1913-1936 Watermarks of the Australian Commonwealth Federation Kangaroo and King George V Sideface Stamps

There were six watermarks used throughout the timeframe of 1913-1936 across both issues of the Kangaroo series and the King George V (KGV) issues. The watermarks were also found on other pre-decimal issues up until 1965 when decimal currency came to Australia. For this post, I will be concentrating on the watermarks for the Australian Commonwealth Kangaroos and KGV’s. The value of the watermarks for collectors is that it allows dating of the stamp. However there is some overlap of the watermarks themselves so you can’t just rely on the watermark to date a stamp but it is a great place to start.

Watermarks are formed in the wet pulp stage of papermaking by pressure rollers, which results in thinning of the paper.  It is this thinning that is apparent under a backlight, reflecting the image of the watermark.

TYPE 1

Large Crown on top of A. The crown has a flat top and few lines. This watermark was used on paper that horizontal mesh lines. It is colloqually known as First Watermark.

This watermark was used in the first issues of the Kangaroos throughout 1913-1915.

1914 saw this watermark appear on the first KGV issue which ran concurrently with the Kangaroo issue for a period of time. The engraved issues of the KGV series, including the Kookaburra brown 6d of 1913-1914 did not have watermarks.

TYPE 2

Diagonal Crown with Cross on top of A. This watermark can be found on vertical mess paper. It is known as Second Watermark.

This watermark was used in the 1915 issue of the Kangaroo series.

TYPE 3

Thing crown which is more cylinidrcal in shape.on top of A. This is found on vertical mesh paper and is known as the Third Watermark.

This watermark appeared in 1915 Kangaroo issue and was used on these until 1924.

TYPE 4

Large multiple smaller crowns found in the second watermark. This is known as large multi.

This watermark was used for the KGV issues of 1918-1924 and is not seen in the Kangaroo issues at all.

TYPE 5

Smaller multipe watermark using singlar crowns of new shape with an A in the middle repeated across the paper. This is known as the small multi.

This watermark was used in the KGV issues of 1926-1930, including the surcharge issues.

The small multi was introduced in 1929-1930 Kangaroo issues.

TYPE 6

This watermark adds C of A onto the small multi watermark for Commonwealth of Australia. It is known as the C of A watermark.

The KGV used the C of A watermark across many denominations of the 1931-1936 issues. It crossed over timelines with the Kangaroo issue.

This watermark appears in the kangaroo issues of 1932-1945.

There were many other issues that coincided with these stamps through 1914-1966 and these will be addressed in other posts.

How Do You Tell What Watermark Is On A Stamp?

There are many ways to find the watermarks on stamps. The easiest but sometimes most inaccurate method is holding it up to the light. This can be inaccurate because of the density of the paper which does not always allow for the watermark to be seen this way. My favourite method is to soak the stamp in a small amount of lighter fluid in a shallow tray which doesn’t hurt the stamp and reveals the watermark very accurately. The stamp will dry out unharmed with a few waves in the air being held by tweezers.

There are a number of ultraviolet lights and microscopes with light accessories that will also reveal watermarks extremely accurately and clearly but these are more expensive ways to reveal the information.

Dating A Stamp

As mentioned above, because there is overlap with issues, using the watermark to date is a stamp, or its use, is not a perfect science. Some stamps may have been kept for years so although issued in 1913 for example, it may not have been posted until 1918. So you may have a cover dated 1918 but the stamps watermark will reveal its true age. This is where the ultraviolet light and microscope methods come in handy to determine the true age or date of issue of a stamp.

Manually identifying a stamp is trickier, but you can start with the watermark and then work back from there if the stamp has been used or date stamped on a cover. Mint stamps are the easiest to identify using the watermark as it is a clean record of the date of issue (within range of years at least) but is still not definitive when watermark use spans a number of years.

DISCUSSION

There are many errors that occur on stamps due to the watermark placements and these errors can make the stamp more collectible and hence more valuable.

The 1915 KGV release had irregularly placed watermarks as the paper was designed for horizontal designs rather than the vertical sideface, and also occurs in the Kangaroo release for the same reason. The 1924 KGV’s had barely distinguishable watermarks due to the semi-transparent nature of the paper used in the printing. In the 1926-1930 there were printing errors which allowed for part of the sheets to be unwatermarked. There is also a series of KGV where the watermarks appear sideways on the stamps and these are highly collected.