1854 First Stamp of Western Australia Imperforate Issue Swan

The swan is Western Australia’s signature icon and featured on the first stamp of Western Austrlaia on 1 August 1854 and in every issue that followed. These are highly collected and often hard to distinguish by the novice for different years and releases. The first issue of Western Australia, in my opinion, remains the most artful piece of Western Australia’s postal history.

The Imperforate issue (stamps had to be cut manually with scissors without perforations to separate the sheets) consisted of the 1d Black (1854), 2d Orange (1860) , 4d Blue Octagonal (1854) and 4d Blue square (1857), 6d Green (1857) and the Brown One Shilling (1854).

The 1d black swan stamp was engraved in England and printed by Perkins Bacon. Later stamp issues in this series were done by local lithographer Horace Samson who produced the 4d Blue and 1 Shilling Brown.

At the time of writing the catalogue price for a mint (unused) 1d Black Swan is $2,250.00 with a cancelled or used stamp at $350.00. These catalogue prices do not reflect the market for these stamps which is highly competitive and prices can go much higher in the open auction marketplace.

Because of the high demand and black and white nature of the stamp, forgeries abound and are also highly collected as a piece of history. If you find an example of this stamp in an album take great care to identify it correctly.

4d Blue Octagonal Swan Inverted Error and Issues

The colony needed more 4d stamps and the plates were taken out of storage and a new printing took place. However, because the plates needed some repair an error occurred in the printing resulting in a batch of stamps being printed upside down. Apparently there are only 14 examples of this as used stamps in the world out of the approximately 308 that were printed. If you find one it will be worth a LOT of money. Take a look at the pictures below to see the error and how it should have been printed. The 4d also has a watermark of the swan for security. The blue shades are highly collected and argued over at stamp meetings having had several printings, the dye differed and the way it has aged also affects the colour grading.

Later the 4d Blue Swan was published as a standard square issue in 1856.

This issue is far more rare and at the time of writing, catalogue price is an incredible $3,000.00 for a cancelled/used specimen while the mint is only $475.00. The used stamps are much more difficult to find hence their value.