ND Home > ND Libraries > Spec. Coll. > Collections > Wolf Irish Stamps > Part II > Set 10T
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ND Home > ND Libraries > Spec. Coll. > Collections > Wolf Irish Stamps > Part II > Set 10T |
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Design: Great Britain issue of 1912-13, Scott 159 (T62), 160 (T63), 161 (T64), 162a (T65): King George V, designed by Sir Bertram Mackennal.
Printing (Base Stamps): Typography; Harrison & Sons, London and High Wycombe, printed in sheets of two panes of 120 subjects (12 x 10). The panes are aligned vertically, so a full sheet contains twenty horizontal rows of twelve stamps, with a horizontal gutter separating the panes.
Overprint: Saorstát Éireann 1922 (Irish Free State 1922), in three lines, by Harrison & Sons, Ltd., London and High Wycombe. Overprints are a dull black or (later) a shiny blue-black, and most commonly measure 9 x 15 mm. Standard widths of individual lines are as follows: "Saorstát" - 15 mm; "Éireann" - 12.5 mm; "1922" - 6 mm. Most authorities agree that, as with its "Rialtas" coil issue of June 1922, Harrison prepared its plates by electrotype, from a cliche supplied by Thom. Harrison used four of these plates, each measuring six overprint subjects wide by five high, to print a half sheet of 120 stamps.
Separation: Perf. 15 x 14.
Watermark: Monogram Royal Cypher (Scott wmk. 33; Crown and GvR).
Date of Issue: 7 March 1923.
Numbers issued: Only figures for the first (February 1923) of four printings are known. These are: 1/2d - 265,000; 1d - 144,000; 1 1/2d - 23,000; 2d Die II - 144,000. Subsequent printings date from June and September 1923, and January 1924.
Notes: With the legitimization of the Irish Free State, the new "Saorstát" overprints were needed for the rolls of stamps (coils) used in dispensing machines. Once again the Irish Post Office contracted the work to Harrison and Sons, manufacturer of coils for the British Post Office. The sheets were overprinted and the coils of stamps manufactured much like the June "Rialtas" issue (see set 5T). Distinguishing characteristics of the overprints (relative to the contemporary low value sheet stamps handled by Thom, set 9T) are: a rounded foot to the numeral "1" in "1922"; a raised second "e" in "Éireann"; and a nearly circular loop to the "9" in "1922" (as opposed to the oval shape of the loop in the Thom printing). Some coils may also be recognized by their characteristically straight and sharp perforation edges, where the strips of stamps were cut apart. As with the coils in set 5T, each of these examples is a "pasted up" pair of stamps from different sheets, showing how the guillotined horizontal or vertical rows were joined together to form a 480 or 500 subject roll.
Provenance: Dr. Charles Wolf (all)
Bibliography: Meredith 1927, 11-12, 32; EPA 1964, "Harrison Coil Stamp Issues," 75-6; Feldman 1968, 49-50; Mackay 1968, 77; Dulin 1989, 40-41; Fletcher 1995, 46-52; Bugg 1996, 7-10.
Errors, varieties, and usages:
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