Part 6

Our illustration, No. 15, represents a well-known forgery of British manufacture, which has been kindly lent to us for the purpose by a gentleman to whom it was presented by the artist himself as a specimen of his skill. This is a much easier forgery to detect than the one we have just been speaking about, as it is generally accompanied by a forged postmark, and is altogether too smoothly printed. Its measurements are also incorrect, the foot of the figure “4” being fully ½ mm. too long. There are a good many specimens of this latter forgery in circulation.

Another point to which we direct attention is, that in the genuine stamps the black bar across the sheet begins on the left exactly flush with the left of the figure “4” of the left hand stamp of the row, and ends exactly under the right edge of the tail of the letter “d” of the right hand stamp. It follows from this, that when the surcharges have been printed in register with the sheet, the three stamps of the left hand vertical column and the corresponding three on the right have the words of value only partly obliterated, the bar under the “4d.” only reaching part of the way across the label containing the original value.

Issue 17.

_December 1881._

“One Penny” in black on 6d., bright yellow-green, of Issue 14.

This provisional, which was also surcharged in the Island, was probably issued on the 1st of the month. It was chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of January, 1882, and the editor of that periodical notes a specimen postmarked “2nd December 1881.”

The issue consisted of 27 sheets (1,620 stamps) of the Six Pence, bright yellow-green, of Issue 14, surcharged “One Penny” in block capitals. The length of the surcharge is 18 mm., and the height of the letters 2 mm. The original values are obliterated by black bars on the sheet, placed exactly the same as those described in our note to Issue 16, but only 1 mm. in width instead of 2 mm.

It is not nearly such a scarce stamp as the provisional Four Pence, or the One Penny of Issue 13; but it is rarer than the Halfpenny of Issue 15, except when this last is in the used state.

A number of the provisional One Penny of this issue came over unused to English dealers after the stamp had been withdrawn from use, just as in the case of the provisional Halfpenny. Used specimens were at first very scarce, but to remedy this deficiency a certain number of these unused stamps were reshipped to an agent in St. Vincent, and came back through the post in instalments during the course of 1883 and 1884, whenever their owner had a demand for used specimens. This explains the late dates seen on some of these stamps. At the present time there is nothing to choose in point of rarity between used and unused specimens.

There are a good many foreign-made forgeries of this surcharged One Penny, but all we have seen have been very poor attempts, and none of them have ever been made on the right stamp, the one usually selected for forging being the pale yellow-green Six Pence of Issue 11.

We think this is the proper place to note a curious stamp that has just reached our publishers from the United States. It is the left half of a bright yellow-green Six Pence of Issue 14, which stamp has been divided in half by a vertical line of perforation gauging 12. This half stamp is surcharged “D/1” in red, and is postmarked, apparently over the surcharge. The extreme height of the surcharge is 8½ mm.; the height of the figure “1” is 5 mm., and its width ¾ mm.; the height of the letter “D” is 2¾ mm., and its width 2¼ mm. The figure “1” has a long serif, slanting downwards, and a foot like that of a Roman figure “I.”

We do not like to hazard an opinion as to what this stamp may be, but we think it right to place its existence on record, as the perforation which has divided the stamp has been, in our opinion, done by the same official machine that performed the same operation, not only on the postal provisionals of 1880 and 1881, but also on the fiscals that were made in 1882 by dividing diagonally this same Six Pence of Issue 14, and surcharging each half “3d. Revenue.” It was expressly forbidden in St. Vincent to make use of postage stamps for fiscal purposes, unless they had been overprinted “Revenue”; this stamp, if genuine, cannot therefore have been intended for anything but postage. It may have been experimentally prepared in December 1881, when a provisional One Penny was required, and rejected in favour of the one actually issued; but farther than this we cannot go. We are sorry that this interesting stranger has reached us too late for illustration.

Issue 18.

_December 1881._

½d., orange-yellow, shades from pale to deep. 1d., drab, slight shades. 4d., bright ultramarine.

The consignment of these three stamps, which was sent out on November 16th, 1881, consisted of 1000 sheets (60,000 stamps) of the Halfpenny, 1000 sheets (60,000 stamps) of the One Penny, and 500 sheets (15,000 stamps) of the Four Pence. All three values were issued in December, and the three provisionals which had temporarily supplied their places were at once withdrawn from use, if indeed this had not already taken place in the case of the provisional Halfpenny.

The plate for the Halfpenny value, like those of the One Penny and Six Pence, consisted of 60 stamps arranged in 6 horizontal rows of 10. Like the other current values, it was printed on the star-watermarked paper.

The lateral distance between the stamps is 19 mm. from centre to centre, and the vertical 21½ mm. These dimensions being smaller by 1⅓ mm. one way, and 2½ mm. the other, than those of the spaces between the stars in the paper, it follows that these last are distributed among the stamps in less than the proportion of one star to each, so it is very seldom that we find the watermark properly centred on any single specimen.

