1860 The First State Stamp of Queensland Australia – Pre-Federation
Like the other states, Queensland followed with its own stamp, relfecting its own interests and values. the first stamp was an image of a young Queen Victoria surrounded by an emblem designating Queensland Australia.
It was printed in Red 1d, Blue 2d and Green 6d versions, imperforated so they had to be cut in sheets similar to other stamps around this time.
Queensland as a state had begun to form around 1857 with people moving into the territory for farming and agriculture, settlements rising on the Darwin and Brisbane rivers. As such the population held beliefs from their mother country and a strong sense of monarchy remained in the colony. Queensland formally separated from New South Wales in 1859 and its first stamps were locally printed by engraved plates supplied from London.
As with all early and first State stamps, numbers of printing are not known. Prices vary in the catalogues From $4,000-$6,000 for mint specimens with the whole set valued around $19,000. This will vary of course as all values for stamps do, some more rapidly than others.
The Red 1d is more accurately described in the catalogues as Carmine/Brown. This is a distinction of the tone of red and the quality of the ink that was available at the time, producing many specimens with deeper brown tones rather than true red. This is one of the many reasons it is highly collected as a time line can be built around the quality of the inks and colours of the specimens.
The Blue 2d is catalogued as Dark Blue and again the tones and shades vary greatly.
The Green 6d is catalogued as Dark Green but the dyes for both the blue and green were not stable for longevity and over time and exposure to the elemtns can be seen to be both bright and light shades of the true colour trying to be achieved at the time of printing.
Watermarks
Queensland printed their first stamps with a small star watermark that later became larger and known as the SG1 Watermark by philatelists.
Here are some examples of the types of specimens available illustrating the large variety of difference in shades.
