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This article has been adapted from two pieces published in the Revenue Journal during 2006. In the first of these, published in June, I looked at various anomalies in UK adhesive Revenue stamp production that could be found accompanying the change of reigns. I highlighted two kinds of anomaly in particular: the ongoing issue of stamps of the previous reign into the years of the new reign (“extended pregnancies”); and the use of stamps with e.g. the inks, heads etc of the new reign on paper specifically associated with the preceding reign (“premature births”). I started in 1901, with the death of Queen Victoria and the accession of King Edward VII, since at the time of the previous reign-change in 1837 adhesive stamps of any kind had not yet been invented, and between 1837 and 1901 the sole monarch was Queen Victoria. In the second, published in December, I was concerned with a set of highly similar anomalies which occurred on at least one occasion in the course of that long reign, and which are perhaps less easy to spot precisely because there is no change of monarch. In this adapted version I propose to begin with Queen Victoria and then move on to later monarchs.

1. The 1880-81 “Revolution” as a Foretaste of Reign-Change

In fact, during the QV period there were three “revolutions” in the design and production of adhesive Revenue stamps. The first was the introduction in 1866 of the “Revenue head” of the Queen taken from a bust by the sculptor William Theed the Younger. The second was the introduction in 1872-73 of a three-tier set of unappropriated dies referred to for brevity’s sake as the “Key Types”. The third, which concerns us here, was far harder to pin down, but centred round the winning by De La Rue of the Consolidated Contract in March 1880, and the requirement the following year for a “Unified Series” - Postage and Revenue together. These two developments provided an opportunity to cut costs dramatically by means of simplification and standardisation; which of course meant changes, and their concomitant anomalies.

There were four main areas of simplification: perforation; paper and watermarks; inks; and - perhaps most noticeable to users - the replacement of a three-colour Key Type system by a system which used two colours only.[1]

· Perforation. Post-1881, all stamps irrespective of size or format were perforated 14 (actually 13.75). This change involved only the “large square” stamps - certain Postage and Telegraphs values were likewise affected - used for Companies Registration, Inland Revenue and Ireland Petty Sessions, which had previously been perforated 15½ x 15 or, for a recent printing of Companies Registration, 12½.[2]

· Paper: watermarks. The simplification here was also impressive. Eleven pre-1881 watermarks were reduced to three (or five if we treat one and two Orbs separately and include the Postage-only Imperial Crown): one Orb for the small Inland Revenue 1d, the Irish Dog License stamps and the Key Types pence-tier, replacing 14mm Anchor, Shamrock and Garter; two Orbs for Judicature Fees and the Key Types pounds-tier, replacing Scales; Script VR for all values of Foreign Bill and for the Key Types shillings-tier, replacing Small Block VR; and 20mm Anchor for the “large square” stamps listed above, replacing Ship, 18mm Anchor and “no watermark”.

· Inks. De La Rue had long been concerned with, even obsessed by, the development and use of fugitive inks for their Revenue stamps: inks which would run or blur at any attempt to remove cancellations by water or chemicals, and in this way protect against illegal re-use. By the onset of the 1870s they had determined that the two most suitable ink-colours for this purpose would be a spectrum of lilac through purple to violet, and some kind of green. These inks were used for the revised “small” Foreign Bill series from 1872, and for the first Key Types, printed between 1872 and 1875. The pounds were reddish violet, the shillings dull (grey) green and the pence were lilac. This gave rise to a clearly-visible tripartite colour system, with a different colour for each value-tier. These colours seemed to work well; but De La Rue weren’t completely satisfied, and when a new overprint system was introduced for Key Type 2 in 1875, the composition of the inks for the pounds and shilling tiers was also changed, and highly soluble varieties of these colours replaced the originals [2a]. The difference between the soluble and non-soluble versions of these two colours is one of the best ways of distinguishing between the second and first Key Types: especially with the £5 and 10s values whose overprint colour stayed the same, where two printings are not recognised in the catalogues.[3] This change was also applied to some of the lilacs and purples used in Chancery Court, Common Law Courts, Companies Registration, Foreign Bill and the “own type” Judicature Fees from 1876. For the first three of these appropriations the change is noted by Gilbert & Koehler and the FPSC, which both list an 1875 issue in which “violet” or “purple” is replaced by “violet vif” or “violet”: the FPSC also notes the change in Foreign Bill, but doesn’t date it. It is Booth who uses the term “soluble ink” in his (D) series of Chancery Court, in his (A) series of Common Law Courts, and in Companies Registration, in all cases linking it with “deep” or “bright” reddish violet (though never offering precise dates): with Foreign Bill he notes that “doubly fugitive ink”, a term used for a regular variety of both violet pounds and green shillings in his 1872-81 listing, contains “an exceedingly soluble blue ingredient”.

