ND Home > ND Libraries > Spec. Coll. > Collections > Wolf Irish Stamps > Part II > Set 7T
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ND Home > ND Libraries > Spec. Coll. > Collections > Wolf Irish Stamps > Part II > Set 7T |
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T39 (36) 2/6 brown [MID] [LAR] |
T40 (37) 3s carmine [MID] [LAR] |
T41 (38) 10s blue [MID] [LAR] |
Design: Great Britain issue of 1919, Scott 179 (T39), 180 (T40), 181 (T41): "Britannia Rules the Waves," designed by Sir Bertram MacKennal. This issue is the type of 1913, retouched (as is evidenced by the dot above the middle of the top frame on each value).
Printing (Base Stamps): Engraving; Bradbury, Wilkinson and Co., London, printed in sheets of forty subjects (4 x 10).
Overprint: "Rialtas Sealadac na héireann 1922" (Provisional Government of Ireland 1922), in four lines, by Messrs. Alexander Thom & Co. Ltd., Dublin. Overprints are a shiny blue-black, and most commonly measure 21 x 13.5 mm. Standard widths of individual lines are as follows: "Rialtas" - 12 mm; "Sealadac" - 14.5 mm; "na héireann" - 20.75 mm; "1922" - 6.5 mm. As with set 3T, the overprints were produced from a single plate consisting of two stereos of twenty subjects each (4 x 5); these were fixed one above the other to overprint a full sheet of forty stamps.
Separation: Perf. 11 x 12.
Watermark: Monogram Royal Cypher (Scott wmk. 34: Large Crown and GvR).
Date of Issue: No official announcements. Meredith's (1927) earliest known usages are 17 October for the 2s6d value, and 25 October for the 5s and 10s.
Estimated Numbers Issued: 2s6d - 10,000; 5s - 8,000; 10s - 6,000.
Notes: In October 1922, shortages in the supplies of the three high values
overprinted by Dollard the previous February (set 3T) made a new printing of these values necessary.
The work was handled by Thom, using much the same shiny, blue-black ink as appears on the
contemporary low values (set 6T). The easiest way to distinguish between the Thom high-value issue and
the earlier Dollards is not, however, the color of the ink, which can be difficult to discern; it is
the closer spacing (by about 1/2 mm) of the "h" and the "é" in "héireann", quite visible
to the naked eye. "Rialtas" and "Sealadac" also measure about 1/2 mm less on the Thom high values
than on the Dollards.
By December, the course of political events necessitated a change in the wording of all Irish
overprints, and set 7T was replaced. Because they were available for little more than two months, and
because the relatively low demand for high value stamps caused them to be issued in small numbers,
the Thom four-line high value overprints of October are quite scarce. This is the more true for
postally used examples. All three of the examples seen here contain complete or all-but-complete
circular date stamps, but not all are fully legible. The 2s6d value bears a Sligo (County Sligo)
"single circle star" handstamp (the star is located beneath the "I" in "SLIGO"); the best guess as
to date is 20 December 1922 (20 DE / 2?), but the second numeral of the year is obscure.
The 5s value has a Cobh (County Cork) double circle handstamp of the "Maltese Cross" type, dated 22
January 1923 (22 JA / 23). The 10s has a clear single circle star Dublin strike, with "BAILE ATHA CLIATH / 26
indicating the city (in Gaelic) and office. The date is 29 January 1923 (29 JA / 23) All the high-value
overprints tend to have been used more philatelically than commercially, and these, with their nicely
centered handstamps, are probably no exception. B. P. A. certificates 21851-21853, 4 March 1987.
Provenance: Dr. Charles Wolf (all).
Bibliography: Meredith 1927, 8-9, 20, 28; EPA 1964, "Thom 5 Line Overprints," 71; Feldman 1968, 39-40; Foley 1975, 2; Dulin 1992, 42-44, 372-382; Whyte 1994, 7.
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