Queensland's first locally-produced stamps were S.G. Type 7
and as illustrated in their catalogue there are two dies of the l d stamp. Some
of the Die II stamps have the spelling error QOEENSLAND" and these
are fairly scarce.
About 25 years ago I acquired the illustrated example of the
"QOEENSLAND" error on a Die I stamp. I have made enquiries both in
the U.K. and Australia, without success, to find if any other example was
known.
Someone with a very fine brush and a pot of white paint
might have painted across the tops of the two limbs of the letter "U"
to convert it into the letter "O", but there is no obvious evidence
of this. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals nothing unusual and there
is no evidence of paint staining on front or back. The stamp in question is Die
I, matrix No. 2, watermark W6 (S.G. 135) and it has a genuine Caboolture
postmark with a normal 131 numeral inside an oval of four rows of dots. It has
obviously done postal service but the cancellation dots do not cover the letter
"O" of QOEENSLAND". If this Die I stamp is a forgery, the
perpetrator made the bad mistake of using a Die I stamp instead of a Die II
stamp. I recently consulted Mr A.R. Butler, R.D.P., F.R.P.S.L. about this stamp
as he made a special study of this issue when he was President of the Royal. He
considers the stamp is genuine and genuinely used, and it may be a transient
variety if a minute flake of copper from the plating of the electrotype
detached itself at the moment of printing. This would leave a minimal
depression which next time would not print and complete the conversion of
"U" to "O". However, the copper plating was thin and the wound
could be self-healing and after 'a few impressions filled with ink and resumed printing
as a "U".
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