The soluble inks, however, were not an immense success. Both colours were subject to unacceptable levels of rubbing, and in addition the blue-greens had a marked tendency to undergo colour-shifts of various kinds, ranging from turquoise to cobalt blue.

1875-80. Examples of extreme “blue-shifting” in the shillings tier

So De La Rue’s chemists were sent back to their laboratories, and the third major change made in 1880-81 was to introduce different kinds of ink: still doubly fugitive, but with much lighter “non-rubbing” shades of reddish lilac and dull, sometimes yellowish green replacing the soluble reddish violets and blue-greens of the preceding period.

· A revised Key Type colour system. Finally, with the Key Types and Judicature Fees (and less noticeably with Foreign Bill), the new reddish lilac of the pounds was changed so as to become effectively identical to the colour of the pence, which didn’t change. This brought about a new perception of the Key Type system: though still tripartite as regards stamp size, in the very visible area of colour it changed from A (pounds - violet) : B (shillings - green) : C (pence - lilac) to C (pounds – lilac): B (shillings - green) : C (pence – lilac). The resulting two-colour system (with some subsequent changes in the actual colours used) remained in use from 1881 to 1985.

Such a concatenation of innovations - in perforations, watermarks and colours - did not occur often. The closest parallel is probably to be found in the intermingled changeovers of printer and monarch between 1910 and 1920, so it is hardly surprising to find “anomalies” of the kind we have associated with twentieth-century reign-changes. But before we look at these anomalies, let’s make sure that we can recognise the differences between “1872-1875”, “1875-1880” and “after 1881”. Perforation presents no difficulty at all, of course, and the watermarks are comparatively easy to recognise (though distinguishing between the 18mm and the 20mm Anchor can cause a headache or two); but the colours can indeed be problematic, particularly if you rely too heavily on the often misleading colour-descriptions in the catalogues. The heart of the matter is this: for each major colour, one type of ink was used in the early 1870s, another type (soluble) in 1875-1880, and a third and very different type after 1881. It doesn’t greatly concern me what label is used to describe each type of ink, as long as the differences, and the nature of the differences, are seen and appreciated. Following Booth, I shall use these general terms:

· 1872-1875 (“before”): (reddish) violet and dull (grey-) green

· 1875-1880 (“immediately before”): soluble reddish violet and soluble dull blue-green

· 1881 and after (“after”): reddish lilac and dull (yellowish) green.

These differences should become apparent from the following colour check-list.[4]

“Before” and “After”: A Colour Check-list

(Ireland Petty Sessions: 1875-1880) Ireland Petty Sessions: After

[blank]

perf 15½ x 15, no watermark perf 14, wmk Anchor 20mm

(1875: violet blue) 1881: reddish lilac

(Ireland Dog Licence: 1865-1881) Ireland Dog Licence: After

wmk Shamrock wmk Orb sideways

(1865: pale reddish violet) 1882: reddish lilac

Companies Registration: Before Companies Registration: After

perf 15½ x 15 wmk Ship perf 15½ x 15 (1866: dull reddish lilac) 1875: soluble reddish violet

perf 14, wmk Anchor 20mm

1881: reddish lilac

Foreign Bill: Before Foreign Bill: After

1872: reddish violet 1875: soluble reddish violet 1881: reddish lilac

1872: dull grey-green 1875: soluble dull blue-green 1881: dull yellowish green

wmk Block VR wmk Script VR

Key Types: Before Key Types: After

1872: (reddish) violet 1878: soluble reddish violet 1882: reddish lilac

wmk Scales wmk 2 Orbs

1872: dull (grey-) green 1879: soluble dull blue-green 1881: dull yellowish green

wmk Block VR wmk Script VR

Judicature Fees: Before Judicature Fees: After

1876: soluble reddish violet 1881: reddish lilac

1876: soluble dull bluish green 1881: dull (yellowish) green

wmk Scales wmk 2 Orbs

The 1880 “anomalies”: perforations and watermarks

First, though not exactly an anomaly, we might note that it was only in October 1880 that the Inland Revenue “penny purple” was first registered on the new Orb paper, living out its brief life before being replaced by the 14-dot “Postage and Inland Revenue” 1d lilac in July 1881. But the major anomalies in this category are the Inland Revenue “perf 14 watermark 18mm Anchor” and the “perf 14 no watermark” issue of Ireland Petty Sessions:

Inland Revenue

1867 – 1880 1880 1881 - 1883

Perforation 15½ x 15 Perforation 14 → Perforation 14

Watermark Anchor 18 mm ← Watermark Anchor 18 mm Watermark Anchor 20 mm

Ireland Petty Sessions

1861 – 1880 1880 1881 – 1902

[blank] [blank]

Perforation 15½ x 15 Perforation 14 → Perforation 14

No watermark ← No watermark Watermark Anchor 20 mm

The new perforation arrangement for the “large square” stamps was the first of the innovations to be introduced, along perhaps with the new inks. Thus, where there was a constant demand for stamps, we find small printings on the old paper (= old watermarks: Anchor 18mm, no watermark) but with the new perforations (perf 14): “premature births”, as I have called them.

The 1880 “anomalies”: ink-colours and watermarks

But the other anomalies involve principally the colours: the inks; and this is where the check-list should come in useful. The catalogues don’t list an 1880 issue as such, with new colours on old paper, anymore than they pay special attention to the “new perfs on old paper” issue described above. But the new inks were ready before the new paper. With careful hunting, evidence of this can be found in Booth; but I suspect there are more issues still to be found than are listed there.

In Foreign Bill we have one of the appropriations where the existence of an anomaly is recognised, albeit implicitly. In the Booth 1872 entry under £1 we find, “190(e) pale dull reddish lilac reg. 21.1.81”: the date, at least, is explicit. This stamp has a Block VR watermark; yet it is virtually identical in all other respects to the 1881 £1 variety with a Script VR watermark (which also uses a new QV head die).

wmk Block VR wmk Script VR

Booth 190 Booth 190(e) Booth 207 (shade)

And if this anomaly exists, one might look for others in the same area. Now a reader might well object, “In 1881 the whole design of the shillings-tier is new, so a different ink is no cause for surprise.” But as far as we are concerned here, the difference in design is irrelevant to the ink question. If you look again at the Booth entry for the 1872-81 series, you see that each shillings-tier entry lists “(b) dull blue green” and then “(d) dull yellowish green”. This second colour isn’t dated; but it’s strongly reminiscent of the first listing for each of the 1881 series: “pale yellowish green (shades)”. And in my own collection I’ve observed that wherever it is possible to identify a date for my “1872 dull yellowish greens”, this turns out to be 1880 or 1881, and the stamps are almost identical in shade to the earliest stamps in the 1881 issue.

wmk Block VR wmk Block VR wmk Script VR

Booth 189(b) Booth 185(d) Booth188(d) Booth 189(d) Booth 206

So I feel we can say that with these much-in-demand stamps the new inks - reddish lilac and dull yellowish green – were put to use before the paper, and even the designs, which they were to accompany were ready: a “premature birth” of the post-1881 era.

Next we come to the Key Types. Let us begin with the pounds-tier. The full list of appropriations given by Booth (and, in part, by other early catalogues) with 1880- or early 1881-issued “anomalies” - stamps in “post-1881” colours (reddish lilac) but with “pre-1880” watermarks (Scales) - is as follows: Bankruptcy (£1, £5), County Courts Ireland (£1), District Audit (£2), Judicature Fees (£2, £5), Judicature Ireland (£1) and Land Registry (£1).[5] These anomalies are not emphasised, but the difference is clear.

wmk Scales wmk 2 Orbs

(Booth 11) Booth 10(a) Booth 24

But again I believe it’s possible to find similar if less explicit anomalies in the shillings-tier. Thus while we find both the reddish lilac pounds shown above listed in Booth, no pale yellowish green 2s6d with wmk Block VR (shown below) is listed; but Booth does list a 2s pale yellowish green (Booth 6(a), no date given) with the Block VR watermark. Booth 21 is listed as a dull green 2/6, watermark Script VR, registered as late 1888; it makes sense to imagine, though, that the again-unlisted pale yellowish green 2s6d with wmk Script VR, also shown below, was issued earlier.

wmk Block VR wmk Script VR

(Booth 7) cf. Booth 6(a) cf. Booth 21

The other appropriations mentioned above don’t yield any “(dull) yellowish greens”, but that’s not to say these don’t exist. I doubt whether Booth’s Judicature Ireland 6(a) and my 2s6d pale yellowish green are the only Key Types shillings-tier “premature births”.