The colour of this Halfpenny varies a good deal in depth of shade, and, like that of most St. Vincent stamps, it has a strong tendency to oxidation. This colour was called “primrose” by the printers. Although only one printing was ever made of it, this was a large one, and it is a very common stamp either unused or used.

We have called the colour of the One Penny “drab,” but it is not a very easy one to define, although our term is more likely to be understood by our readers than that of the printers, which is “chemical black.” For some reason or other it is a very much scarcer stamp unused than the Halfpenny, in spite of there having been printed an equal number of both. We suppose that this must be through the dealers having omitted to put it in stock in any great quantity, and from a number of the sheets having been overprinted “Revenue” for fiscal purposes.

Possibly for the same reasons the Four Pence is also a rare stamp unused, and even used specimens are getting scarce. Only 15,000 of these were printed, and they must have been quickly used up, as a new issue of the value was required within a year.

The three stamps of this issue are only known perforated B; they were the last to be printed for the Colony by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.

In a letter in _Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal_ for December, 1891, the One Penny drab, with star watermark, is said to exist perforated 14, but the reputed owner has since informed us that this is a mistake.

SECTION II.

With the end of 1881 the printing of the stamps of St. Vincent by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. ceased, and on February 25th, 1882, that firm delivered up the various plates of stamps to the Crown Agents of the Colony in London. These plates were afterwards handed over by them to Messrs. De La Rue & Co., and this firm has since printed all the further supplies of stamps ordered by the Colony, using Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s plates for that purpose.

We give the dates of the various issues comprised in Section II. as accurately as it is in our power to do, but, as we do not enjoy for the stamps of this section the same advantages as we did for those printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., we are now obliged for our information to fall back entirely upon the philatelic periodicals, the authorities we have chiefly relied upon being the _Philatelic Record_ and the _Timbre-Poste_.

With the change of contractors alterations took place in the paper, colours, and perforation of the stamps—printers’ accessories that naturally differ with each individual firm. At the time Messrs. De La Rue & Co. took over the contract they had, in the case of stamps of the size of the majority of those of St. Vincent, ceased using their well-known paper watermarked with a crown and “C.C.,” and had substituted in its place a paper with watermarks of a crown over the letters “C.A.”—these initials standing for “Crown Agents.” This paper is milled or surfaced, medium in thickness, and varies but slightly in both of these two respects. It was specially made for the electrotype plates used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. in the surface-printing process they employ for most of the current British Colonial stamps. The entire sheet measures 21¼ inches in height by 11 inches in width, or 54 centimetres by 28 centimetres, approximately. In order to correspond with the stamps on these electrotype plates, the watermarks in the sheet are grouped in four panes of sixty, and those in each pane are arranged in ten horizontal rows of six, with a line in watermark enclosing each pane. The two upper panes are separated from the two lower ones by a space of an inch, and this interval is watermarked with the words “Crown Agents,” in a straight line in double-lined block capitals 12 mm. in height. The two panes on the right are separated from the two on the left by a narrow unwatermarked space of 6 mm. There is no marginal watermark at either the top or bottom of the sheet, but at each side the words “Crown Agents for the Colonies” are watermarked in a straight line of double-lined block capitals 7 mm. in height, the words on the left reading upwards, and those on the right reading downwards.

From these particulars it will be seen how ill-adapted this paper is for plates of the size of those of the St. Vincent stamps. The consequence is that the watermarks, “Crown C.A.,” are irregularly distributed over the sheets of all the different values, never being in proper register with the stamps, but more so in the cases of the Halfpenny and the Five Shillings, on account of the sizes of these two values being so very different from that of the De La Rue stamps for which the watermarks are spaced.

We have seen that the plates of the Halfpenny, One Penny, and Sixpence contained sixty stamps, in six horizontal rows of ten, and that of the Five Shillings twenty stamps, in four horizontal rows of five. The “Crown C.A.” paper was, therefore, quite large enough to be divided horizontally, so as to take three impressions of any of these plates. The result of this division of the sheet is that the impression of the plate that happens to be printed on the middle portion has one row of stamps, either partly or wholly, watermarked with as much of the inscription, “Crown Agents,” as the length of the plate will permit; and specimens of all the above values, as well as of the two issues of the One Penny surcharged “2½ Pence,” and the Six Pence surcharged “Five Pence,” by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. are found so watermarked. The plates of the Four Pence and One Shilling, which only contained thirty stamps in three horizontal rows of ten, admitted of the paper being so cut that the words “Crown Agents” are only found watermarked in the margins of the sheets of these two values.

