1854 New South Wales Diadem Issues Australian State Stamps

This is the third stamp issued by New South Wales while still a colony of Australia and this stamp has personally taught me a lot about forgeries, attention to detail and the beauty of Australian stamps. this was one of the larger sized stamps to come from the colonies and demonstrated artwork and elegance in its representation of Queen Victoria. It was a limited release and highly collected and a prized specimen in any collectors showcase.

The Diadem Issue depicts a profile image of Queen Victoria wearing a jewelled crown changing from the feathers depicted in the earlier issue. It is encircled with a New South Wales emblem and outlined by a hexagon. there are ornate embelishments around the edges.

Denomination

The stamp issue was released in 5d Green, 6d Grey, 6d Brown, 6d Green, 8d Orange and 1 Shilling Red. The 8d Orange is the prize of the issue with a catalogue value at the time of writing of $20,000 for an unused mint stamp and its used value at $2,750. This value is a guide only and relies on many things and can move either way depending on errors, quality of ink, margins etc.

The 5d green had only 5,500 printed in 1855 and in 1855 22,900 in May 1858. The greens come in many shades and this is what adds to its value, and also allows forgers to thrive (ask me how I know).

There were five printings of the 8d stamp: 11,000 in December 1855, 18,500 in April 1856, 5,000 in May 1858, 15,500 in June 1858 and 25,000 in January 1860. The first two printings are in a golden yellow shade, the fourth in a yellow-orange and the last in an orange tending to red-orange.

Imperforate and Perforate

The first stamps of issue from 1854 were imperforate, meaning they had to be cut by the post office workers. The quality of the cut and the margins left on the stamp add and detract from its value. Perforation was introduced in New South Wales on 1 February 1860. There were 18,500 imperf 5d stamps on hand on 31 January 1860, none of which were supplied to Queensland. It can be safely assumed that these were all perforated, gauge 11½-12. It is important to note that the passing of time and scanning differences will create variances in shades of these stamps.

There were 23,000 imperf 8d stamps on hand on 31 January 1860 and in April 1860 1,400 of these were sent to Queensland. The balance were perforated, gauge 11½-12. These are rarer than the imperfs. There are three shades listed in the Gibbons catalogue: lemon-yellow, orange and red-orange. Hutson explained the shade variations were due to the inconsistent printings, owing to the inequalities in the proportions of the pigments. An example in the orange shade (from the latest Status auction) is below.

Watermark

Watermarks became standard in the colony stamps after forgeries rose in the colonies and were used to verify the stamps and became quite helpful for the philatelists in later years. As there are so many forgeries of these stamps the watermark is one of the gold standards to determine authenticity.

There is much more detail to be known about these stamps. This article is a brief overview of the issue and a later post will outline some of the more detailed nuances and collectibility of this stamp in terms of errors, shades and more.