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Early dates on the 1d Mt Wellington pictorial.Please add any dates that are earlier.

1d Mount Wellington - off cover

Hobart 14 December 1899 [illustrated in PfA. March 2003. p.17]
Launceston 19 December 1899 [Ross E]
Zeehan 25 December 1899
Queenstown 28 December 1899
Strahan ?

1d Mount Wellington - on cover

Hobart 23 December 1899

NB: Purves was rumoured to have an earlier date on cover.

I have seen 1899 dates on the 1d Mt Wellington from the following towns and can confirm:

Hobart
Launceston
Wynyard
Zeehan
Oatlands
Queenstown

1899 Pmks from the following towns should/may exist:

Strahan
Burnie
Devonport

Can anyone confirm 1899 dates from these towns?

While doing some research I came across an article by Mr Randall Askeland that contained a number of pictures of pictorials with 1899 dates (all off cover). The full article can be found in the Special Centennial Edition of The Courier, dated December 1999. I've listed below the additional towns or earlier dates from that listed above by Ross and John.

Zeehan 23 DE 99
Burnie 29 DE 99
Campbelltown 28 DE 99
Deloraine 21 DE 99
Latrobe 24 DE 99
Lovett 29 DE 99
Mathinna 30 DE 99
Oatlands 26 DE 99
Strahan 30 DE 99
Ulverstone 22 DE 99

Burnie De 30 1899 ?

I can confirm two examples of 1899 use of 1d Pictorials

i) 19 December 1899 two 1d pairs on Hobart to Launceston cover which was present in a JRW Purves lot at Christies RL as a photocopy (sold in 1987). Would be nice to know where the original cover got to.

ii) 21 December 1899 on Hobart to Launceston cover paying 1d circular rate with cover endorsed 'Art Society's Notice only' - once in the Viney collection.

Some way off the earliest recorded dates on cover but a nice usage none the less.


Paying the double foreign letter rate to Germany with registration fee in cost of the envelope.

Hobart 30 December 1899

With it generally accepted that the earliest date for the 1d Pictorial London printing as being 14 December 1899 I am trying to make sense (other than and error of date) of this example dates in mss '1/12/99'
We have recently seen at TSA auction the Pictorials used for paying stamp duty on cheques with very similar styles of date endorsements as this example and it seems unlikely that by the end of 1899 the endorsee would make an error with the year ( and the Pictorials were not valid for duty by December 1900 anyway)

So your input is sought please.

1/12/99

Is that a hint of violet/purple cancel 2 thirds of the way down on the left.

Must be revenue use, therefore belongs in a Revenue collection.

Please post to Queensland at your earliest thanks.

A closer look at the 'purple mark' indicates that it was a pencil (indelible) mark which has run when the stamp was soaked off whatever document it was attached to.

Could this indicate that it was a proofing copy provided to the Agent General in London by De La Rue before or soon after despatch to Tasmania?

To despatch it to Queensland would consign it to a life fighting with humidity!

The One Penny lithographed early dates of use for the four days as recorded by Lancaster.

Early date of use for the One Penny electrotyped V over crown wmk. dated 8 October 1902

Here's the early date for the 2d litho and another early date for the 1d litho.

An example of 2d litho used the day after the example Jerry shows.

1d litho used 16 January 1902 with London printings 2d and 2 1/2d paying registration fee and single letter rate.

Image of the example dated 14 December 1899 referred to in Philately from Australia March 2003 issue. It would be good to trace the 13 December 1899 date referred to by Lancaster.

Hi every one ,
here is 1d pic i have with 28 dec 1899 Launceston . from what i read i think the cancel was brought out on the
27 dec 1899 more help would appreciated thank you.

The earliest usage of the halfpenny lithographed pictorial is an interesting story. The Brusden White catalog indicates that the stamps were first printed in April 1903, sent to Hobart the following month, and first noted in the philatelic press in September 1903. Tinsley seems to agree with this timeline and indicates the stamps were issued in September 1903. Lancaster, however, indicates that the stamps were used much earlier and indicates that he had several copies used in February 1903 with the earliest decipherable date as 20 February. He further indicates that he had heard reports of cancellations as early as January 1903. The earliest dates I have in my collection are 17 and 23 September 1903 which appear consistent with BW and Tinsley.

Anyone have earlier date than 17 September 1903 for the halfpenny lithographed pictorial?

Below is a letter front showing use of a 2d pictorial at West Devonport on De 25 1899

Finally found the stamp with the earliest known usage cancel that I described under this topic on 6 Nov 2011. The date is 17 September 1903 used at Richmond.

I also have scanned the earliest date I have for the Perf 11 halfpenny. The date is 15 October 1903 used at Lymington North. (The Brusden White catalog indicates that the earliest Perf 11 was recorded in early 1904.)

Here's the earliest date for the halfpenny lithograph on cover that I could find.

Here is a new early date for the perf 12.5 lithographed halfpenny: 15 September 1903 from Latrobe

RUMNEY HUTS · DE 27 99 · TASMANIA can be added to Jerry's list (above) of 1899 cancels on 1d or 2d Pictorials