence and two of the One Shilling were made. The second printing of each value was sent out on August 28th, 1878, and the third printing of the One Shilling on May 13th, 1880. All these printings consisted of 300 sheets each, so that the total printed of the Six Pence of this issue amounted to 36,000, and that of the One Shilling to 27,000 stamps. In the printers’ books sample stamps are attached to all the entries referring to these printings, with the exception of the second lot of the One Shilling. The samples of the first printing are perforated B × A in both values; in that of 1878, the second printing of the Six Pence is perforated A, and the One Shilling of the 1880 printing is perforated B.

We have seen from the case of the One Shilling of Issue 4 that more than one variety of perforation (and even of colour) may exist in the same printing, nor is it to be expected that in such cases samples of each variety would be preserved by the printers, since differences of perforation are more appreciated in philatelic than in printing circles. There is, however, a circumstance connected with the perforation of the vermilion Shilling which leads us to believe that the stamps of all these printings were perforated only as shown in the sample stamps of each consignment. We know that in 1881 the third printing of the vermilion Shilling was utilized for making a provisional stamp of Four Pence, and that all these provisionals are perforated B only. We therefore think it probable that all of the One Shilling value perforated B × A belong to the first printing, and all perforated B to the second and third, more especially as the stamp perforated B is much the commoner of the two varieties. We have extended this theory to the Six Pence as well, and in the Reference List we give in brackets after each variety the probable date of issue of the different perforations.

One thing that is remarkable about the colours of both these stamps is that there are no appreciable shades of either, the colours being maintained unchanged in all the printings of each value, although in the books of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. the colour of the first two printings of the One Shilling is called “scarlet,” and that of the third “bright red.”

In the unused state the Six Pence is very much rarer perforated A than with the compound, but the converse is the case with the One Shilling, in which B × A is by far the rarer perforation. The paper of the stamps of this issue varies a great deal in thickness, but this is more pronounced in the Six Pence than in the One Shilling, as the former value is met with on what can only be described as thin card.

Both values, as well as the One Penny and Six Pence of Issue 7, and other stamps current during the later years the stamps of Issue 11 were in use, are not uncommonly found with a curious obliteration of an upright oval, pointed at the top and bottom, and divided across the centre by a double line. The upper part contains the letters “G.B.,” and the lower “40 c.” The cancellation made its appearance upon these three stamps about the end of 1878, or early in 1879, and was first thought to be a surcharge. The credit of its explanation is due to the editor of the _Foreign Stamp Collectors’ Journal_, who made enquiries at the Post-office, and who stated in the numbers of that journal for December, 1879, and July, 1880, that “in addition to the ordinary mail steamers from the West Indies, letters are conveyed to England by the French Packets running intermediately. These letters are stamped as above; the G.B. signifying ‘Grande Bretagne,’ and the 40 C., the amount payable to the French Post-office for their services.” “The stamp ceased to be employed for its original purpose some time ago, but is now used instead of the ordinary cancellation stamp, which is worn out.” Its use as an obliterating stamp must have been continued at least up to some time in 1882, as we have frequently seen it on the Halfpenny orange of Issue 18, a stamp which was not issued until December, 1881.

Issue 12.

_July 1877._

4d., dark deep blue.

A consignment of 200 sheets—6,000 stamps—of the Four Pence value, printed in very dark deep blue, was sent out to St. Vincent on May 29th, 1877. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we have no reason to doubt the stamp was immediately put in issue, and that it was first used in July of the same year, but had it not been for the record in the books of the printers, we should have had a good deal of difficulty in assigning a date to it. Most of the principal catalogues, including the London Society’s list and the current edition of M. Moens’ _Catalogue Prix-Courant_, give 1876 as the date of issue, but the stamp is not catalogued in the 1877 edition of the last mentioned work. The solitary chronicle of it we can find in philatelic literature is in the _Timbre-Poste_ of May, 1878, where we find it recorded in the following terms: “Réapparition du 4 pence, en bleu foncé, mais avec étoile en filagramme.”

