USE OF THE 1d THIN PAPER ISSUE (SG 261 and 261a)

[RogerKinns]

Stimulated by John Hardinge's view that a 1912 cut-off date for cds postmarks on pictorial issues took no account of necessarily extended pictorial use before arrival of Commonwealth issues in Tasmania, I have been building a collection of used 1d thin paper stamps. The issue is easy to distinguish from earlier printings, with a paper thickness close to 0.0027 inches (0.07 mm). Colours are noticeably rich in relation to many earlier printings by typography. Two perforating machines were used and I was keen to establish whether there was an even distribution between SG 261 (Perf 12.5) and 261a (Perf 11). Records (see the Courier, Number 58, December 2014) show that 19,972 sheets of 60 stamps were printed in Melbourne during December 2012, or close to 1.2 million stamps. It is not known how these sheets were distributed between perforating machines. Apparently they were sent to Hobart between 18 and 31 December 1912. The average weekly usage of 1d stamps in Tasmania was about 265,000 stamps.

The 1d thin paper is highly priced by Stanley Gibbons for either perforation (£18 for used 261 and 261a in the 2014 catalogue), but it is hard to find perfectly centred, pristine copies that would merit top price as a stamp if the cds rarity is ignored. Complete sheets of mint stamps, which still appear from time to time, show variable centring and misaligned perforations that suggest bent pins. The stamps are easily damaged and many used copies have pulled or fluffy perfs, creases and tears. Over the last few years I have assembled a collection of about 300 1d thin paper stamps. This includes a bulk purchase from Randall Askeland, supplemented by specimens I have bought specifically for their postmarks. Of these, 231 have dates that can be identified in full. Another 28 have an identifiable month and year only. Others do not have an identifiable day or month. I do not have any specimens with a 1914 date and I have only one with a 1912 date (30 December), apart from an example where the year is clearly incorrect. Typical examples for both perforations are shown below.

1d thin paper (x4).jpg (104.52 KiB) Viewed 8968 times

My collection is large enough now to give a clear view of 1d thin paper stamp usage in December 1912 and for each month in 1913. The two figures below are taken from the Excel spreadsheet I have developed to study the statistics of use. Figure 1 shows the usage by month, expressed as a percentage of all copies in my possession that have identifiable months and years. This is a simple column chart, where each column shows the division between Perf 11 and Perf 12.5 issues. Figure 2 shows the usage by week for the first 20 weeks, starting on Sunday 29 December 1912. Only 10 of 231 copies have a later date that can be identified fully.

1d thin paper,stats of use.jpg (55.31 KiB) Viewed 8968 times

Four results stand out from the available data sample:
1) Just over 60% of specimens are Perf 12.5;
2) Peak usage was in January 1913. Almost 50% of copies have a January 1913 date;
3) Usage in 1912 was very small, suggesting that stocks in Hobart were not released until very near the end of December;
4) The highest weekly usage was during the week beginning 25 January 1913, having risen steadily during the previous 4 weeks. Over 16% of all 1d thin paper stamps were used during that week. Probably, this represented the majority (say 75%) of total 1d usage during that particular week. Usage then fell away sharply and was almost negligible by May 1913.

The 1d thin paper was not the only stamp that could satisfy demand in early 1913. Over 44,000 sheets of the 2d value were surcharged 1d and there would have been residues of other printings at smaller offices in particular. If 75% of stamps used in the peak week were 1d thin papers, that would correspond to about 200,000 thin paper stamps, representing about one sixth of the total printing. These estimates correspond almost exactly to John Hardinge's figures, except that significant usage appears to have started in January 1913, almost two weeks after first delivery of stamps from Melbourne. The rapid decline of usage during February 1913 is likely to correspond to the increasing availability of 1d Kangaroo stamps at the larger post offices in Tasmania.

I would very much welcome additional data from other collectors, so we can build a larger sample and improve the accuracy of statistical measures. How many 1912 dates are known on 1d thin papers, for example? They seem to be even scarcer than 1899 dates on the first DLR printing.

Roger Kinns
Updated on 3 April 2015

[John Hardinge]

I wish I had kept all the stocks of these things that I had. At one stage I purchased 72,000 pictorials(all 1d and and 2d) from Jim Pettard. There were hundreds of 1d Thin papers but it was years ago and was not thinking of that sort of stuff at the time. I will have a good look at what you have written and generate a response.

It's great work and really interesting. It shows how desperate they were for 1d issues. First the overprint, then the thin paper. I did not include it in my pictorial article, but I have a note from the DPMG in Hobart that 500 extra sheets of the 1d were found in storage on 10.1.1913 and these were pressed into service. These are probably earlier prints and only some 284 full sheets were salvaged complete as many were water damaged.

One thing that is quite clear is that the usage commences late December 1912, which almost certainly coincides with a end of month issue, as was standard practice, from the Stamp Distributors for both regions(North and South) out to country offices in the last week of December. The fact that the stamps usage peaks in January leads me to believe that when the next issue occurred in the last week in January, stocks of new stamps had either been exhausted or nearly so and most, if not all 1d stamps issued post end January were Roos.

That is not to say stocks of the 1d Thin Paper were not still in use at P.O's. Some may have ordered end December 1912 and obtained enough stocks for 3-4 months, although most offices only retained 1-2 months stock as they were accountable for the stamps on hand.

[RogerKinns]

Thanks John. I'll keep adding to my statistical analysis as new data or specimens come to hand. Malcolm Groom has given me some excellent information about printings and delivery dates, and has given me a list of the 1d thin paper specimens he has at the moment. He has one specimen dated 28 December 1912. Two others are dated 31 December 1912. Treasured specimens may tend to have either early or late dates, as in your survey, so I shall have to be careful to avoid biasing the statistical distribution by favouring "outliers". Even the late dates show a concentration in January and February 1913.

Do you have a feel for the distribution between Perf 11 and Perf 12.5 thin paper 1d stamps? There were three separate shipments to Hobart in December 1912 of respectively 8,000, 5 972 and 6,000 sheets (courtesy Malcolm Groom). If stamps in the first shipment were perforated 11 and those in the other two were perforated 12.5, that would give a distribution of 60% to 40% in favour of Perf 12.5 stamps. This corresponds almost exactly to my empirical finding of 61.5% to 38.5%.

Roger

[wilbaer]

Hello Roger,

I somehow missed this thread before I posted about my own request on the board just now in the perfins section, but I am specifically on the hunt for any of these thin paper issues perforated OS or T. Do you have any of these amongst your mass of thin paper examples? This info will form part of an overall States Official Perfin project that we are currently working on and would love to hear any inputs from your side on the matter. Similarly, a 3d pictorial exists too, naturally, and the same info about official punctures for this issue would be interesting to hear of too.

Many thanks for any input you may have.

Kind regards,
Jerry