Nigerian Stamps and Postal History

Today's post continues my examination of the 2d lilac and ultramarine stamp of Lagos, and picks up where last week's post left off, at the twenty-eighth printing. This printing is the start of a group of printings from what I call the third state of the plate. In this state of the plate, there is a loss of overall sharpness, a loss of detail in the hair at the back of the head, and especially that below the diagonal ribbon, and merging of at least the top 5 hairlines on the head. One of the shifts that we see in this group is the shift from mostly used examples to mostly mint, which makes sense given the very large number of remainders that were sent back to London in 1903. Also, this is the first group in which shades of ultramarine predominate for the duty plate colour, as opposed to shades of blue, grey blue and dull blue. The head plate colours are more dull purples and reddish lilacs, or very pale versions of these colours. On the used stamps, barred ovals continue to...

Today's post continues our examination of the printings of the 2d lilac and blue, or in the later printings, the 2d lilac and ultramarine. Last week, I looked at the very earliest printings, made, when the plate had sustained very little to no wear. This week, I start with those printings from the next state of the plate, in which the very first signs of wear begin to appear in the form of the merging of the first few hairlines at the top of the head, and a loss of detail in the hair at the back of the head. Most of these printings had duty plate shades, which are still in the blue and cobalt range, rather than the ultramarine range. Group 2: Printings from the Second State of the Plate - Printings 11 to 27 - About December 1889 or January 1890 to About January 1894. Eleventh Printing On this printing, the head plate colour is closest to Gibbons' dull purple, but is just a touch brighter. The stamp on the right is both brighter and paler, but this may be affected by...

Today's post will conclude my coverage of the printings of the 2.5d ultramarine, and will start looking at the 2d lilac and blue. The last post left off at the 37th printing of the 2.5d. The stamp was first issued in April 1891 and was printed for the last time in August 1901. This is just over 10 years. At one printing per quarter, this translates into approximately 41 printings that we would expect to see, if one printing was made each time that stamps were sent to the colony. The last printings examined showed plate wear that is consistent with the 4th state of plate 1, which is so say that all of the detail in the hair behind the head is gone, as is most of the hair detail above the crown. The crown itself shows merging of the finer shading lines into solid masses of colour, and finally the horizontal shading lines in the portrait are of uneven thickness. There should normally have been a very worn 5th state for printings made between 1899 and 1900. However, I have not seen ...