1912 ONE PENNY surcharge on 2d Pictorial

[Jerry Weirich]

Does anyone have any information on when in 1912 the surcharged stamps were produced in Melbourne? And when they were shipped to Hobart? The Brusden White catalog states the stamps were "placed into stock on 22 October 1912". Does anyone have a copy of the document that provides the reference to 22 October? Any information will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Jeffharris]

The December 2008 issue of 'The Courier' has an article referring to the first day of issue of one penny surcharge. On page 4 there is a photo copy of a cover sent by Fred Hagen [ a Sydney stamp dealer] to Miss Marjorie Allen of Hunter's Hill. There is a one penny surcharge on the cover with a machine cancellation of Sydney with the date OC 22 1912.
A handwritten note on the back states that "The stamp on the envelope is a new issue I thought you would like postally used". On page 5 of 'The Courier' there is a block of four [kindly shown by Malcolm Groom] showing a Hobart cds with the date of 22 OCT. 12.

[Jerry Weirich]

Thanks Jeff. I was aware of that Courier article. In fact, I've been looking for a 22 Oct 12 date on this stamp since that article appeared. Well, last week I bought the stamp with a 21 Oct 12 Hobart machine cancellation. This is the day before the stamps were supposedly placed into stock. Furthermore the time on the machine cancellation appears to be 7 AM which means it was sold very early on the 21st or even before the 21st. The stamp is also not from the top or bottom row of the sheet which suggests other stamps were sold before this one (assuming they started selling the stamps off the sheets from the outside or edges first).

1d on 2d EKU 21 Oct 12.jpg (79.19 KiB) Viewed 2059 times

The questions that I asked were trying to refine the timeline for what happened before 22 Oct. For example, how long were the stamps actually at the Hobart GPO before the 22nd. This might indicate how long the stamps could have been selling in Hobart. Also could the reference to placing "the stamps into stock on 22 October 1912" have a different meaning than "first day of use". For example, could it mean that was the date the stamps were first shipped from Hobart to other post offices. May never know these answers, but one never knows what information may be out there. One thing for sure, 22 Oct 1912 is not the first day of use.

If anyone does have information or other references to this stamp prior to 22 Oct, I would still very much like to see it. Thanks, Jerry

[David McNamee]

21 October 1912 was a Monday and 22 October 1912 a Tuesday. Makes more sense that the First Day of Issue is likely 21 October since we have a proving cancel and it is the first of the week.