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Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1

GREAT BRITAIN, 1887-1910

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1887 Inscription "POSTAGE AND REVENUE", no letters in the corners 50 years reign of queen Victoria

  1/2 Penny orange
  1/2 Penny green (1900)
  1 1/2 d lilac and green
  2 d green and red
  2 1/2 d purple on blue
  3 d brown on yellow
  4 d brown and green
  4 1/2 d red and green
  5 d lilac and blue
  6 d lilac on red
  9 d blue and lilac
  10 d red and lilac
  One Shilling green
  One Shilling red and green

The color of the 1/2 p green stamp is very sensitive and can easily change into blue.

vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon

*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare

For a 1 Pound large stamp with the image of Queen Victoria, click here.

A weird item, a 4 p in the design and colours of the 2 1/2 p with cancel "BELFAST PM 4 15 DE1 98 7" I've seen other forgeries in this design with the same cancel in violet (but placed in a different position). The Queen's face is badly done.

1 Sh stamp with parcel cancel.

King Edward VII

1902 King Edward VII, various designs

  1/2 p green
  1 p red
  1 1/2 p lilac and green
  2 p green and red
  2 1/2 p blue
  3 p lilac on yellow
  4 p brown and green
  4 p orange (1909)
  5 p lilac and blue
  6 p lilac
  7 p grey (1910)
  9 p blue and lilac
  10 p red and lilac
  1 Sh red and green

Larger sizes

  2 Sh 6 p lilac
  5 Sh red
  10 Sh blue
  1 Pound green

Most of these stamps are perforated 14, but some of them were issued with perforation 15 x 14 in 1911 (1/2 p , 1 p, 2 1/2 p, 3 p and 4 p orange). All the small stamps have watermark 'Crown', the 2 Sh 6 p, 5 Sh and 10 Sh have watermark 'Anchor' and the 1 Pound value has watermark 'Multiple Crown'.

Watermark 'Crown' seen from the backside of a 10 Sh stamp

vc = very common
c  = common
*  = not so common
** = uncommon

*** = very uncommon
R   = rare
RR  = very rare
RRR = extremely rare

Typical cancels:

Parcels cancel? with additional firm perfin.

A 2 p lilac in a similar design was prepared, but never issued:

(non issued stamp)

I have seen imperforate souvenir sheets (?) with the 1 Pound stamp on it, with very large borders (about the size of the stamp itself), at the bottom the year the stamp was issued '1902' is indicated in very large letters. I have seen a similar sheet with the non-issued 2 p stamp on it and the year '1910' at the bottom (probably from the same maker as the 1 Pound sheets). These sheets are fully gummed.

Souvenir sheet with 1 Pound value, '1902' written in large letters at the bottom of the sheet.

I know of a Lowden forgery of the 1 Pound stamp, made in 1911(?). The printing is rather coarse, the color is sligthly too light and a this forgery has a forged (impressed) watermark. It seems to be cancelled always with a 'Jersey' concentric cancel. Jersey was a port where tobacco came into Great Britain. Therefore many 1 Pound stamps were used for this purpose. The forger (Lowden) pretended that these forgeries were used for this purpose. Often this forgery is often pasted on a piece of brown paper (pretending to belong to the tobacco parcels). This forgery is described in great detail in 'Great Britain Forgery Guide' by J. Barefoot Ltd. Example of a Lowden forgery:

(Lowden forgery, image obtained from an Embassy Philatelists auction)

Modern 'reproductions':

This forgery of the 1 Pound King Edward VII stamp bears the cancel 'HIGHBURY B.O. NO 16. N', I've only seen it with this cancel

A forgery of the 1 Pound brown Queen Victoria, coming from the same source, I presume

I've seen a minisheet with an imperforate (unissued) 5 Pounds red with the portrait of King Edward VII printed for the "BRITISH PHILATELIC EXHIBITION 1971" by Thos. de la Rue & Co Ltd. by permission of the British Post Office:

For stamps with the image of King George V (1911 onwards, click here).

Copyright by Evert Klaseboer