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

A very accessible and interesting stamp for the philatelist, the 1d shield was first issued in 1897 and can be found with four different watermarks, two die types and in a range of shades, some of which react impressively under the UV lamp.

Members are invited to contribute any information about these humble yet wonderful stamps on this thread.

Rare and valuable varieties exist such as the double impression, the perforation 11 issue and various imperf configurations.

There are also plate varieties such as the catalogued void corners and plate crack, as well as loads of constant yet uncatalogued varieties. One of the latter that can be found with some hunting is the missing lines on the right '1', shown below.

This stamp has to be the most fertile for discovery of plate varieties etc.

It should be that much more available in large blocks than almost every other NSW stamp, except maybe the 2d record reign issue.

The four watermarks:

1897 onwards: SG watermark 40, Crown over NSW (2nd type - 2mm gap between the crown and NSW)



1902 onwards: SG watermark 65, Crown over NSW (3rd type - 1mm gap between the crown and NSW)



1905 onwards: SG watermark 68, Crown over single-lined A



1907 onwards: SG watermark w 11, Crown over double-lined A



Sketches from Basset Hull:



Inverted watermarks are rarer than upright for all four types and they are very difficult to find in the case of the 3rd type of Crown over NSW (SG watermark 65, Basset Hull 15) and the crown over single-lined A (SG watermark 68, Basset Hull 21).

The Dies:

Die I (left) has the first pearl of the crown merged and indistinct shading under the fleur-de-lis. The 'S' in "WALES" is 'open'.
This die can only be found on stamps with the Crown over NSW (2nd type) watermark (SG watermark 40).

Die II (right) has the first pearl of the crown circular and clearer shading under the fleur-de-lis. The 'S' in "WALES" is less 'open'.
Die II stamps are found with all four watermarks.

Constant flaw - Plate crack in lower right corner

Great info fairdinkumstamps. The plate crack is quite striking!

Constant plate variety - three large white flaws:

(i) in the crown
(ii) in the vertical shading right of the crown
(iii) left of the uppermost star.

Fairdinkumstamps,

Regarding the 1d Shield NSW, could you expand on the Perf' 11 issue & circumstances leading to the stamps scarceness please.

I have many hundreds of these stamps as a result of a bundleware purchase last year.

One of these days I will get around to having a good look at them!

The perf. 11 stamps must be rare due to the abnormal use of the perforating machine I'd say.

Most of the perf. 11 stamps, where the other gauges for the same stamp are not catalogued highly by comparison, from 1888 on, are worth decent money!

Finches,

I don't know the circumstances that led to to the abnormal use of the perf 11 machine.

G. J. Hutson (1960) writes that he has the only copy of the 1899 chalk-surfaced perf 11 Rose-carmine issue that he knows of. He mentions that Basset Hull (1911) lists it as a query.

The Stanley Gibbons catalogue lists perf 11 for the 1899 (2nd type Crown over NSW) and the 1902 (3rd type Crown over NSW) chalk-surfaced paper issues.

The 2004 ACSC does not cover the 1899 issues but lists the 1902 perf 11 stating that there are only a used pair and a single in the H. L. White collection known.

I think I've figured this out.

There's no question the use of the perf. 11 gauge is abnormal on stamps printed in sheets of 240 subjects. See the prices for SG 223h and 225c (1d & 2d DLR stamps).

I think the answer lies in that the perf. 11 machine was unable to accommodate sheets of 240 stamps but had no problem with stamps printed in sheets of 100 (eg: 5d diadem) or 120 (eg: 3d diadem, other DLR stamps).

With a little more research, the above statement is incorrect.

I think the stamps printed on plates with 240 subjects may have been guillotined horizontally before perforation.

The two images below are of a half sheet of the ½d surcharged DLR.







The following image is from the Baillee auction catalogue. Note the flaw on the first stamp of the second row.



This flaw is described in Wetherell's paper (American Journal Of Philately, Oct. 1903).

The marginal markings are also a giveaway that the sheet has been cut in half.

Hutson (p.66) says he believed the 11x12 comb machine was for the exclusive use of the 1d, 2d, 4d and 1/- DLR stamps, with the perf. 10 machine as first reserve.

As an aside, I saw yesterday, in passing, an image of the 1d Diamond Jubilee,
with the Postmark LHI, I thought I would post it here, being unusual, but dashed if I can find it again.

Constant plate variety:

Large white flaw lower left of crown.

Fairdinkumstamps,

'Under UV' the Salmon shade shines up nicely for last century.