PENCE STAMPS OF CEYLON

Chandra Rodrigo

President

Philatelic Society of Sri Lanka

"STAR" WATERMARKED PENCE STAMPS

A. IMPERFORATE "STAR" WATERMARKED PENCE STAMPS (1857 - 59)

Except 1/2 d – no watermark

Since the issue of the Penny Black on 6th of May 1840 in Great Britain the Acting Post Master General Mr. G. G. Frazer was keen to introduce adhesive stamps to Sri Lanka. With the intention of introducing postage stamps, on the 1st of May 1854 Postal Ordinance No. 1 was legislated introducing changes in postal rates and regulations. On 1st March 1854 a 6d purple coloured stamp embossed with the head of Queen Victoria had been issued in Great Britain. On 22nd May 1854, Mr. Frazer ordered 60,000 copies of this stamp overprinted 'CEYLON' to be issued as the 1st stamp of Ceylon. In the same order he requested 70 steel dies to obliterate the stamps. On 7th October 1854 the dies were received but no stamps. The authorities probably had turned down the request for the overprint and ordered Perkins Bacon & Co. to issue a 6d stamp specially designed for Ceylon. On 26th July 1855 they invoiced for 250 sheets (60,000 copies) of this stamp.

They were shipped from London on the 3rd of August and was received in Ceylon on the 10th of December 1855. Though the stamps were received in 1855 they were not immediately released as the 1854 Ordinance 1 did not give the authority for issue of postage stamps but referred solely to reduction of postal rates. This was realised and another ordinance, Ordinance 14 of 1856 was announced giving the authority to issue postage stamps which led to their issue in 1857.

On 1st April 1857 Ceylon issued its first postage stamp. It was 6d in value, the postal rate for 1/2 an ounce by ship to Great Britain via Southampton or via Plymouth. The stamp had been designed by Henry Cobould, engraved by William Humphries and recess printed by Perkins Bacon & Co.. It was imperfortae, purple brown in colour and had the left profile of the head of Queen Victoria on star watermarked blued paper.

Three more ordered stamps, 5d chestnut (shades), 10d dull vermillion (shades) and 1s slate violet were shipped from London on 20th of May and arrived in Galle on the 20th of June 1857. They were issued on 2nd July 1857. They were imperforate, printed on star watermarked paper. Design, printing and printers were as before. The 10d and the 1s had minor changes to the lettering.

On 24th August 1857 1d blue and 2d green imperforate stamps were issued. Their designs, printing process and printers were the same. Some of the 1d blue was printed on blued paper and appears in two distinct shades, turquoise blue (bright to dull shades) and dull blue (shades to light blue).

2d green is seen in different shades of green to deep green the most easily differentiated being the yellow green variety.

As the postal rate for printed matter such as newspapers were 1/2d, 1/2d stamps were ordered on 17th January 1857. They were shipped from London on the 20th of August and reached Galle on 28th of September 1857. The 1/2d reddish lilac imperforate stamp sent differed from the above stamps in many ways. It was printed on blue glazed paper without a watermark. Engraved by Joubert De La Ferte, it was printed by the typographic printing process of De La Rue & Co. It was issued in October 1857. Subsequently in 1858 the 1/2d dull mauve was printed on white glazed paper without a watermark.

4d dull rose, 8d brown, 9d purple brown, 1s6d green, and 2s dull blue were issued on the 23rd off April 1859 with a new stamp design. The stamps had an octagonal frame with the head of Queen Victoria. They were designed by Henry Corbould, engraved by Charles Henry Jeens and recess printed by Perkins Bacon & Co. Of these 4d was the first to be printed. As the number of copies printed of this stamp was small the number of mint copies available is extremely small and is the most highly priced Ceylon stamp. The 1s 9d appears in various shades of green and the yellow green shade is rarer than other shades.

The 6d purple brown (shades) was issued in 1859 but the exact date is not known. 6d is also known in light brown, brown and deep brown shades.

The stamps had to be cut with scissors from sheets before issue. Thus the margins of these stamps vary. Stamps may have one, two, three or four margins depending on the way they have been cut. The prices of these stamps also vary with the amount of margins present. Stamps with four margins are much more expensive than stamps with one or no margins.

PERFORATED "STAR WATERMARKED" PENCE STAMPS

Imperforate stamps had to be cut from sheets before issue. This was a problem for the postal employees. Due to numerous complaints the authorities decided to get the stamps perforated to enable separation of stamps easier.

All denominations of the imperforate stamps were reprinted on star watermarked paper and were perforated using a perforator with single line of punches by Perkins Bacon & Co. All except 1s 9d were sent to Ceylon. Thus no used copies of 1s 9d are seen. The first perforated stamps were issued in 1860/1. They had 14 to 15 perforations per 2cm.

