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Malcolm, Thanks for all your comments. I'm inclined to feel that the stamps are the originals for that cover. it would have been extraordinary for a restorer/faker to go to the trouble of locating a 4d stamp with the the same postmark, the same postmark ink intensity and the same postmark orientatio...

Thanks again, Pete.

It will be interesting to see if any other overpaid covers show up. There seems to have been a lack of clarity about rates, not helped by changes in the rates to the UK and other parts of the Empire that were not the same as those to mainland Australia.

Roger

Thanks, Pete. That's great. I expect you noticed that the second cover is from the same correspondence as mine, but with the correct rate. I guess the sender only made that mistake once!

Roger

Pete,

Thanks for all your comments. I guess the most likely explanation is that the sender had misunderstood the rate to Victoria and had affixed the stamps before handing in the letter. Can anyone post an otherwise similar cover to Victoria showing the correct 4d rate?

Roger

I have long been puzzled by the cover shown below. It appears to be genuine, with correct postal markings (the stamps have faint BN1 '60' cancels), a valid address and 2d and 4d stamps from the Perkins Bacon printing. The cover has a "Ship Letter, Free, OC 10, 1856, GPO Victoria" oval handstamp in r...

I have had a first shot at assembling a list of known used lettercards with Lake views, using Allen Shatten's article in the June 2014 issue of the Courier as my principal reference. I have also used his numbering system for the unsurcharged cards. Apparently, there were three printings: 10,568 of e...

It is difficult to identify how many unused cards exist in different colours, because of repeat sales of the same item, but much easier for used cards when the dates of postmarks can be identified. I'm presently preparing a list of known used cards, as a working document. Almost all known used cards...

I was wrong in suggesting that it's a cut-out from a letter card. Sorry! The printing quality is far higher and has the characteristics of the original recess-printed DLR issue. The paper seems to have distinct wove characteristics too and I can now see the "V over Crown" watermark in the ebay image...

I think it's probably a cut-out of an indicum from a 2d letter card. The colour of the paper suggests one of the cards issued in 1903 or later. It might be worth making (or asking for) some detailed measurements of the outer frame dimensions and paper thickness, so they can be compared with letter c...

The catalogue for the Feldman sale of the Sato collection in June 2014 contains some excellent illustrations of Couriers and Chalons, many in large blocks or on cover. It also contains useful summaries of known material. According to Sato, there is only one known cover with a mixed franking of Couri...

Thanks to Malcolm from me too. That's very helpful.

This has inspired me to work though Tasmanian Stamp Auction catalogues from November 2004, to see what colours have been offered in the recent past. I found a few surprises! I have listed the items that were offered for sale below, using Allen Shatten's numbering system (modified so that the 20 degr...

As requested, I have pasted your list below and adjusted it to include examples in my own collection. LC 5.1 Mount Ida and Lake St Clair black black-brown brown red blue green LC 5.2 Lake Agnew and Cradle Mountain black brown red-brown red blue blue-green green LC 5.3 Mount Gould - Lake Marion black...

Yes I think they are. Illustration 7 in Allen Shatten's excellent June 2014 article is correctly labelled (the 98 mm rear inscription corresponds to the 35 mm spacing between the Arms and indicum in the first printing). Illustration 6 does not have labels, but the front inscription has a length of 8...

Thanks to Malcolm Groom for attaching the later article about printings. Attribution of the second printing to Hobart certainly seems to be incorrect, though an understandable error by Ingles using the information available to him. I guess the important point is that the spacing between the Arms and...

"Tasmania Stamps and Postal History" by W. E .Tinsley, published in 1986, is useful in this context. The section on postal stationary is by O. G. Ingles and contains specific comments on the 1903 Melbourne and 1905 Hobart printings. Ingles reports that there were two shipments of the Melbourne print...

Images of two letter cards are attached, which I hope will be of interest. The first is philatelic from New Town, with stuck down edges, but has a 3 April 1900 cancel. That's the earliest I've seen. This was bought in the TSA online auction on 1 March 2014. The second is commercially used (message i...

Pete, I'm inclined to agree, but is the latest known date on a Pictorial really 29 April 1913? That happens to be the date of the cds on the 1d Roo, which is presently being offered in the TSA postal auction as the only known use of the Evandale Junction cds in the Commonwealth period. I have no rea...

Evandale Junction is rated RRRRR in the Commonwealth period, the only known date (on a 1d Roo) being 29 April 1913. The illustration below shows a poor, but apparently unambiguous, strike on a perf 12.5 1d thin paper. It is dated 31 January 1913. The top line of the date points towards the 'ON' in '...

Geoff,

Thanks for pointing that out. It's a very helpful reference. So the pair of 2d Chalons was in the David McNamee collection! I suppose it was separated out for sale because of the scarcity of 2d star watermark pairs in their own right.

Roger

Pete, I highly recommend your suggestion to other collectors! I usually copy a specimen I'm interested in plating at 1200 dpi and then search for a matching image on the Bassett Hull prints. Differences in the outer frame lines, edge scalloping and lettering between different positions are easy to s...

Thanks, Malcolm.

That's a very good reference strike.

Roger

The cds dates given for the 1899 opening of Teepookana appear to exclude the illustrated examples. These show dates of 4 July 1899 and 9 October 1899.

I had been struggling to find a reasonable example of the RR-rated BN1 '28' cancel of Fingal. I then spotted one on a pair of 2d Chalons with star watermark and good margins all round. The pair has a 1990 BPA certificate as SG16, although the deep green colour suggests SG 15. There is no mention of ...

I have high definition digital copies of the defaced 4d Courier Plates I and II. These have been derived from very high quality prints by Bassett Hull. I have found them particularly helpful in my own plating studies. Note that Plates I and II are described as Plates B and C by Bassett Hull. Those i...