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Set 3T

T12-14 (12-14), unused.

1922 (17 February) "Rialtas" 4-line overprint in black (Dollard)


T12 (12)
2/6 brown
[MID]  [LAR]


T13 (13)
5s carmine
[MID]  [LAR]

T14 (14)
10s blue
[MID]  [LAR]
 

Design: Great Britain issue of 1919, Scott 179 (T12), 180 (T13), 181 (T14): "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 Dollard Printing House Ltd., Dublin. Overprints are black or gray-black, and most commonly measure 21.5 x 14 mm. Standard widths of individual lines are as follows: "Rialtas" - 12.5 mm; "Sealadac" - 15 mm; "na héireann" - 21.5 mm; "1922" - 6.5 mm. 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: 17 February 1922.

Numbers Issued: 2s6d - 40,000; 5s - 26,000; 10s - 20,000.

Notes: The three high values of the Provisional Government's 17 February issue of overprinted stamps were, like eight of the low values, contracted to Dollard Printing House Ltd. of Dublin. The five-line overprint used by Dollard on the low values was here compressed to four lines, given the larger size of the base stamps. Specialists are in general agreement that the most reliable way to distinguish these stamps from the later, and very similar, Thom overprints (see set 7T below) is by the consistent 1 mm gap between the "h" and the "é" of "héireann"; this space measures 0.5 mm on the Thoms. In addition, Ian Whyte notes that the bottom of the "h" in "héireann" is invariably slightly higher than the base line formed by the rest of the letters in the word.

Provenance: Dr. Charles Wolf (all)

Bibliography: Meredith 1927, 8, 17, 19; EPA 1964, "Irish Provisionals," 67-8; Feldman 1968, 28-30; Mackay 1968, 67-9; Foley 1975, 2; Dulin 1992, 25-8. Whyte 1994, 7.

Minor varieties:


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