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We should not overlook this Bulletin Board for updates on railway stamps, especially the section headed "Railway Parcel Stamps" for further tidbits of new information on this topic. We include bus parcel stamps from the back of the Craig & Ingles catalogue. Ingles acknowledged the pioneering researc...

Further comment follows. Service stamps punctured T are known for all values up to 10/- but the railways requisition form only listed values up to 6d. We should not be surprised if certain other Departments required a range of higher values, possibly up to 2/6 or even 5/- and 10/-, perhaps for the T...

An example of the very scarce 2d Sideface, wmk first TAS (with lines) and perf 12 has been seen as a scan (together with an example of the common perf 11½ to compare the perforations). So there is no doubt that this very scarce variety (SG151) exists. The normal perf is catalogued as SG145/145a/145b...

This post refers to a manual issued from time to time by the Tasmanian Railways for the convenience of the public. These manuals should be most helpful as it is useless looking in Walch's Almanac, the Tasmanian Gazette and among the legislation for this information as noted in the Craig & Ingles (19...

This note is about the 2d Sideface watermarked first type TAS perf 11.8, listed in Gibbons' Australia catalogue (8th edition) as SG151. The common perf 11.4 on this watermark is SG145/145a/145b depending on the shade. The Sideface series watermarked first type TAS (also described as TAS between line...

Yes, the 1d Parcels Ticket is extremely rare with two recorded examples so far. Yet the requisition form seems to be out of date by providing for a 1d value no longer in use. The form seems to be newly prepared as of 1d November 1902 since the 7 newspaper stamps and the 8 postage stamps punctured T ...

The table shown by Peter Allan indicates that the displayed parcel rates were valid for all railway lines except the Mt Dundas-Zeehan and N.E. Dundas lines. Is it possible that different rates were prescribed for the Mt Dundas-Zeehan and N.E. Dundas lines? If so, a 4d parcels stamp might find some u...

We can now record a 1/6 value to go with the 1/3, 1/9 and 2/- values of the series for Pioneer Tourist Coaches Pty Ltd, whose date of issue is not stated in the Craig & Ingles catalogue. These stamps are definitely post-war but surely issued before 1960. The Ansett-Pioneer issue was certainly in use...

This note draws attention to the 1d Platypus overprinted REVENUE with reference to the version with the old TAS watermark showing TAS between two parallel lines. This paper was ordered late 1870 from London and arrived in 1871. We usually see this stamp with the later TAS watermark (no pair of paral...

Ed Pickop wrote a short article in The Australasian Informer for November 1958, following on a two page article for July 1958 in the same journal dealing generally with railway stamps for all six Australian states. He was aware of a 1/9 Diesel railway stamp as the July article says. (It can't be the...

This article by John Hardinge was published in The Courier , No. 52, pp.4-9, in slightly augmented form. It throws some light on the use of parcel labels on private parcels by the railways that is seldom written about. There is also a time line for the opening of new railways in Tasmania from 1872 u...

There is apparently some evidence of the ½d Sideface being issued unwatermarked but proof is not yet conclusive. A number of sheets were printed on unwatermarked paper to prepare reprints for official purposes. One has to find used examples that were not just printed on TAS paper that was badly misp...

We add a little to the story of the 10d Sideface. The stocktake on 31 December 1889 shows that there were 28,620 of the 10d black. (See page 132 of Basset Hull's book.) So we might suppose that nearly 2,000 of the 10d were used annually after the 2½d of 1891 made its debut. Otherwise, there is no po...

Ross has advised that the perfs are 11.4 on all sides.

The perfs seem to agree with the 11.4 seen on other labels of this genre.
The work could have been done by a local business nearby.

An example of the 4d blue Sideface with inverted watermark is recorded on the BB at https://www.tps.org.au/bb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=122 That post is dated 13 October 2009. As shown there, the watermark looks normal as seen from the back. From the front, the watermark would be reversed as in the examp...

Pete There is the possibility that many £1 stamps were used for bulk postage up to early November 1900. Probably, not all users bothered to save the £1 stamps (plus others) thereby used and handed back as receipts for posting bulk mail. We suspect that these used stamps were returned to the sender a...

Ross

You might like to record its perforation. The Instanta gauge is good as it will yield a
measurement correct to the nearest 0.1 for best results. Presumably(?), there is no
watermark, not even a papermaker's watermark.

On looking at the £1 Tablet postally used, it seems that most postally used examples
have dates in 1900. Yet this stamp appeared in 1897 so we wonder why used copies
are seldom found with dates in 1897 to 1899.

Perhaps someone might wish to suggest some reasons for this observation.

John Campton's discovery is very interesting. The Dragons are not common postally used. John's example looks OK but it is still worth putting it under the UV lamp to make sure of its status as "postally used". As "admin" reminds us, postal usage of Dragons on cover are especially difficult to find. ...

We refer to pages 58-59 of Basset Hull. "The closing scenes of these stamps are pathetically foreshadowed in the following letter:" (Text of letter is quoted, referring to bill stamps of value 10s, 2s6d and 3d plus postage stamps of value 4d, 2d and 1d, which were withdrawn from sale as from 31 Octo...

In the Jan 2016 edition of Stamp News , the Cinderella Corner has a report of this label with a dated cancellation of 28 July 1904 at Hobart (illustrated in colour). This item is described as perforated 11 on all four sides. This is an advance on our knowledge of these scarce items. At last we get a...

The Sideface stamps were officially introduced to the public on 1 November 1870. Denominations were 1d, 2d, 4d (blue) and 10d. The Victorian backstamps on this cover are dated 20 OC 1870. Can we suspect an error in the dates? It seems odd that both backstamps (Melbourne and Carlton) have the month a...

This is a never-ending saga of fakes and forgeries! Thanks to Jerry, Ross and many others for exposing these dangerously misleading wares. Collectors should make every effort to only buy these perfins from reliable sources. Similar remarks apply to the problem of fake Specimens. (See relevant sectio...

This is a never-ending saga of fakes and forgeries! Thanks to Jerry, Ross and many others for exposing these dangerously misleading wares. Collectors should make every effort to only buy these Specimens from reliable sources. Similar remarks apply to the problem of faked perfins. (See relevant secti...

Brief notes on numeral watermarks for Sideface follow. Denominations are 1d, 2d, 4d blue, 10d Paper was borrowed from New South Wales since the double-lined numerals paper for the Perkins Bacon issues was unsuitable. Sydney sent a supply of paper with watermarks 2, 4 and 10. Sydney had limited stock...