We think it far more likely that the fact of the stamp being on watermarked paper should have escaped the notice of M. Moens, than that its issue should have been delayed for nearly a year after its arrival in the Colony. The one printing of the Four Pence yellow had been a small one; it consisted of only 9,000 stamps, as compared with 15,000 of the Four Pence blue, on unwatermarked paper, issued in 1866. We do not know for what reasons the postal authorities had changed the colour of this value from blue to yellow, but they could not have been very important ones, as the blue Four Pence of Issue 4 was, as we have seen, undoubtedly still allowed to be used in 1873—that is, about four years after the introduction of the Four Pence, yellow, so it is evident that the use of the two stamps was concurrent for some time at least. It is stated in the London Society’s West Indian Catalogue that the Four Pence value became “disused,” but this cannot have been the case, as we have the evidence of postmarked specimens of the yellow Four Pence that it was in use in July, 1876, and we know that a fresh supply of the value was sent out in 1877. There is therefore every reason to believe that although the Four Pence, deep blue, of the issue now under consideration had probably been seen by M. Moens when first issued, he mistook it for the old blue Four Pence that was still being occasionally used, and it was not until 1878 that he discovered the difference in the paper, and chronicled the watermarked stamp in the _Timbre-Poste_. There is every excuse to be made for this temporary omission, as the great majority of the issue is printed on the very thick variety of paper which approaches thin card, and it is a matter of great difficulty to detect the watermark in this paper, even when it is known to be there.

There was only one very small printing, 6,000 stamps, made of this Four Pence, and so it is naturally very much rarer than either of the two stamps of the same denomination previously issued. In addition to this, its rarity unused is even out of all proportion to the smallness of the printing, and we may be certain that since it was unchronicled in the philatelic publications of the day it was not put into stock by the dealers, and that the unused specimens we occasionally find have been preserved by accident rather than by design.

It is always perforated B, and the colour, which would alone distinguish it from the Four Pence of Issue 4, shews no shades, except those due to oxidation, to which it has a certain tendency.

Issue 13.

_May 1880._

1d., in red on half 6d., dark blue-green of Issue 7.

This is the first of a very interesting and important series of four provisional stamps that were made in St. Vincent, in 1880 and 1881, to supply a temporary want of certain values. From information received from Mr. Frank W. Griffith, late Acting Colonial Postmaster, and already published in the West Indian Catalogue of the London Society, we know the date of issue of the provisional One Penny was May, 1880, and that the number of stamps issued amounted to 1,800. Reference to Messrs. Perkins, Bacon and Co.’s list of consignments shows that the last printing of the black One Penny had been sent out in August, 1878, and it is evident that another supply of the value had already been ordered, but not received when this provisional was made, as the new One Penny, printed in grey-green, was only despatched from London on May 13th, 1880.

The stamp used for surcharging was the dark blue-green Six Pence of Issue 7, perforated A, a remainder being in hand, probably from the last printing of March, 1875.

In those days surcharged stamps, especially in British Colonies, were not so common as unfortunately they have subsequently become, and were much appreciated by philatelists, as may be seen by the tone of the writer who chronicled the provisional One Penny in the _Philatelic Record_ of July, 1880. “A very curious provisional stamp, forming a fit pendant to the makeshift 1d. employed in Barbadoes in 1878, has been used recently, but may by this time have become obsolete. The postal authorities of St. Vincent have treated their 6d. value in the same way as the Barbadians did their 5s. stamp—perforating it down the centre, and surcharging each side with 1d. in red, the numeral being 8 mm. in length.” The writer then goes on to say that the central line of perforation is clean cut, and gauges 12, which is quite correct, and records a fact worth bearing in mind when examining doubtful specimens, as the forgers have found the perforation much more difficult to imitate than the surcharge. Unfortunately our illustration of this stamp, No. 2, is not as clear as we could have wished, owing to the red and green colours not lending themselves readily to photography—so we give the measurements of the surcharge, which are as follows: Height of figure, 8¾ mm.; width of figure, 1½ mm.; length of foot of figure, 3½ mm.; height of “d,” 3 mm.; extreme width of “d,” 2 mm.; space between “d” and figure, 1½ mm.; space between figures on right and left halves of the same stamp, 8½ mm. The figure “1” has a straight serif. These details will help to protect collectors against at least the more ordinary forgeries, but the gauge of the perforation and its regular clean-cut circular holes are really the crucial tests, as some of the surcharges are heavily printed, and are difficult to measure with accuracy. A description of the forgeries known to us would be of little use. They all fail in the perforation, most of them in the dimensions of the surcharge, and one rather dangerous one we recently discovered has the figures on the two halves of the stamps wrongly spaced. The one most likely to be met with is the least dangerous, as it has a large cross stroke to the top of the figure, instead of a serif, besides being wrong in many other particulars. This forgery is evidently copied from the illustration in a well-known catalogue, and not from the stamp itself.

This provisional One Penny has always been a rare stamp, especially unused, or in pairs; none of the issue seems to have found its way into dealers’ stocks, but to have been all used up for legitimate postal purposes, so that a great part of it must have been destroyed, and only a small proportion of the original 1,800 saved for philatelic purposes.

