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Preview of Stamps Catalogue: VOLUME 1

St HELENA 1856-1899

Return To Catalogue - St Helena forgeries of the first issues - St Helena 1890-1920

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1856 Queen Victoria, inscription 'postage'

Imperforated

Front and backside of a 6 p stamp; at the back the watermark 'Star' can be seen clearly

  6 p blue

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

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

Surcharged, the first stamps of St. Helena were all made from surcharges of new values on the 6 p stamps (but with colours changed):

Surcharged and imperforate:

  'ONE PENNY' on 6 p red
  'FOUR PENCE' on 6 p red

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

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

Perforated:

  6 p blue
  6 p grey

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

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

Surcharged and perforated

  'HALFPENNY' on 6 p green
  'ONE PENNY' on 6 p red
  'TWO PENCE' on 6 p yellow
  '2 1/2 d' and bar on 6 p blue
  'THREE PENCE' on 6 p violet
  'FOUR PENCE' on 6 p red
  'FOUR PENCE' on 6 p brown
  'ONE SHILLING' on 6 p green
  'FIVE SHILLINGS' on 6 p orange

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

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

For the specialist:

The first stamps, 6 p blue (imperforate, 1856 and perforated, 1861, both not surcharged) had the watermark 'star'. The perforated 6 p blue stamp has perforation 14 x 15 1/2 or 12 1/2 (very rare).
The imperforate surcharged stamps 1 p and 4 p had watermark 'CC crown' and were issued in 1863.
From 1864 to 1871 the perforated stamps 1 p, 2 p, 3 p, 4 p, 1 Sh and 5 Sh were issued, also with watermark 'CC crown'. They exist in different perforations: 12 1/2, 14 x 12 1/2 or 14. The black line at the bottom can be 14 mm , 17 mm or 18 mm long.
From 1871 to 1883 the 6 p blue was reissued with watermark 'CC crown' and perforation 12 1/2, 14 x 12 1/2 or 14.
In 1884 the watermark was changed to 'CA crown', the values 1 p, 2 p, 2 1/2 p, 3 p, 4 p, 6 p grey (without surcharge), and 1 Sh were issued. The 3 p exists with the black line 17 or 14 mm long.
The 2 1/2 p surcharge exists double. Be careful, because this double overprint has also been forged!

Cancels:

Several cancels were used in St.Helena, some examples:

The above cancel consists of several 'V's all pointed towards each other forming a circle.

(Bars cancels, reduced sizes)

Other cancels consists of four very wide bars or penstrokes. For stamps cancelled with violet lines, see under remainders.

(Bars cancel)

Bar cancels on a prisoner of war envelope with violet 'PRISONERS OF WAR BROAD BOTTOM CAMP CENSOR' cancel

Remainders:

The remainders of this serie were sold to a dealer (mr Healey), cancelled with violet lines forming a grille (see picture above). This cancel was never used for postal purposes and stamps with this cancel are not very valuable:

The government of St.Helena first tried to sell unused stamps at face value and did sell 9600 copies of the 1 Sh stamp with CC watermark to a certain T.H. Thompson in 1896 for 480 Pounds. In 1898 a list was published, where remaining stamps (all values) were offered at face value. This did not seem to be a great success and in 1904 a large number of stamps were sold to mr Healey below face value after hand cancelling them with the above mentioned grill (the government probably needed desperately money). The grill seems to exist in two types, the most common one has 4 lines in the center, the second one has 5 lines. This process seems to have been quite controversial at the time and the government of St.Helena was critisized by the philatelic world. In the next table the amount of stamps thus sold is given (the 1/2 p, 1 p and 2 p of the above series were already sold out at that time). These cancels have sometimes been removed chemically, thereby producing unused stamps (they are also known with forged cancels produced in Paris)! In the table the remainders of the 1890 issue are also given. More information can be found in Gibbons Stamp Monthly, July 1981 page 78.
(information obtained thanks to Robert W. Richardson)

Forgeries

For forgeries of the first issues, click here.

For issues of St Helena from 1890 to 1920 click here.

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Copyright by Evert Klaseboer