THE SOUTH AFRICAN PHILATELIST.
RHODESIA.
By J. E. M. COCH.
(Continued from Page 61), CHAPTER IV.
NEW ISSUE OF 2d. AND 4d. VALUES, 1895.
75
This was a t,emporary issue, required to replenish the stocks of the 2d.
and 4d. values, wluch were becoming exhausted. preparatory to t,he issumg of an entirely new series in the -fo1lowmg year.
These st.amps were prmted by Messrs . .l:'erkins, Bacon and Co., who re- ceived the pla,tes from 1\lessrs . .tiradbury, Vvilk1nson and Co., and prmted the 2d. and 4d. values in much lighter colours 011 thick soft wove paper.
These stamps measure fully 1 nm1. more in height, and the lines of the back- ground appear to be heavier and clearer than in the precedmg issue. Either new plates had been prepared, or it is due to the Perkins, Bacon paper (soft;
not being so susceptible to shrinkage after printing, as that (hard paper) used by Bradbury, Wilkinson and Co. If new plat-ea were prepared one would not expect to find the same vari-ety of dot on tail repeated " in toto ".
in this issue. The sioft wove paper would also show up the design more clearly. (Perhaps some reader could explain.)
Some of the stamps of this issue are to be found with the last letter of the word PENCE damaged, making it appear like the let.t.er " F " with a stop. There are also minor varieties of malformed letters, in the words of value.
The following is a synopsis of the varieties together with the date of issue:
Type identical with previous issue.
Printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon a.nd Co.
Perf. 12½ by single hne machines.
Thick soft wove paper. Gum, white. No watermark.
Date of issue, April, 1895. Value in second colour.
I. 2d., green and red.
(a) green and vermilion.
(b) vari-ety "PENCF."
2. 4d., yellow-brown and black.
(a) yellow-brown .and blue-blii,.ck.
(b) variety "PENCF." -
Although the 4d. IMPERFORATE has been repeatedly chronicled and catalogued, I have been unable to t,race its origin, or obtain any :t,uthentic
information about it. ·
Both values of this. issue are found imperfora.te, with wordi of value omitted-these are .proofs.
78 THE SOUTH AFRICAN PHILATELIST.
the a.uthor of " The History of the Post.age Stamps of the Orange Free Sta,te,'' published in 1907, a monograph far superior to that appea;ring in the London Philatelic Society, Africa, Part III.
Af.t.er the publication of Mr. de Ra.ay's .article I ha;d expected that some English philatelic paper would draw attention t,o the stamp, but I have not seen any mention of it, therefore I think it high time that some notes should be published in South Africa on the off chance o.f a copy of this stamp being
found out here. ·
As it is well known tbe V.R.I. surcharges on the old Orange Free State stamps were printed in Bloemfontein in Messrs. Borkenhagen's Printing Works, which. however. in the beginning did not possess a suf)'iciently large number of the type required, and theTefore could only print in blocks of 60 and 120 stamps. To do this. the complete original sheets of 240 stamps were cut into quarter and half shee.t.s and thus B-ent to the print.ing press to be overprint.ed: this acoounts for the fact tha.t, a quarter sheet of the 4d. blue stamps, being of the sr1m8 oofour as the 3d. value, got mixed with the 3d.
she·et.s and thereby received the wro-ng surcharge.
Mo•st likely this would neve,r have been known had not Mr. 8. Duiven, a former Post lnspect.o•r and keen collector, accidentally spotted it on the day of issue.
Mr. Duiven gives Urn foUowiug account of the history of this error:
" One day in April, 1900, I was on my way to the Post Office at Bloem- fontein to buy some stamps for correspondence purposes. The grand rush on ' dots ' and ' no dots ' ha;d abated somewhat. I usually bought. about 20s. worth a.t a time, according to my needs. At, the time some people we,re standing abcmt talking in front of the Post Office, mostiy officials and sol- diers of the British Army, among whom I noticed Captain Hughes of the Intelligence Department, with who:m I was on friendly terms. He had just bought some stamps, a;n1ong which I noticed 12 c.opies of the 3d. value with which he was franking some letters. I observed tha.t they were the 4d.
stamps surcharged ' 3d.,' and imme<lia.tely came to the conclusion that. this was an error in surc.harging, and wirt:hout mentioning my discovery. entered the Post Office to see if I could also tiuy some of the &t.amps.