Issue 14.

_June 1880_.

1d., pale grey-green. 6d., bright yellow-green. 5s., deep rose-red.

On May 13th, 1880, Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. sent out 1000 sheets (60,000 stamps) of the One Penny, printed in pale grey-green, 300 sheets (18,000 stamps) of the Six Pence, printed in bright yellow-green, and 100 sheets (2,000 stamps) of a new value—Five Shillings, printed in deep rose-red. In this consignment was included the third and last printing of the One Shilling bright vermilion-red. All the three first mentioned values were perforated B only, this we know because no other variety of perforation exists in any of these stamps, the issue of which was in all three cases confined to this one printing. We think this is a very good reason for believing that the printing of the One Shilling that was made at the same time was like them perforated B only, and that at this date the use of the A machine had been discontinued for ever, as far as the stamps of St. Vincent are concerned.

The printings of both the One Penny and the Six Pence were small ones. The former value must have been used up quickly, as a new supply was ordered in the next year; we may, therefore, expect this stamp to become much scarcer than any of the same value that preceded it, and of which such a large quantity were printed.

The Six Pence was the last of that value to be printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., and it remained current for more than three years, until October, 1883, when it was succeeded by a stamp printed by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. About a fifth part of the printing was used in 1881 for making provisional stamps of the One Penny and Halfpenny values.

It is rather a scarce stamp, even in a used state, and is decidedly rare unused, it being one of the St. Vincent stamps the dealers appear to have neglected.

The Five Shillings value is a striking stamp, both in its size and design, which is very artistic, and it is altogether a fine example of the line-engraved work of its makers, Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. The central portion of the design portrays the Arms of the Government of St. Vincent, and represents “Justice pouring out a libation to Peace,” which illustrates the motto of the Colony, PAX ET JUSTITIA—“Peace and Justice”—given on the scroll above the Arms. The plate contained twenty stamps, arranged in four horizontal rows of five, and the same star paper was used for printing the issue as for the other stamps of smaller dimensions; the consequence of this being that each stamp is watermarked with at least more than _one_ star. There seems to have been very little demand for the stamp for postal purposes in the Island, and genuinely postmarked specimens are now of great rarity. Used Five Shillings stamps have always been eagerly sought for by philatelists, who for many years declined to have anything to do with unused specimens, as they looked upon the stamps as fiscals only. This belief seems to have arisen from the way they were chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of August, 1880, which said—“The 5s. fiscal stamp has lately been used for postal purposes.” The _Timbre-Poste_, in announcing the stamp, quoted from the _Philatelic Record_, and so the error came to be perpetuated, until the true character of the stamp was explained in the London Society’s _West Indian Catalogue_, published in 1891. In that work will be found an official notification, dated 15th September, 1882, in which it is called “the existing five shilling postage stamp,” and in which it is directed to be “over-stamped _Fifty Pounds—Revenue_,” and “used as a Revenue stamp of that value.” Its use as a Revenue stamp was not confined to this high denomination, as it exists with “Revenue” only on it, and fiscals with this surcharge are fairly common. We are of opinion that the great majority of the 2,000 stamps printed were so treated, and that only a very small number were ever used for postage, or escaped the fiscal surcharge. This readily accounts for the great rarity the stamp has acquired of recent years, and this rarity cannot, we think, but increase still further in the future.

The official notification quoted above contains a clause which “directs that the present six penny postage stamps may be cut diagonally in half—each half to be over-stamped _3d. Revenue_, and be used as a revenue stamp of that value.” It was further used, with the surcharge “Revenue,” as a fiscal Sixpence. This fiscal use of the Six Pence, bright yellow-green, of Issue 14, is an additional reason for its now being so rare in an unused state.

Issue 15.

_September 1881._

½d. in red on half 6d., bright yellow green, of Issue 14.

The necessity for a Halfpenny value arose from the Colony of St. Vincent having joined the Postal Union on September 1st, 1881, and, pending the arrival of the stamps ordered from England, this provisional was made in the Island by dividing the Six Pence of the last issue by a vertical line of perforation through the centre, and surcharging each half stamp “½d.” in red, the additional perforation being the same as that of the provisional One Penny of Issue 13.