Initially the perforated stamps had well punched perforations and these stamps were classified as "Clean Cut" perforated stamps. With wear and poor cleaning and servicing the perforations became less clean cut and were called "Intermediate" perforations. Clean cut to Intermediate perforations generally cover the period from November 1860 to March 1861. Later when the perforators became more worn the perforations became even less prominent and were termed "Rough" perforations.

CLEAN CUT AND INTERMEDIATE PERFORATIONS (1860 61):

ROUGH PERFORATIONS (1861 - 1864):

Perforation differences occur on the same stamp as each sheet was perforated in two operations, once vertically and the other horizontally. Stamps which are clean cut horizontally but have rough perforations vertically are considered as having rough perforations.

In Septmber 1864 De La Rue Co. printed 10d dull vermillion on star watermarked paper. In these stamps the perforations were 12 1/2.

ROULETTED STAMPS:

One unused example of the 1/2d and 1d and several used examples of 2d are known. One unused example of 1s 9d perforated 7 1/2 is known. These were privately produced.

The colour varieties were caused by the improper mixing of the ink. During printing of the stamps the heavier ingredients sank to the bottom and produced deeper shades.

PENCE ISSUES ON NO WATERMARK SMOOTH PAPER (1862):

In 1862 De La Rue Co. which took over printing of Ceylon stamps from Perkins Bacon & Co. reprinted 1d, 5d, 6d, 9d, and 1s values on smooth paper which had the paper makers watermark 'T. H. Saunders 1862' in a small part of the paper. Thus the majority of the stamps has no watermark but in a few, parts of this watermark could be found. These are more expensive than the others. The perforations in these stamps are 13 except for 1d which is also found with perforations 11 1/2 to 12.

In 1864 1/2d was also reprinted on Glazed paper without a watermark. Here the perforations are 12 1/2.

PENCE ISSUES WITH A NEW WATERMARK (CROWN OVER CC)

This issue varies considerably in substance of paper and length of stamp. They consist of two distinct series which are printed on different varieties of paper having different watermarks and producing stamps of different lengths.

I. PENCE ISSUES WITH 'CROWN OVER OVAL CC' (1863 - 1865):

Paper used is thin and soft compared to the second issue. The sheets are watermarked in four panes of sixty crowns and CC arranged in 10 horizontal rows of six. The panes, each enclosed by a border line are divided vertically by a plain strip 10mm broad and horizontally by a strip 25 mm broad, watermarked 'CROWN COLONIES' in outline block capitals. These words also appear twice in each of the side margin but not in the top or bottom margin. The average length of the Crowns and the CC is 22 1/2 mm and the vertical distance between them is 1 1/2 mm. The CC is oval in shape. The values on this pane are printed without regard to the watermark. As the stamp measures 26mm and the space between them is 1mm each stamp has one complete Crown and CC and may have a part of the next. Further as the first and last rows of the stamps have been printed more or less on the top and bottom margins of the sheet and the words 'CROWN COLONIES' appear between panes some of the stamps have only a partial watermark and some have part of 'CROWN COLONIES' as the watermark.

1/2d was printed only on this paper probably due to the difficult mode of printing of this stamp. The 1s was not printed on this paper probably because at this time there remained many 1s with star watermark in stock. Other than the 1s all other values were printed on this paper. In 1866 De La Rue designed and printed two new shorter 1d and 2d stamps.

II. PENCE ISSUES WITH 'CROWN OVER ROUND CC' (1867 - 70)

Here the paper used is hard and tough compared with paper with 'Crown over oval CC'. The sheets have 240 Crowns and CC watermarks in twenty horizontal rows of twelve not divided into panes, but enclosed by a single border line. All four margins contain the words 'CROWN COLONIES'. The Crowns and CC are 21 mm long and are 6 mm apart vertically. The CC are circular in shape. The paper has been specially watermarked to fit the plates and thus each stamp has specifically one watermark. Stamps do not exceed 26 mm in length.

Other than the 1/2 d all other values including the 1s was printed on this paper.
10 d orange
WATERMARK VARIETIES

Refer to 2006 VOL. 1 p 2-3 and 7-8.

SERVICE OVERPRINTED PENCE STAMPS (1869)

In 1869 'SERVICE' was overprinted on 1867-8 2d, 6d, 8d, 1s, and 2s and on 1866-8 1d and 3d for official use and sent to Ceylon. However they were never issued.

'SERVICE' on 2d, 6d, 8d, 1s and 2s were narrow and on the 1d and 3d wide.

Two or three copies of 1867-8, 4d rose overprinted with 'SERVICE' of a slightly smaller size has been found. One is found in the Tapling Collection in the British Museum. Probably these are essays.

Recently Stanley Gibbons has advertised a set of 'SERVICE' stamps with 'SPECIMEN' overprinted either in black or blue on them.
