1858-1902 Perforate Issues South Australia State Stamp Pre-Federation
The 1858 Perforate Issues of South Australia were the most widely used of the State Stamps of Australia in terms of their denominations and longevity of printing. There were many other issues that overlapped these but were highly used, but are still highly collectible for variations of shade, perforation and more. This issue is divided into many categories in the catalogues but this article is an overview of the issues and more posts will become available regarding the specific stamps of this issue.
Denomination Issues
The stamps had a restricted denomination issue being 1d Green, 2d Red, 2d Orange, 6d Blue, 1 Shilling Orange, 1 Shilling Yellow, 1 Shilling Brown. The higher denominations were more commonly used for state revenue but there are examples of these on postage.
The perforation issues utilised the new trend of creating a perforation by serrating the edges of the stamps on the sheet, to make it easier for the stamps to be separated from the sheet by postal workers. As time went on, the perforation became smaller and more defined making it even easier to separate the stamps. The differences in the perforation make these very collectible and more valuable. The perforation itself can also help the collector date the stamp itself.
This issue continued with the profile picture of Queen Victoria wearing a jewelled crown and a small ponytail in her hair with a curl. These details are important, as is the structure of her chin, as in forgeries of these stamps (which there are plenty) these details are missed.
As with all stamps of this time, the colour dyes were not stable and several variations of colour exist for all issues. The variations in colour and integrity of the dyes used make them more collectible and more valuable and also aid in the precise aging of the stamps.
This post is an overview of the issue as there are many more details and changes to the profile of Queen Victoria throughout the issue as it lasted over a few years. A more detailed post will appear later in this blog.