Our remaining category is the Judicature Fees “own type” series. Booth’s treatment of the 1876 £1 is unclear - a case, I would assume, of typographical confusion; but a reddish lilac version with Scales watermark did come out in 1880-81, as attested by Gilbert & Koehler, the FPSC and Forbin. And a trawl through Booth’s 1876 shillings-tier gives a 1s (Booth 18(b)), a 3s and a 5s, undated, with Scales watermark but in “yellowish green”, to which I can add a yellowish-green 2s. All of these stand comparison with the earliest 1881 “yellowish greens”, e.g. Booth 33(b), with the 2 Orbs watermark.

wmk Scales wmk Scales

Booth 19 Booth 18(b)

wmk Scales wmk (inv) 2 Orbs

cf. Booth 22(a),23(a) Booth 33(b)

My evidence may not be excessive, but as on later occasions the “anomalies” are just that: anomalies - exceptions, not rules - and, if properly recognised and catalogued, should command higher prices than their “normal” counterparts. I hope I have uncovered enough 1880-81 “premature births” to persuade readers that they did exist, and that it’s worth looking for more examples as yet undiscovered.

2. Some Epiphenomena of Reign-Change

To UK Postage collectors, a philatelic reign begins almost immediately after the death of the preceding monarch. The first stamps of the new reign are usually issued soon after the new monarch’s accession, with some appearing even before his or her coronation; and with almost no exceptions, none is issued after that monarch’s death. The same does not hold for Revenue stamps, however. In fact, it is appropriate to think in terms of “fiscal philatelic reigns”, which are often rather fluid entities. For example, different values - or indeed value-tiers - in a given series may be issued on widely separated dates. Now this can happen with Postage too; but sometimes there are other anomalies in the transition - irregularities which we might perhaps liken to “extended pregnancies” from the previous reign, or “premature births” from the reign to come. These require from the collector some degree of flexibility of thought in regard to his understanding of the concept “reign”.

The first new reign of the twentieth century was that of KEVII (acceded January 1901), and it began well in “fiscal philatelic” terms. New Revenue Key Types, based on the designs first issued in 1894-95, had been prepared in advance, and most of them were issued in 1902. Although the design of the stamps (apart from the £1.10s, £2.10s and £10) was totally different, and the watermark for the shillings-tier became Script IR (shown below) instead of Script VR, there were no other changes: the sizes, the perforations, the pounds- and pence-tier watermarks, the stamp colours, even the appropriation-overprint colours remained the same. And all non-Key Type appropriations (apart from the Irish Dog stamps) - Companies Registration, Foreign Bill, Ireland Petty Sessions and Judicature Fees - were painlessly added to the Key Type family.

Perf 14; wmks: 2 Orbs Script VR Orb (Anchor 20mm)

Perf: 14; wmks: 2 Orbs Script IR Orb

1902. Minimal changes.

The only anomaly here was two restricted-distribution QV values⁶, £3 and £10 for House of Lords, which were issued in April 1902 - pregnancies extended, so to speak, into the Edwardian era. They might, whimsically perhaps, be considered as the “first KEVII Key Type”. These were not replaced until June 1903 and June 1904 respectively - presumably when the QV supplies were exhausted and/or the printers had time to “get round” to them.

1902. The Script IR Watermark 1902. The First KEVII Key Type?

But this was to be the last occasion until the accession of QEII when the handover went so smoothly, and indeed the transition between KEVII and KGV (acceded May 1910) was probably the most confusing and complex of all.

In 1910, not only did a new king (George V) accede to the throne, but also, De La Rue lost the contract for printing UK stamps - Postage and Revenue - which had been its virtual monopoly for the previous thirty years. The postage stamp contract was won by Harrison & Sons, while the Stamp Office at Somerset House took over the printing of Revenue stamps (as well, initially, as some of the postage). When they went, De La Rue took their inks with them - and their detailed records. A study of Key Type printings between 1910 and 1914-15, which must depend on cancellations and use-dates rather than registration dates, indicates the instability of the Stamp Office’s inks. We find the original (reddish) lilacs giving way to a strange array of purples: reddish purple, plum, deep purple, dull purple, brown-purple, purple-brown. There is a similarly wide range of greens. The “heavy” printings also seem to date to this period, though it isn’t possible to be certain. But colour certainly became a problem.