"The clerk at. t,he oounte<r had a broken sheet. of 40 stamps. thus 20 stamps had been sold. Of these 20, twelve copies had apparently been sold to Captain Hughes, and the remaining eight copies ha;d been sold to others. This block of 40 stamps I immediately bought, and in order to ascert,ain if the clerk ha;d amy other sheets, I bought his whole stock of 3d. values, in all three panes of 60 stamps each, but there were no errors amongst these sheets.
I then asked t-he clerk if all the 3d. panes o,f stamps were exhausted, and if they were now commencing to surcha.rge the 4d. panes with 3d. He answered in the negaitive, and I then drew his attention to the block of 4d.
errors which I had just bought, which I rea,lised afterward!! was a mistake on my part. He was very much astonished and asked me to re-turn the stamps that I had bought fr.om him, and on my refusal the Pos,tmaste,r was called, and being acquainted with the facts and seeing that there was appar- ently an error of surcharge, he informed me that the stamps should not have been allowed to have been sold in this c.ondition. ~.nd desired to get them back in order that thPy should be returned t-o the Control Department.
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THE SOUTH AFRICAN PHILATELIST.
British Colonials.
I have a very large stock of British Colonials, particularly Africans, in exceptional conditi<~m- every cupy is " picked " and can be described either "very fine" or "superb."
For many years I have specialised in sending out approval selections, in fact I do nothing else.
My prices are reasonable .. The ~hole of my stock is priced on the followmg basts:- Stamps catalogued 5/- and below at ONE THIRD GIBBONS. Stamps catalogued above 30/- at HALF GIBBONS. Stamps cat. 61- to 30/- at propcutionate rates.
I can also send interesting selections of Por- tuguese, German, French and Spanish Africans.
SEND ME YOUR WANT-LIST
F. 6. TURPIN,
161 STRAND LONDON,w.c.
2.79
·' I, of course, did not want t,o pa.rt with the errors that I had obtained and insisted that they were regularly purchased and paid for. 1 also called his attention to the fact. that 20 copie,s had already be.en sold over ,the counter before I bought mine, and that it would not be fair t,o force me to return them.
" I informed him tha,t I was a collect,or of stamps_, and tlrnt these errors were of value, and that I should retain them for my collection and not use them for postal purposes. I also spoke o.f Captain H11ghes having pun·hased some at the couniter just before I had applied.
"After a lengthy deliberation in the priva:te, office of the Postma~ter, we came to the following agreement, nafoely. that I should return ~O co,pies to him and the remaining copies should repose in my oollection and under 1io oonsideration fo be used for postal purposes. As I lrnLl informed him that twelve copies were in the possession of Captain Hughes, wlw was still t-alking in front of the Post. Office, I a.fterwa,rds observed that he was called in and the stamps he had purchased were obtained by the Postmaster.
" It was apparent that, ,only one pane of 60 stamps had been surcharged in error. This is probably to be explained by the fact that the 3d. and 4d.
values were similar in de,sign and colour, and upon cutting np the sheets in panes of 60 one of the panes of the 4d. value was mixed by mis.take be- t.ween the pames of the 3d. values and received the surcha.rge in error.
" The Military Governor had instructed Major O'Jv[,eara to inspect the surcharged sheet,s, but owing to his various oTher duties he had not had time to inspect every sheet that was issued. A few days afterwa,rds the above incident occurred T le,ft Bloemfont,ein in the van of Lmd Roberts' British Army, marching t,o the North over the Va.al, and there a, new era of
~xci1ement broke out for philatelists."
Above is said to be the t.rue story of these interesting euors. I have never come across anyone who knew of the existence of the,se st-amps. The -eight stamps sold that morning of April. 1900, at thP Post Office at Bloem-
80 THE SOUTH AFRICAN PHILATELIST.