Stamps available at Hobart GPO

[bill]

This entry probably belongs to the group "Other" in the section on
philatelic literature as it relates to an official document supplied
to members of the public on request on stamps available.

The Hobart GPO used to issue a small slip of paper that specified
what stamps and stationery were available at the GPO.

For instance, The Courier No. 36 contains an illustration of such a
slip of paper saying what stamps were available in 1897. We find
that it had been amended by hand to say that a new 20/- stamp was
now available and that there were two, not one, versions of the 5/-;
of course the new version was the 5/- Tablet and the old version was
the 5/- George and Dragon. It was in green as we know.

The contents of a similar slip for 1900 were described in detail in the
Australian Philatelist for 30 March 1900.

The question is whether any other slips of paper in that era have been
seen in recent times. If any of these things turn up, they would throw
more light on what stamps (and designs) were in use for a given year,
say 1891 or 1894 or whatever. That would document the issues for
this period (1890-1902) better as it is not covered by Kellow's huge
work on early Commonwealth issues and not well done in any of the
Basset Hull writings.