Nigerian Stamps and Postal History

This week's post was quite short, as I was only starting my examination of the different perforations on this stamp. My examination of the previous issue had indicated to me that the classification system used by Gibbons for the perforations is too simple, because it treats several distinct perforation measurements as being the same. What I mean by this is that Gibbons lists 14.5-15 and 13.5-14 as the basic perforation measurements. The problem with this is that in the first Waterlow issue, there are actual measurements of exactly 15, 14.5, and 14, all of which look quite different from one another. A variation of 0.2 of a hole is not that different visually, but a variation of 0.5 hole is noticeably different. So, in studying this issue, I wanted to see of the same trend held true. Although I am not finished examining all of the halfpenny stamps in my possession, it is clear that the same trend does in fact hold, and that in addition to the three perforations mentioned ab...

I see that I missed posting last week about the Second Waterlow Issue of Niger Coast Protectorate. Facebook issued me a temporary sharing ban last week and because of that I did not share last week's post to this blog. So, this week I will give you the hyperlinks to both this week's and last week's post, as well as my synopsis. Last week I wrote an overview post for the Second Waterlow issue of Niger Coast Protectorate. This issue is the unwatermarked one that was issued with the new designs incorporating the name "Niger Coast Protectorate" and no mention anywhere of "Oil Rivers". I discussed the general aspects of the issue and gave detailed printing data from Ince and Osborne for all the known printings. You can read that full post here: https://brixtonchrome.com/blogs/nigerian-stamps-and-postal-history/the-1894-second-waterlow-issue-of-niger-coast-protectorate This week I looked at the halfpenny green in detail and covered all aspects of...

This week's post is much shorter than usual, as I am finding it necessary to write shorter posts if I want to have any chance of being able to continue to post on a weekly basis.  Today's post finishes off this first Waterlow issue, with a detailed study of the perforations on the 1 shiling black and then a quick look at some of the postal history that can be found from this issue.  In terms of perforations, my detailed study turned up some 36 different measurements. Most of these were very close together, but it was common to have different measurements on three or sometimes 4 sides of the same stamp. By far, the most common perforations were variations of 15 and 14.5 x 15. I proposed that I believe the Gibbons practice of grouping 14.5-15 and 13.5-14 together in the same ranges to be too simplistic, and I argue that there are really 6 basic measurements, that also exist as compounds.  Postal history is scarce for this issue, and much of what can be fou...

Today, I explore most aspects of the last value in the first Waterlow series, being the 1/- black, which in many respects is my favourite from the set. At least is a close toss up between this and the 2d green. The aspects that I cover today are the paper varieties, which are more or less the same as for the other values, the cancellations, which do not show up as easily on these black stamps, and the plate varieties. The plate varieties are interesting. There are three varieties that can be found on every single stamp in the sheet, two that can be found on about half of the stamps, and six that are specific to just one position in the sheet. I have been able to illustrate all but three of these in my detailed post. For the full post, including illustrations of the varieties, please click on the following link: https://brixtonchrome.com/blogs/nigerian-stamps-and-postal-history/the-unwatermarked-queen-victoria-waterlow-issue-of-niger-coast-protectorate-part-nine

This week's post completes my examination of the 5d mauve value of this set, which I started last week. This week's post will look at the plate flaws and re-entries found on this value, and the perforations. In terms of plate flaws, my detailed post gives details of six listed plate flaws and re-entries that occur on this stamp, that were listed in the West Africa Study Circle bulletin from May 1976. Two of these occur on many stamps on the sheet, and one occurs on every stamp. I give illustrations of all but three of the six listed flaws. In addition, I have found two varieties that were not mentioned in that bulletin. What is interesting is that there are very few re-entries, though the ones that do occur are quite outstanding. The only problem with them is that they occur on several positions in the sheet, so that they are not really that scarce. I have 74 mint and used examples of this stamp, which includes 1 mint pair. Careful measurement of the perforations reve...

My apologies for the lateness of today's post. I have been very tied up with the website and it took me a few days to catch up after a well deserved, and much needed 2 weeks off. This week I finished off my coverage of the 2.5d lake Queen Victoria stamp from the 1894 First Waterlow unwatermarked issue from Niger Coast Protectorate. I had covered all aspects of this stamp, except for the perforations. So, this week I took all 86 mint and used examples of this stamp in my inventory and measured the perforations very carefully with my Instanta gauge. As I had expected, based on the large number of different perforations I have found on the 1/2d, 1d and 2d values, I found no fewer than 45 different measurements. Of these 45, there were a few that stood out as being the most common: the perf. 15 and perf. 14. The Gibbons listed compound perforation of 13.5-14 and 12-13 was the scarcest of all the varieties, and in all cases, the compound came in the form of two different measure...