N. S. W. 1d Shield - The Types And Varieties Of The New South Wales One Penny Diamond Jubilee NSW

A general comment before things get out of hand. These issues are not commonly well catalogued with flaws. The ACSC doesn't list Australian State issues anymore and Stabley Gibbons has little to offer. Unless there is a suitable study and census to document and determine genuine flaws its not worth jumping at ever tiny flaw speck flaw common to Australian issues over 100yrs old. Printing at that time was in a dusty/dirty environment and a LOT of dust and paper fibers etc ended up settling on the paper prior to inking leading to an essentially infinite range of marks that are not necessarily of value or interest. If someone is making a study with an eye to determine constant flaws and possible rarity numbers they should post that so others can send them suitable scans to study. This thread will easily get derailed by people jumping at wear and tear as if they'd discovered the holy grail. Its what happens with threads elsewhere on varieties of the 1D KGV red issues. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a single example of this issue that does not contain a white or red dot or mark that wasn't intentional, flaws are the rule not the exception with this issue. So a little restraint please before posting blurry phone photos of pages of flaw worth millions.

Steveb,
Thank you for your contributions.

I have studied thousands of these stamps and all confirmed by me are constant flaws.

The UV reactions shown are not due to soaking with other issues - most of mine have been soaked from pieces or partial pieces and soaked with like stamps only.

Most of the distinctive UV reactions are on the die I stamps - an interesting variety of reactions too - varying from plum shades to very bright orange. The early die II stamps also have interesting UV reactions. By the time you get to the chalk-surfaced issues of 1902-03, the UV reactions have all but ceased.

There are many minor one-off flaws due to the printing imperfections as you mention - I don't state that they are constant unless I have at least one supporting example.

Stamp Community members are encouraged to continue studying all aspects of these stamps, searching for flaws and posting examples - I will assist where I can.

only the N9 comment was meant for you specifically. The UV comments more informational and cautionary to other collectors to not jump at shadows expecting to become wealthy from a single stamp glowing slightly more than others. Sorry I wasn't clear enough. These are a rather interesting issue to study, being so widespread and affordable to accumulate. Can I ask what your reference is for the constant flaws? Is it a monograph on this issue or something that covers Australian States more broadly? I've only seen and have an older Australian Commonwealth Specialists Catalogue which covers some issues during the 1901-1913 period but were dropped from their catalogues in later editions.

Steveb,

My reference is mostly first-hand research and confirmation of the constancy of the flaws by studying thousands of copies.

The literature on flaws and plating for this issue is sparse at this stage - I hope to be able to publish the list of constant flaws that I have found (or confirmed if published elsewhere) at some point - probably in 'Sydney Views' (Royal Sydney Philatelic Club).

Ideally after publishing, someone with access to sheets will be able to plate most of them. I will only state that a flaw is constant (when uploaded on this thread by a member) if I have at least two of the exact same flaw or it is has been identified in a reputable journal or catalogue.

The 2004 ACSC Kangaroos and Early Federal Period lists:
- Double impression
- Void corner (various states) and
- Plate crack in lower right corner.

Voids left of the crown in conjunction with missing and damaged pearls was published in the November 2009 edition of 'Sydney Views'.

Members here are encouraged to upload candidates for constant flaws - I am sure that there are many for which I have only one copy and I would be very pleased to see another to confirm that it has remained constant for at least some part of the life of the plates e.g. after damage and before repair or replacement.

fds, I don't doubt your constant flaws experience. My Aussie states albums are not well sorted into watermark/perf varieties yet and many examples are lurking in my Aussie blocks album and my "to sort" albums as well as glassines. At least these are all clean soaked flat examples. will have plenty more in "collection boxes" I have yet to sort/soak.

I've made a start on condensing the information in this thread into something that I can use and others hopefully too for sorting mine. No idea when I will likely finish. I'm using other catalogues too to combine their information. I'll use the ACSC as primary information and there are a bunch of releases also catalogued by Gibbons. A lot of combinations too of colours (well shades making things tricky, the issue is only in Red). Perfs should universally be 12.5x11 and all issues seem to recorded as this as it was the "standard" for Australian early federation "small stamps", I did spot some info on this issue being used in booklets accounting for some other perfs but the "rare" ones are unexplained and I wonder if they have been properly examined in more recent times to confirm without doubt they are not "stretched" perfs. ACSC specifically mentions some and they are only known to exist in a pair. No doubt anyone thinking they have one will need to have extensive testing/certification done. Used singles could be possible to fake.

Anyway the constant flaws can be identified between ourselves with scans of examples, developing flaws too, possibly enough for someone to monograph/catalogue and/or get accepted into ACSC/SG catalogues.