(1907) 1910 – c. 1915. Excessive variation in colour after the change of printer

(illustrated from Foreign Bill and Contract Note)

A solution would have to be found. But the instability of the inks, particularly the lilacs/purples, wasn’t the only problem. There was also the matter of a new perforation-gauge for the pence-tier - perf 15 x 14 had been introduced as the new standard for postage by Harrisons in September 1911 - and the whole vexing question of the design of the stamps for the new reign. The Inland Revenue authorities decided to solve the first two problems together. From about 1904 De La Rue had been experimenting with chalk-surfaced paper as an alternative to the doubly-fugitive inks which were now causing so many difficulties. So the first change was to introduce perf 15 x 14 for the pence-tier[7], and at the same time to print these stamps on chalk-surfaced paper in a new, non-fugitive colour: claret. The same colour was gradually introduced for the pounds-tier and Contract Note shillings-tier as well, while the standard shillings began to be printed in a new, stable shade of brown-olive - also non-fugitive, also on chalky paper. (A further reason for the colour-change after 1914 was probably the loss, due to the war, of certain aniline dies imported from Germany.) By 1915, the whole appearance of the Revenue Key Types had changed.

1910-15: perf 14 perf 14 perf 14

1915-20: perf 14 perf 14 x 13¾ perf 15 x 14

c.1910-20. The colour and perforation changes

These changes were initially carried out, five years into the reign of KGV, on KEVII stamps, though obviously with an eye to the future: a multiple extended pregnancy. But a crucial question remained, concerning the design of the stamps, and in particular the new King’s head. Should the pattern of designs established for the previous reign be continued, or should something new be devised? And if the former, which head was to be used? The first head proposed for Postage, from photographs by the Downeys, was swiftly rejected by the public, and various KEVII Postage values were reprinted in 1911-13 by the Stamping Office at Somerset House to fill the gap. A new head by Mackennal from coins and medals was finally selected for Postage in 1912-13, but for Revenue the dithering continued.

1911-12. The Downey and Mackennal Heads for Postage

The Post Office Savings Bank receipt stamp, printed with a Downey head by De La Rue (who otherwise never used it) was issued in January 1912. Later that year, however, the new National Health Insurance and Unemployment Insurance series printed by Waterlows bore only a crown (with in the second case the letters GR and a sailing-ship), with no head at all. In 1915 the Additional Medicine Duty stamps were overprinted Postage stamps (Harrisons) with the Mackennal head. In 1916, likewise printed by Harrisons, the Excise Revenue series again bore only a crown.

1912-16. Non-Key Type Revenue Issues

Of course it could be maintained that these new issues were for different issuing authorities - apart from Additional Medicine Duty, which was certainly the responsibility of the Inland Revenue. But the requirement, also in 1916, for adhesive stamps for the collection of Income Tax brought matters to a head. And so we come to the Income Tax issue a little later in the same year.

These stamps are noteworthy in several respects: designs, watermark and colours. They were clearly Inland Revenue stamps, and they embodied the solution to the design problem: as is shown below, the penny values at least used the existing KEVII Key Type designs with a version of the Mackennal head replacing that of KEVII. (The Inland Revenue files in the Public Record Office contain examples of trials conducted using KEVII blanks from both pence and shilling tiers; Booth mentions only the colour trials with the KEVII 5s.) They also employed a new watermark - Multiple I Orb R, on Wiggins Teape paper - which went on to become the Revenue Key Type standard watermark for the next 69 years. But since these stamps were intended to be stuck onto a card by the taxpayers themselves, in two respects they need not or could not resemble the Key Types too closely. First, the manner of their use (on completion, the whole card would be passed to the Tax Collector to be recorded and then destroyed) obviated the need for the (doubly) fugitive inks used for standard Revenue stamps, and so a variety of user-friendly colours replaced the monotonous deep purples or dull mauves and greens of the ordinary Key Types. (The penny stamp was the familiar scarlet, though the other values diverged totally from the Postage norms.)

1916. The Income Tax pence-tier, their KEVII templates and the MIOR watermark

And second, it wouldn’t do to have different sizes for different value-tiers: something new had to be found for the shillings. The solution was to take the design of the least well-known Key Type pence value, the 8d (used up till then only for Bankruptcy), and adapt it - with not one, but three adaptations. As can be seen, the design-version used for the 5s (and also the 2s, 4s and 10s) is the closest to the original, with the King’s head on a white ground. A wheatsheaf-cum-halberd device replaces the words EIGHT and PENCE, while the figures, now on a solid ground, lose their shadows. The 3s and both versions of the 1s, however, use a different head on a dark ground. The crown appears somewhat larger, and geometrical designs have been substituted for the device. Finally, on the version of the 1s shown here, the words INCOME TAX are not an overprint, but have been printed integrally to the stamp.[8] The first Income Tax issue, between April and June 1916, used tall, thick lettering for the appropriation-overprint; subsequent issues (from July 1916 on) used shorter and wider lettering.

