Nigerian Stamps and Postal History

            Today's post will deal with the topic of chalk-surfaced papers on Nigerian stamps of the colonial period. The standard postage stamp catalogues, such as Scott, make no distinction at all as to the use of chalk-surfaced papers over the normal, unsurfaced, plate-glazed wove paper. However, the Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue does list both chalk surfaced and ordinary unsurfaced papers where both were used. What many collectors may be unaware of though is the fact that more than one type of chalk-surfaced paper was used in some cases. The stamps in question were printed by De La Rue in London, and during the King Edward VII Period, the stamps of Great Britain also show these variations. The difference though is that the specialized Stanley Gibbons catalogue does distinguish between the normal chalk surfaced paper, and a very thick, opaque paper, which it calls Dickinson Coated Paper, which was used on an experimental basis in 1913. It stand...

                    Today's post is the last in a series of posts in which I discuss the general characteristics of the printing work done by the various printing firms in the production of Nigeria's postage stamps. Although substantially all of the postage stamp production was carried out by six printing firms, there were a few other, lesser known firms that had a hand in producing some of Nigeria's stamps. I do not possess full sheets of the stamps printed by these firms, so I am not in a position to provide the same kinds of information as in the previous posts. However, I can offer some general observations about the characteristics of the papers and gums used, as well as the printing methods. The firms and organizations involved are: 1. The Government Printer of Israel. 2. Lewin-Epstein of Bat Yam, Israel. 3. Enschede and Sons of Holland. 4. Cartor of France. 5. Kalamazoo Security Print. 6. Superflux International Ltd.,...

             Overview The Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, abbreviated NSP&M, has with few exceptions since 1968 been the sole printer of Nigeria's postage stamps. The few exceptions since then have been as follows: The 1970 printings of the 2d and 4d wildlife definitives, which were printed by Enschede.  The Stamp of Destiny issue of 1970, which was printed by Enschede. The Tenth Anniversary of Independence issue of 1970, which was printed by Enschede. The Racial Equality Year Issue of 1971, which was printed by Enschede. The All-Africa Trade Fair issue of 1972, which was printed by De La Rue. The Nigeria Drives Right Issue of 1972, which was printed by De La Rue.  The All Nigeria Arts Festival Issue of 1972, which was printed by De La Rue. The 2004 re-prints of the wildlife definitives were printed by Cartor of France.  The 2010 definitives which were lithographed by Kalamazoo Security Print Ltd., o...

                    Harrison and Sons is a printing firm that first appears on the scene of British Commonwealth philately in 1928, when they were asked to print the stamps of Gold Coast. Their involvement in Nigerian philately does not start until just after Independence, when they produced the new definitive issue that was released in 1961, and remained in use until 1965. From this point, until the NSP&M took over the production of most Nigerian stamps, Harrison would produce nearly all of the commemorative postage stamps issued between 1961 and 1968, with only a few sets being printed by other firms in Israel and one by De La Rue. Printing Process They were masters of a new printing process called photogravure, in which printing is made from photographic plates. The British post office had been looking for ways to reduce the cost of printing postage stamps, and photogravure turned out to be an even faster and cheaper alt...