It was thus chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of October, 1881: “St. Vincent, proud apparently of her provisional One Penny, which has eluded the grasp of so many collectors, has provided herself with a Halfpenny makeshift, which is as like it as possible. The current Sixpenny stamp has been perforated down the centre, and each half surcharged ½d. in red. We have only, as yet, seen a single specimen, but there may be almost as many varieties as there are stamps to the sheet.” This surmise of the writer, fortunately for collectors, turned out to be incorrect, as there are practically no varieties on the sheet, except one in which the serif of the figure “1” of the fraction is straight, instead of being curved as in the other figures on the sheet. Beyond this there are no varieties of the surcharge, save in very slight differences in the position of the fraction line, due to the surcharge being type set. Our illustration No. 3 shows the variety with the “1” with straight serif on the right half of the Six Pence. It will also be observed that this surcharge is on a slightly higher level than its neighbour on the left half of the same stamp. It may also be noted that the surcharges were not always printed fairly in register with the sheet, so that each one fell exactly in the centre of a half stamp, as we have seen a used specimen of a right half stamp, which shows portions of a second surcharge down the line of perforation on the right side of the stamp.

A variety of this stamp, with the fraction line of the surcharge omitted, is reported to us from the United States, but not having been able to verify for ourselves whether the surcharge is genuine or not, we have omitted it from our Reference List.

There were twelve sheets (1,440 stamps) of these provisionals printed, but not many were issued for use, and we believe they were withdrawn from issue _before_ the arrival of the new Halfpenny value in December. It is an excessively rare stamp used, and at the date of its issue and for some considerable time afterwards it was unattainable unused. We believe this was owing to an official order to the effect that neither stamp collectors nor dealers were to be supplied with it. Whether this order was eventually rescinded, or fell into abeyance in the course of time, we do not know; but one thing is certain—that philatelic persistence triumphed in the end, and that the unused remainder of the issue found its way at last into the hands of philatelists, so that now it is not at all a rare stamp in the unused state. For this reason, and because the unused Six Pence itself is so difficult to find, the forgers have not been so busy with it as with its predecessor, the provisional One Penny; but forgeries of it do exist, and for the satisfaction of our readers, we give the dimensions of the surcharge. The extreme length from the top of the letter “d” to the bottom of the numeral “2” is 16½ mm.; the height of the letter “d” is 4 mm.; the space between the “d” and the figure “1” is 2 mm.; the height of the figure 1 is 4 mm.; the space between the figures “1” and “2” is 2½ mm.; the height of the figure “2” is 4 mm.; and finally, the width of the letter “d,” without measuring the foot, is 2¼ mm. These measurements all vary a little according as the surcharge is lightly or heavily impressed.

Issue 16.

_November 1881._

4d. in black on 1s., bright vermilion-red, of Issue 11.

Four Pence being one of the Postal Union rates, the stamps of that value remaining in hand from the issue of July, 1877, were soon used up, and in November, 1881, the new lot of the Four Pence value not having yet come out from England, 21 sheets (630 stamps) of the vermilion-red shilling perforated B were surcharged in the Island with a large “4d.” in black, and issued as provisionals. The original values were obliterated by black bars, 2 mm. wide, printed across the sheet. The _Philatelic Record_ of December, 1881, says: “St. Vincent.—Since this Colony joined the Postal Union there has, of course, been a demand for Four Penny stamps. Those used hitherto have been blue, like the issue of 1866, and not yellow, like those of 1869. They were not remainders of the 1866 issue, but stamps reprinted in a brighter shade of blue, and perforated in the rough way which has lately distinguished the stamps of St. Vincent. By the mail delivered here on the 13th inst. we have received letters franked by a provisional Four Penny adhesive, formed by surcharging the current scarlet Shilling 4d., and obliterating the original value by means of a bar.”

We now see how deep was the mystery enshrouding the Four Pence on star paper of Issue 12, when the editor of the leading English philatelic periodical had been ignorant of its existence up to this time, and even then failed to perceive any difference, except in the perforation, between it and the Four Pence of 1866.

The provisional Four Pence has always been a very rare stamp; and it is probably much scarcer than it is generally credited to be, as it has been a favourite with the forgers of all nations, who have in some instances been able to produce articles that pass current as genuine even in circles believing themselves to be well-informed. We refrain, for several reasons, from giving the measurements of the surcharge. First, because, owing to the “4d.” being generally deeply indented in the paper, it is not at all easy to measure it with accuracy; and also because, as regards dimensions, there is a very dangerous forgery frequently met with, which is not to be detected by any amount of measurement, however carefully done, and which can only be distinguished by careful comparison. Particular attention must be paid to the shape of the different angles of the figure “4,” and especially to the contour of the top of that figure, and to the way in which the slanting stroke joins the horizontal and the vertical ones. The forgery alluded to fails in these particulars, but it is like the genuine in this—that it is heavily printed, although not quite so deeply indented as the genuine is _sometimes_ found.