1916. The three adaptations of the 8d used for the Income Tax shillings-tier

Most of these innovations led nowhere; but once the decision had been taken to use the Mackennal head in the established Key Type formats on MIOR-watermark paper, the process could gradually spread to the other Key Type value-tiers. According to the IR files, the first values printed on MIOR paper (slightly more olive-grey or sage-green than the pale brown-olive of the preceding issue) were the 5s, 2/6 and 4s between March and May 1916 - all with the head of KEVII. Now, though, the new paper could quickly be made available for standard Key Type pence values with the head of KGV, since the plates for these had been created for Income Tax: this is the reason why there are no examples of pence-tier values with a KEVII head on MIOR paper. But let’s not forget we’re dealing with Revenue stamps. This means: slow and sure and minimise waste. There was still a lot of Orb paper about, and that had to be used up first. What’s more, the MIOR paper apparently came in two sizes (for shillings and pence?). In fact the IR files speak of two kinds of MIOR paper, with a minute difference in sheet-size: “Standard MIOR paper 22½ x 22¾ inches; Income Tax MIOR paper 22 x 22¾ inches.” So while the new and differently-sized MIOR paper was being obtained, it made sense to produce a few compromise issues - premature births, as one might say - of KGV heads on Orb paper (see below). In addition to these two, examples are known from at least a further seven appropriations. The first example of a KGV head on a Key Type pence-tier stamp on MIOR paper is for a Land Registry 6d registered in December 1916; the last known use of a KGV head on a Key Type pence-tier stamp on Orb paper is for a Consular Service 6d registered in December 1917.

We have seen a kind of “extended pregnancy” already in the KEVII colour-shift series. These are more easily considered as KEVII than KGV in that their issue antedated the new MIOR paper; but their dates are wholly within the KGV period, and their colours match the later KGV colours extremely closely, while being worlds apart from earlier KEVII colours. But the metaphor can unarguably be applied to the next issue (see below): the MIOR watermark, the sage-green colour of the shillings and the (dull) claret of the pounds almost exactly match those of the first “proper” KGV-head issues. As with the pence, time had to be allowed for the earlier Script IR and Two Orbs paper to be used up, and for the new shilling- and pound-tier plates to be created. These processes took slightly longer - a good bit longer for the pounds. Although shilling and pound values with a MIOR watermark and the KEVII head are known from 1916, the first examples of a KGV head on a Key Type shilling-tier stamp on MIOR paper are the Judicature Ireland 1/6 and 2/6 registered in February 1917, while the first example of a KGV head on a Key Type pound-tier stamp on MIOR paper only appears on a Consular Service £1 registered in May 1920.[9] Furthermore, as with the QV £10 discussed above, less-used values took far longer to use up than commoner ones - indeed, we have a KEVII Foreign Bill £50 with watermark 2 Orbs being registered as late as December 1921, virtually simultaneously with its KGV successor - and KEVII pounds-tier stamps of either watermark are in regular use into the early 1920s. Meanwhile the KEVII-head stamps served as stop-gaps; extended pregnancies from the Edwardian age into Georgian times. For example, the compulsory use of passports wasn’t imposed until 1916 - after the transition to MIOR paper, but six months or so before the arrival of the KGV head on shillings-tier paper. And perhaps the most dramatic extended pregnancy is that shown below (not in any catalogue; wmk Script IR, base-plate from 1902/1910 made for Ireland Petty Sessions), where King Edward apparently reigns over a Province that won’t even exist until November 1921 - eleven years after his death.[10]

                                            watermark MIOR                            (wmk Script IR)                             watermark Orb

1916-20. The First KGV Key Types? The Last KEVII Key Types?

                  perf 14 x 15                                perf 14¾ x 13¾                                                    perf 15 x 14

   watermark MIOR

1917-21. Early Period KGV Key Types

King George V’s “fiscal philatelic reign”, then, began during one World War, and was destined to end shortly after the next. No doubt owing to the usual oversupply of earlier KGV printings - not to mention the hiccup of the intervening brief reign and reluctant abdication of KEVIII - there was no hurry to devise and print new Key Types with the head of KGVI (acceded December 1936)^{[11]
[13]}, and the outbreak of war in 1939 put even more of a brake on the process.

