SG 103 1867, 3d rose, pl. 6

Great Britain, Victoria (1839-1901)

1867,  3 d. rose,plate 6, unused, short tags in south.

Surface Printed (or Typographed) British stamps were first produced in 1855, and this printing methodology was used for all the definitive postage stamps above the Two Pence denomination.  All of these surface printed stamps were produced by Thomas De La Rue & Co.

Stamps with "wing margins" occur on the watermarked garter series, the watermarked emblems series, and the watermarked spray of rose series.

On the surface printed series noted above, the sheets of stamps all have a wide gutter down the middle.  The center of the gutter is perforated vertically, so that the sheets can be separated into smaller panes for sale to the public.  When these sheets are torn into panes, the horizontally perforated area of the stamps adjoining the gutter are about 5 mm wider than the other stamps in the pane.  These stamps are called "wing margin" stamps.

A new Four Pence denomination stamp was issued in 1862.  This new design was printed on paper with WMK 23 -- the Large Garter watermark. This new design features four small, solid colored squares in the corners.  These squares contain what are called "check letters":

- The tiny check letters in the bottom squares indicate the location of the particular impression on the plate.  In mathematical terminology, these letters are the x-y coordinates of the stamp's position in the printed sheet.

- The lower-left-corner letter indicates the row the impression is on, and the lower-right-corner letter indicates the column the impression is located in.  The letters in the top squares are the same check letters, but in reverse order.

Also in 1862, the 6 P. and 1 S. denominations were re-designed with small check letter boxes in the corners, and new 3 P. and 9 P. denominations were added, also with small check letter containers in the corners.  All of these British stamps were printed on paper with WMK 24 -- the Heraldic Emblems watermark.

Riferimento : Stanley Gibbons 103

Fonte : https://www.stamp-collecting-world.com/b...

Collezione : XXVII Stamps