The sheets printed from Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s plates were even less adapted to the perforating machines used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. for stamps of their own design printed on “Crown C.A.” paper, than, as we have seen, were the Perkins-Bacon plates to that paper. These machines, to which we give the name of “comb,” perforate the top and two sides of every stamp in an entire horizontal row at each descent of the pins. The second descent of the pins, therefore, perforates the bottom of the stamps in the first row and at the same time the top and two sides of the stamps of the second row. This process is continued through the sheet until the bottom of it is reached, when the last descent of the pins perforates the bottom of the lowest row of stamps, and at the same time continues the vertical lines of perforation into the bottom margin of the sheet. If the sheet has been put to the machine in an inverted position, it is the _top_ margin we find perforated vertically. The machines are, however, so constructed that in the centre of the long line of pins two of the vertical lines of the “comb” are placed much closer together than the rest, in order to perforate each side of the narrow central space separating the panes of stamps—_vide_ our description of the paper watermarked “Crown C.A.” This arrangement of the pins makes the machine utterly useless for perforating a row of more than six stamps placed close together. In consequence of this, the stamps of St. Vincent, and those of other Colonies for which Messrs. De La Rue & Co. use the old plates of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., have to be perforated by a different make of machine to that they usually employ for colonial stamps.

For the stamps of St. Vincent three varieties of perforating machines have been used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. First, a comb-machine of the gauge of 14, similar to the one they employ for perforating the current One Penny &c. of Great Britain, in which the horizontal line of pins is long enough, without the interposition of two vertical lines placed close together, to perforate a row of ten or more stamps; second, a single-line or guillotine-machine with 12 holes in a space of 2 centimetres; and third, a similarly constructed machine to the second, but with a gauge of 14.

In order to distinguish between the perforations of the guillotine-machine gauging 14 and those of the comb-machine which also gauges 14, it is necessary to have either a block of at least four stamps, or a vertical strip with the top and bottom margins of the sheet attached. By examining the points where the lines of perforation intersect each other, or noticing whether _both_ margins of the sheet have been perforated through or not, it is possible to decide the nature of the machine. If, at the point where a vertical and a horizontal line of perforation intersect, there is one hole common to both lines, this hole being of the usual size, or if either the top or bottom margin of the sheet is imperforate, then the perforation must have been done by the comb-machine. On the other hand, if the lines of perforation cross each other so that there is no one hole common to both lines, or if there appears to be such a one that it has evidently been made larger by the passage of a second pin, or if the top and bottom margins of the sheet are _both_ perforated through, then we may be equally certain that the perforation has been performed by the guillotine-machine.

The comb-machine perforating 14 is far more regular in the spacing of the pins than the guillotine-machine of the same gauge. If a long line of perforation of the latter be examined, it will be found that here and there the holes are not in line, and also that there is a slightly wider distance between certain of them, although the gauge of the perforation does not perceptibly vary from 14.

The guillotine-machine gauging 12 is more irregular still in the spacing of the pins, as an examination of our illustration No. 21 will show. For instance, the tenth hole from the bottom is further from the ninth than it is from the eleventh, and the second and third holes from the top, and also others, will be seen to be more or less out of line. The gauge also varies; for if two centimetres be taken up the central line, commencing with the fifteenth hole from the bottom, that space will be found to contain eleven holes, _plus_ the distance between the eleventh and twelfth, which is equivalent to a gauge of 11¾.

For some reason Messrs. De La Rue & Co. do not appear to have made much use of the comb-machine for the stamps of St. Vincent; it may be because their machines were in constant requirement for British stamps. The One Penny, and “2½ Pence” on 1d., rosy-lake, two of the first three values printed by them, were perforated by this comb-machine; but with the exception of one or two other stamps that we shall specify in our notes to the various issues, the remainder, including all the stamps now current in the Island, have been perforated by one or other of the guillotine-machines.

We have not thought proper in our Reference List to make any distinction between the two machines gauging 14, nor have we catalogued stamps showing part of the words “Crown Agents” in the watermark, as we feel that had we done so we should have been adding a fresh terror to stamp collecting, already over-burdened by the weight of “varieties.”

The gum on all the stamps of Section II. is usually white, but sometimes varies to a pale yellow.

The colours of the stamps are for the most part brighter than those used by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., and the combination of the line-engraved plates with the colours, paper, and perforations of Messrs. De La Rue & Co. produce certainly some of the finest stamps that have ever been printed.

Issue 19.

_January 1883._

1d., drab. 4d., bright blue.

These two stamps, the first to be printed for the Colony by Messrs. De La Rue & Co., were chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of February, 1883, so we may safely put down the date of issue as January. The colours of both values were unchanged, and, allowing for the difference of appearance in Messrs. De La Rue & Co.’s stamps, caused by the whiteness and surfacing of the paper, there is hardly any change to be noticed even in their shades. The One Penny is perforated 14, the machine used having been the “comb.” The Four Pence is also perforated 14, but not having been able to examine a block, or even a pair of these stamps, we are unable to say which of the two machines was used. In all probability it was the guillotine-machine.

