The King George VI Definitive Issue

• Waterlow used a design consisting of the King's Head based on Bertram Park's portrait, with the Badge of the Colony, a three masted sailing vessel, flying the St George's Cross off Headlands, King and Queens Rock, to the left. The value being in the bottom left hand corner. Compared with De La Rue's 1922 issue, using a similar design, there were significant improvements in the engraving, hence none of the great number of varieties of the 1922 issue occur in the 1938 George VI printings. The Badge design reappeared in the 1953 Queen Elizabeth definitives, but on one stamp only, the 1/2d.

• Waterlow used a standard 121/2 line perforation for it's issues at this period in it's history. Many collectors have established that these perforations varied from 12.4 to 12.7+ and attempts have been made to identify printings from this variation in perforation. But I would suggest that the conclusions are very subjective, considering the movement of stamps between the Printers, the Crown Agents and the Colony itself (see Control Numbers, below).

• A standard Multiple Script CA watermark was used on paper of various thicknesses, related to when the stock was released. The Second World War, and the resulting shortages, would certainly affect the content and thickness of the paper, hence the differences. Tom Cusick in the George VI Magazine Vol2 Number 3 (publishers LMG Communications) gives an interesting discussion on how these papers can be differentiated.

• Frank Saunders, the founder of the King George VI Society, recorded details of the types of paper and gum in the publication GEOSIX. Although the dates do not correspond at times with the actual requisition dates, and in fact some are missing altogether, he does give an insight into this area of the definitives which may help in identifying printings.

• He stated that the paper was:" originally off-white, medium thick; 1940 white medium thick, 1940 onwards white, thinner paper..... Gum: originally creamy; 1940 onwards, white."

• There were sixty stamps in sheets of 10 x 6, with the imprint in the bottom gutter underneath the centre stamps. There was no plate number for the orginal issues and the 1d and 3d colour changes of 1940. Two new 1940 values, the 4d and 8d, were printed with Plate Number 1 under the 59th stamp. Following on from this the1949 new colours had plate numbers 1-1 under the 59th and 60th stamps.

• In any design process involving printing, proofs are required to determine suitability of design and colour. The St Helena proofs were of the design with the value tablet missing. Hence there was one 'Master Die' used for all the values. The value tablet was inserted later. There are no records of these duty proofs in the British Library although when each value was proofed in its colour the duty value was present.

• Below shows the history of the colour proofs. The rejected colours are the authors interpretation on sight of the proofs, which were printed on Waterlow and Sons Proofing Card. The verdict is written in pencil and dated. Approval was given by Henry Stansfield, the Crown Agent Examiner.

• Numbers were engraved on the printing plates to distinguish the plates used for a specific printing. Often, as with the St Helena Issue, when only relatively small numbers were printed, the same plates were used throughout the life of the issue. However with other countries, such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika the numbers required by the colony were such that plates often wore out and were replaced by new ones. It is this wear and tear that resulted in the many varieties on the Bermuda high value keyplates. Retouching was often resorted to and this has provided a huge reservoir of detailed study for many philatelists. Plate flaws , such as the Ascension 'Davit Flaw' and the Northern Rhodesian 'Tick Bird flaw', can also be financially valuable. The original Waterlow printings had no plate numbers, these being introduced for future new values or reprintings. Phil Collar suggests that Plate Blocks were introduced on the request of George VI. Their purpose being to identify the introduction of new values or major colour changes. The 1940 St Helena new values had Plate Number 1 but the new colours did not. These were said to have 'blank plate numbers'.

Specimens  

• Original duty values were issued to agencies such as the GPO, Crown Agents and UPU as a record of each stamp. To prevent postal use the stamps were overprinted or perforated with the word 'SPECIMEN'.The St Helena stamps were perforated with the word "SPECIMEN" from bottom left to the top right of the stamp.

• If the stamps were to be delivered to the Colony they had Control Numbers stamped on each sheet, usually in the top right hand corner. Stamps which remained in the Bureau's stocks would not have these numbers. The Colony paid for this. On occasions the Bureau required stocks to be replenished due to dealer buying and therefore contacted the Colony to have a further printing. To save money on this the Colony would occasionally return their own surplus stocks. The Control number would be removed by tearing away the selvedge where it appeared. If the Colony then required more sheets to replenish their own stocks then Control numbers would be added again in a different place on the sheet. Confused? So am I!
• For an example of this happening see 'Sixth Sense Issue No 12' published by Murray Payne, which shows a block of St Helena 8d values with the selvedge missing and a new control number