Nigerian Stamps and Postal History

I am now about half way through writing this week's post about the 3d lilac and orange brown, and I have identified what I believe to be 31 different printings. However, it is almost 2 am and there is no way I can finish it tonight. Again, I do apologize to my readers. However, I can promise that by the end of the day tomorrow, I will have this post published no matter what. Thank you for your patience...

I have to apologize to my regular readers for the fact that I am going to have to delay this weeks's post about the 3d lilac and orange brown Queen Victoria keyplate stamps of Lagos until Thursday this week. I have had a larger than usual number of these stamps to sort, as well as having visitors from out of town this week. So between the demands of my business and other responsibilities, I just was not able to complete the sort and write the actual post today. I have almost completed the sort and what I can say is that there are lots of really interesting combinations of head and duty plate shades, as well as an earlier state of plate wear in which there is no merging of the top three lines of the hair on the Queen's head. This earlier state would seem to correspond to the period between the time that the stamp was issued in late 1890 and 1894 when the 5d, 7.5d and 10d stamps were issued. So please return to this page on Thursday, August 3 for the completed post. 

Today's post concludes my examination of the three stamps issued in 1894 by Lagos to facilitate payment of insurance charges on registered parcels: the 5d, 7.5d and 10d. Several weeks ago we looked at the 5d lilac and dark green and concluded that there were approximately 18 printings and then the 7.5d lilac and crimson and concluded that there were 19 printings of those stamps. Given that only 43,380 stamps of the 10d were sent, compared to 55,620 stamps of the 7.5d, and 92,160 of the 5d, I would expect there to have been fewer printings, although it is entirely possible that there were as many printings consisting of fewer stamps each time, just was was the case with the 7.5d. Like the 5d, and 7.5d there were a lot of unsold remainders that were eventually destroyed - 23,100 out of the original 43,380, leaving only 20,280 stamps that were sold and either preserved in mint form, or used. I have 84 mint and used stamps of this value, which I initially sorted into the same five g...

I have been busy for the past several weeks with my business and have come to the realization that I simply cannot adequately handle a business specializing in both Canada and Nigeria, as Canada is vast enough to keep me busy full time for 14 hours a day. Therefore, I have decided that the time has come to take my entire collection of Nigeria, which took me more than 10 years to form, and sell it all at a public auction. For this very important task, I have approached Gary Watson of Mossgreen Auctions in Melbourne, Australia. Gary has a long track record of showcasing exotic collections of emerging philatelic areas and finding loving homes for rare and important stamps and postal history. My collection consists of tens of thousands of stamps and approximately 50,000 covers from this most populous country in Africa. There is strength in all periods including all the pre-1914 territories and protectorates. There are rare printings, cancellations shades, proofs, and souvenir items th...

Gold Foil Embossed Stamp Starting in the late 1960's many African countries began printing their high value stamps from gold foil which had the design embossed in whole or part. Some of these were produced from 100% foil, while others, like the above stamp from Upper Volta, which is now known as Burkina Faso, were printed on paper which had a coating of gold. These were largely eschewed by traditional collectors at the time they first appeared, with the result that many are quite scarce today. Granite Paper Granite paper is a wove paper in which coloured threads, usually made of silk, and usually black in colour appear on the surface of the paper embedded within it. The above scan shows two Japanese stamps from the 1920's that were part of the same issue. The stamp on the right is printed on regular wove paper, and shows no fibres on the paper surface. The stamp on the left shows several black fibres visible on the surface. This is what philatelists refer to as ...