Issue 20.

_February 1883._

“2½ PENCE,” in black, on 1d., rosy-lake.

Although a surcharged, this is by no means a provisional stamp, since it was made to obviate the necessity of making a plate for the new value of Two Pence Halfpenny required for the Postal Union rate, and, with a change of colour of the One Penny value on which the surcharge is printed, it has remained current ever since its issue in February, 1883.

It was chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of March, 1883, and is dated February in the last edition of M. Moens’ _Catalogue_. The surcharge is printed in black, in block figures and capitals 3 mm. in height, and the extreme length of the whole surcharge is 16 mm. A bar, 1 mm. in width, and 14 mm. in length, is printed at a distance of 1 mm. below the “2½ PENCE,” and the surcharges are so printed on the sheet that these black bars fall more or less exactly on the lower labels of the stamps, and obliterate the original values. Like the stamps of the last issue, the sheets were perforated 14 by the comb-machine.

We have been shewn some specimens of the One Penny rosy-lake, which their owners fondly imagined were stamps that had escaped the surcharge “2½ PENCE.” This is not so, as the One Penny stamp was afterwards issued in exactly the same colour as the surcharged variety we are now considering: _vide_ Issue 25.

Issue 21.

_October 1883._

4d., dull blue. 6d., bright green. 1s., orange-vermilion.

In the _Philatelic Record_ of November, 1883, the editor chronicles the two higher values of this issue, on the authority of Dr. Viner, but they were not noticed in the _Timbre-Poste_ until January, 1884. We have every belief that the Four Pence, dull blue, was issued with the two other values, but we can find no contemporary record of it. It is called “_bleu terne_” and dated 1883 in the First Supplement (published July 1884), to the 6th Edition of M. Moens’ _Catalogue_. This settles the question as to its colour at least, for although M. Moens’ in the current edition of his _Catalogue_ has dropped the term “_bleu terne_,” and substituted for it two colours, “_outremer_” and “_bleu foncé_,” we cannot help thinking that in this instance he has followed the lead of the London Society’s _West Indian Catalogue_, which employs precisely these terms in describing the colour of the blue Four Pence perforated 12, ignoring the dull blue stamp altogether. The stamps so described in the London Society’s list certainly belong to a later printing, and we believe them to have been non-existent in July, 1884, when M. Moens issued the First Supplement to the 6th Edition of his _Catalogue_. The colour of the Four Pence of this issue is a dull dirty blue, inclined to grey-blue, and cannot possibly be mistaken for any of the shades of the Four Pence of the next issue. It is a very rare stamp, particularly unused. All the stamps of this issue are perforated 12 by the guillotine-machine described in our note to Section II.

Issue 22

_September 1884._

½d., dark green. 4d., ultramarine, with light and dark shades.

In the _Philatelic Record_ of March, 1884, will be found an account of a spurious provisional Halfpenny, for which the _Deutsche Philatelisten Zeitung_ seems to have been responsible. The stamp is described as the Six Pence, green, divided vertically, and each half surcharged in black “_Halfpenny_.” In the June number of the _Philatelic Record_ the editor says: “The result of enquiries made of the Postmaster of St. Vincent is that no such stamp has been issued. There are still large supplies of the small ½d., orange, on hand, which is attested by the fact that the watermark of this stamp has not yet been altered to C.A. and Crown.” The new Halfpenny printed in green, and perforated 12, was afterwards chronicled in the October number of the same journal.

We believe it was at this time that the third and last printing of a blue Four Pence was made by Messrs. De La Rue & Co., and that this is the ultramarine, or dark blue stamp, that is dated by the London Society as having been issued at the end of 1883. Both the stamps of this issue are perforated 12, and this is the last instance in which a machine of this gauge was used for St. Vincent stamps.

The variety of the Halfpenny printed in orange-yellow, but otherwise identical in all other respects with the green Halfpenny of this issue, has been known to us for some two years. A specimen of it was found by our publishers in a collection they had purchased, and at least two others are known, one of which has recently (January, 1895) been advertised for sale. All these are unused, and are printed on “Crown C.A.” paper, gummed, and perforated 12. We have catalogued this stamp as a variety “prepared for use, but never issued,” and, although it would be indiscreet to repeat here all the gossip we have heard on the subject, this fairly represents the case, as far as the evidence that has reached us can be trusted. One thing is at least certain, and that is, none of these yellow Halfpennies ever reached the Island officially.

Issue 23.

_March 1885._

“1d.” in black, on “2½d.” on 1d., rosy-lake.