Nigerian Stamps and Postal History

Today's post will deal with the fourth, and one of the most complicated denominations of this first issue of Lagos, the 4d carmine. Seven printings were made of this stamp between May 12, 1874 and May 13, 1875. This post will attempt to explain how to distinguish the seven printings of these stamps using the following characteristics: 1. Cancellations. 2. Colour shades. 3. Paper differences. The discussion in my first post about the 1d, where I talk about the significance of the various cancellations used on this issue applies equally to this value as well. I am not going to repeat the details of that discussion here, but will instead provide a link to that discussion: http://naijastamps.blogspot.ca/2016/10/distinguishing-six-printings-of-1d.html However, the dates found on the Lagos CDS cancellations can be utilized to distinguish the various printings as follows: First printings should be cancelled between late July 1874 and September 1875, though some may be canc...

Today's post will deal with the third value in this first issue of Lagos, the 3d red-brown. Four printings were made of this stamp between November 18, 1874 and May 13, 1875. This post will attempt to explain how to distinguish the four printings of these stamps using the following characteristics: 1. Cancellations. 2. Colour shades. 3. Paper differences. The discussion in my first post about the 1d, where I talk about the significance of the various cancellations used on this issue applies equally to this value as well. I am not going to repeat the details of that discussion here, but will instead provide a link to that discussion: http://naijastamps.blogspot.ca/2016/10/distinguishing-six-printings-of-1d.html However, the dates found on the Lagos CDS cancellations can be utilized to distinguish the various printings as follows: First printings should be cancelled between late December 1874 to April 1875. Second printings should be cancelled between February 1875 a...