1937-39. The Dulac Head for Postage and its Adaptation for the Key Type Dies

The issue of KGVI stamps began (slowly) in 1946, using the same frame-designs, inks and watermarks as for KGV - in all respects except one. Up till then, the MIOR watermark on all pound-tier stamps, both KEVII and KGV, had been applied sideways. Now, it was decided to bring the pounds into line with the shillings and the pence and apply the watermark vertically. But of course there was still some of the “sideways-watermark” paper about; so while the new paper was being obtained, it made sense to produce a few compromise issues - premature births, so to speak - of KGVI heads on sideways-watermarked paper.

1947. Watermark sideways: the last KGV Key Type?

During the war, nearly all needs could be met by reprints of KGV stamps; but two new appropriations were created: first, Travel Permit, and a little later, Travel Identity Card. These were receipt-stamps for the fees payable on wartime documents required for travel to Ireland and Northern Ireland. Since no printings with the KGVI head had yet been made, these perforce used the KGV head. In the case of the second, issued very near the end of the war, there wasn’t long to wait, and the reprint with the KGVI head followed almost immediately. The same occurred with the Passport 8s and 10s with red overprint: intended as new, post-war values, again the very first issue was obliged to use the KGV head, albeit for a brief time only. The stamps shown below, then, are “extended pregnancies” from KGV to KGVI. A final member of this group is also shown. A new £2 value was needed for Contract Note soon after the war in 1947. But as earlier, the creation of new pounds-tier plates with the KGVI head took longer than other values, and so as a stop-gap measure the first post-war Contract Note £2 was issued on KGV stock.^[12]

1945-47. The First KGVI Key Types?

With the KGV to KGVI transition, we come to the end of our established anomalies. But what caused the delay of seven years between the accession of QEII (February 1952) and the appearance of the first QEII Key Type issues in 1959? This may perhaps be ascribed to the fact that already the use of Revenue stamps was in decline, and in consequence there was an unprecedentedly large supply of KGVI Key Types still available in 1952. But equally, there may once again have been problems concerning the choice of monarch’s head. After 40-odd years of full profile views, Postage had opted once again for a three-quarter profile view, based on (and actually using) a photograph by Dorothy Wilding and similar in style to that employed for the reviled Downey head. This time, however, the public greeted the new head with affection rather than disdain. Furthermore, it fitted in well with Harrison’s photogravure printing technique.

1952. The Wilding Head for Postage 1953-55. The Pre-printed Profile Head

But the adoption of this technique for the Revenue Key Types, traditionally printed in typography, would have been too expensive (not to say revolutionary). The Inland Revenue files reveal that in the end a head was chosen that had been selected by the Post Office for its pre-printed Air Mail and other stationery - a choice later criticised by the Deputy Director of Stamping, who wrote in a memo of 1967: “The present [Key Type head] was taken from the Air Mail stamps with little regard for any likeness”. What the files do not reveal is how long it took to decide to use the “Air Mail head” for the Key Types. (Plate proofs are known only from 1958.) Was this itself an “epiphenomenon of reign-change?”

Be that as it may, the Key Types survived. But I shall mention here as a coda one little-discussed aspect of the QEII pre-decimal Key Types. From 1947 on, problems arose again with ink-colours, though this time only in the shillings-tier. Why, I don’t know. From 1934 to at least the late 1950s the Key Types were printed by HMSO[13], but their records are silent on this matter. It is well known, however, that the KGVI shillings-tier, usually referred to as “green”, in fact contained stamps in a wide range of “sub-green” colours from true green, through pale greens and pale olives to various pale shades of bistre, yellow-ochre and, in Northern Ireland at least, orange. No comparative dating has been done, but it seems that the paler bistre-type shades belong to the mid- to late 1950s. Now the first QEII issues begin to appear in 1959, and though most of the shillings seem once again to be green, I have also come across some QEII varieties (mentioned by Booth in a footnote) which remind me forcibly of the later KGVI “sub-green” shades. So even if in both reigns it’s all a case of ink-fade or colour changelings - has anyone seen a mint “sub-green” stamp? - we could still have here an example of either an “extended pregnancy” in the KGVI stamps, or a “premature birth” in those of QEII.

1947-59. Extended pregnancy, premature birth - or something else?

