Short note on 10d Sideface

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Here is a short note on the 10d Sideface, going beyond what Basset Hull recorded in his book.

Basset Hull wrote a short note in Philatelic Record for February 1888 on the figure-watermarked
stamps of Tasmania in 1870-1871. The Post Office must have been disappointed to find that the
new plates for printing 1d, 2d, 4d and 10d stamps were much smaller than the old Perkins Bacon
plates from 1855 for the 1d, 2d and 4d Chalons. De La Rue seems to have followed a script for
making stamp plates to a precise formula so that most denominations had a standard size that
almost all British possessions had to adhere to. Even the UK stamps conformed to De La Rue's
prescriptions for the most part.

So it was of no avail for Hobart to ask De La Rue to change their plate specifications. Instead,
Hobart borrowed some paper from New South Wales with watermarks 2, 4 and 10. Paper with
watermark 1 was not supplied as supplies of that type of watermark were probably limited to
the immediate needs of New South Wales.

The 10d was intended for letters to UK via Marseilles but a war between France and Germany
before the end of 1870 quickly put that route out of commission. Basset Hull stated that the
10d was occasionally used on letters as late as 1887. About six sheets per year were issued.
This amounts to about 720 stamps per year, noting that a sheet had 120 stamps. (We do not
use the convention adopted by Basset Hull of quoting sheet sizes of 240 as in Chapter 8 and
subsequently as this makes the annual usage look too large; compare with annual numbers
for South Australia and New South Wales around this era.)

Basset Hull did not record annual usage of the 10d in his book (1890). Likewise, he did not
record annual usage of any other denominations.

He also stated that the last supply of the 10d was printed in 1877. This does not look right.
In his book, he records just the one printing of 1870. A more likely event is that the stamps
were last perforated in 1877 with the 11.4 machine. The 1870 printing was probably mostly
perforated 11.8 but a few sheets could have been perforated 11.4 in early 1871. Details are
lacking and indeed dated examples are scarce. In his supplement to the book, published in
1901, he recorded the 10d as having been perforated 11.8 in late 1889.

We suspect that the annual usage of the 10d increased towards the end of the 1890s as the
Post Office issued a 10d Tablet (bicoloured) in early 1899.

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We add a little to the story of the 10d Sideface.

The stocktake on 31 December 1889 shows that there were 28,620 of the 10d black.
(See page 132 of Basset Hull's book.) So we might suppose that nearly 2,000 of the
10d were used annually after the 2½d of 1891 made its debut. Otherwise, there is
no point in issuing a 10d in the Tablet design as from 1899.

The printed slip of early 1900 from the Hobart GPO showing what was available for
sale at the GPO shows two types of the 10d (dated 1870, 1899). Thus the 10d black
was still available. See Australian Philatelist for 30 March 1900.

It is possible that the 10d perf 11½ appeared in 1877 with the initial supply of 1870
being perf 12 but evidence may take time to become manifest. The 10d is common
in unused condition. Clearly, many 10d got into collectors' hands.

Last but not least, the 10d back is occasionally found as an imperforate pair. That
would be due to the custom of perforating only as needed. A few pairs clearly got
into collectors' hands. These are mostly unused.