So far though I've been scratching out the varieties of "normal" issues and its difficult to narrow things down to definitive statements to help sorting. It cant even be said ALL Die I issues are a single colour shade because they arent. Colour, Die, watermark are all used across multiple releases, one or two colours are unique to a particular release but since colours are so difficult to be definitive about (ref 1d red KGV issue sorting) I can only try to get all the information into some form that might help sorting this issue. I'm using a spreadsheet so I can add info and move it around easily. I've used a colorimeter to get exact colour values from a colour chart for the released colour shades. It wont match the stamps though as aging/ paper colour/ inking amount etc all vary from stamp to stamp but it could show you one shade is slightly redder than another, or browner, or orange etc which may help along with UV colour to sort colour as the inkcomposition is likely to have changed between printings, so like sorting the KGVs, it may require sorting by year .

Below is a screenshot of how its looking. Again this is just piecing together existing information I'm NOT claiming authorship or ownership or anything really. I just want to put together something that will help me sort my examples and will make it available here for everyone interested.

It would be good to see scans of blocks and strips containing flaws especially if they have selvedges maybe showing the watermarking so possibly in the future flaws can be plated

Known, well established and documented perforations on the NSW shield stamps include:

11x12,
12x11.5,
12x12 (both ordinary and 'pointy' perfs),
11.5x11,
11x11 single line (extremely rare) and
imperf (also very rare).

fairdinkumstamps

I have a number of blocks of these stamps plus many thousand singles. I am building a data base of possible platable flaws and have a couple of basic questions.

1. Is this block from the top row, columns 4 to 6? Hopefully the script down the side would confirm this, there is no top row watermark line showing. Watermark is C over A.



2. Does the jubilee line go round the four quadrants as a whole or is each quadrant surrounded?

3. How many plates were used. Die 1 and Die 2 I know but the Crown over A watermark printings appear to have very different flaws to the earlier watermarks.

Tasnaki

Tasnaki,
Regarding your crown over single-lined A block:



Your block is from Plate 5 or 6 (ref: BW ACSC 2004 catalogue), rows 4 to 6, columns 4 to 6.
'DIAMOND JUBILEE POSTAGE' precedes the word 'STAMP' in the inscription.



The marginal rule surrounds each upper and lower horizontal pane of 120 stamps. (ref: BW ACSC 2004 catalogue)



Your block is from either plate 5 or 6. There were 8 plates. Plates 7 and 8 had only the marginal rule around each pair of horizontal panes and 'POSTAGE - ONE PENNY' as marginal markings above panes A and B and below panes C and D (ref: BW ACSC 2004 catalogue).

fairdinkumstamps

I have been working through plate 4 attempting to prepare a plating guide and have managed to identify all but 30 of the 240 positions on the four panes.

Three of the ones you showed earlier can be plated as follows:




White spot by right 'd'. This is plate 4 pane B position 12 (4B-12)




White flaw from crown into upper left shield panel. 4B-25




Line from bottom shield star. 4D-2

There a large number of flaws on this plate and I have quite a few still not positioned, if anyone can help be posting or sending me scans of any blocks or pairs it would be appreciated.

I have previous experience preparing plating guides and am the author of several of the Tasmanian Pictorial guides available from the Tasmanian Philatelic Society website.

Tasnaki

Thank you very much Tasnaki!

As per my earlier posts, I have submitted the constant flaws that I have found for publication in the 'Sydney Views' journal in the hope that someone would do the terrific plating work that you have done.

Lockdown has delayed the publication but it should be out soon.

I will have a hunt to see if if I have any useful pairs/blocks for your excellent work.

It will be interesting to see how the study of these stamps develops e.g. the rarity/life of the constant flaws and any repairs that may have been made.

Another interesting aspect is the progression of the various shades, especially on the earlier issues.

Thank you for the feedback.

Is it possible to have a look at the flaws you have identified? I may be able to plate some of them for you. I don't get the Sydney Views.

Tasnaki

Thank you very much Tasnaki, that would be great.

I will post them here after they are published in the Sydney Views (soon).

Here's an example of SG 300a imperf three sides (block of four).

Thank you for sharing your block Plateflaw.

Very rare and excellent catalogue value!

I will be posting some of the constant flaws that were published in 'Sydney Views' in the hope that Tasnaki (or others) might have (or be able to) position them on the various plates.

I have at least two of any that are shown here.

Note that there are quite a few versions of voids surrounding the crown and damaged pearls so I am only posting those that have been seen to have the same flaws in the same locations on the stamp.

Firstly, found on crown over single-lined A watermark stamps, damaged crown pearls and surrounds plus (left end of) left top scroll.