NOTES

[1] A further change, in the size of the sheets on which the stamps were printed, and the number of stamps on each, is beyond the scope of this article.

[2] I was tempted to include the 12½ printing among the “anomalies”, but the catalogues are at odds here. Booth (and Barefoot) list this perforation variety for all five stamps in the series, but Booth gives no clear date for this specific variety. Barefoot (unthinkingly, as I would suppose) gives 1867. Lundy doesn’t mention it at all. Gilbert & Koehler, the FPSC and Forbin list only the 4d and 1s with perf 12½ (and I myself possess only these); but Forbin dates them to 1867, G & K - as I believe, correctly - to 1875 and the FPSC, impossibly, to 1881!

[2a] In an article published in The GB Journal in 1986 (Vol 24 No 2), the late Marcus Samuel wrote: “The earliest reference to these inks so far seen by the writer is dated 17 February 1874. On this day Ormond Hill [for the Board of Commissioners of Inland Revenue] had written to De La Rue & Co, “I have brought before the Board the specimens with which you furnished me of printing in doubly fugitive inks …. and the Board has decided that these inks shall be adopted in the preparation of all the adhesive stamps printed by you, excepting the Postage and Penny Inland Revenue stamps. …. Please to carry out the change as soon as practicable and inform me when you commence printing in the new inks.”

[3] This doesn’t work for the lilac 3d, which likewise had a substantially unchanged overprint colour, but at least for some appropriations there are other differences: see the Revenue Journal, December 2005, p 100.

[4] The original colour of the Ireland Petty Sessions 2/6 was a kind of pale dull violet, that of the 2s Dog Stamp a pale reddish violet, and neither went through the “highly soluble” phase. The original colour of all Companies Registration values (as also with many of the Chancery Court and Common Law Court issues) was deep or dull (reddish) lilac, which changed to soluble reddish violet c.1875. All became reddish lilac after 1881.

[5] Booth also lists a Copyhold Etc Commission variant, 18(a), described as reddish lilac with a Scales watermark, but he gives no date for it.

[6] These two values were required only for House of Lords and Consular Service.

[7] The changes in the perforation-gauge used for the shillings and pounds is more complex. At an unknown date between 1902 and 1914, shillings had gone from 14 x 14 to 14 x 13¾. With the first KGV-head shilling issue in 1917, this changed again to 14¾ x 13¾, while from May 1920 the KGV-head pound stamps changed from 14 x 14 to 14 x 15. Neither size of stamp, by the way, was used for Postage.

[8] The Income Tax 1s was also the first UK stamp since the Penny Black of 1840 to use the colour black: presumably because it wasn’t intended to be franked.

[9] The colour originally used for the KGV pence- and pound-tiers was dull claret. It seems that in about 1920 a dull purple ink also emerged, somewhat resembling the KEVII purple, and in 1920-21 pound-tier stamps in particular were registered in both colours within days of each other. This “competition” can be seen in the Isle of Man pair below, where the claret 6d can be dated to 1920-21 by its perforation of 14 x 14. The Southern Ireland issues are also good for dating, since they were legally valid for less than a year in 1920-21. For some time both colours were in use, but gradually the dull claret prevailed, and remained in use for the KGVI and QEII issues.

^[10] Another example would be the KEVII Consular Service 8s, listed only by Booth, who dates it to 1921. I cannot discover for sure what watermark this stamp would have had, though I suspect it was MIOR. The design dated back to 1910, but only for purple/claret Contract Note issues: this was a green stamp. Conversely in the case of the Petty Sessions N Ireland 2/6 purple: the design here went back to 1902, but only for green stamps, since neither Contract Note nor Inland Revenue (which used purple/claret for all values) required a 2/6 value. Barefoot does list a KEVII Contract Note N Ireland 3s, dating it to - 1910!

^[11] It had obviously been decided earlier to retain the existing design frameworks; the decision to use a typo version of the Harrison / Dulac head from Postage will have followed automatically.

^[12] The latest known registration date for any KGV stamp is June 1950: £5, £10 and £20 claret overprinted 100, 200 and 400 RUPEES respectively for the Trucial States’ Court Fees.

[13] I have recently come across evidence that dies and plate-blocks for the whole KGVI Key Type series were produced by the Royal Mint in 1938-41, and again for at least the QEII non-decimal Key Type values of 4d, 2s6d, 10s and £1.2s6d in 1958-69; but as far as I know the Mint wasn't involved in the actual printing of the stamps.

January 2007