Rob1956

My clan Coat-of-Arms Scotland
31 May 2022
03:55:13pm

THE 1927 CANBERRA COMMEMORATIVE

Normally I do not collect used or hinged stamps, unless they have historical significance, or the stamp is rarer than its mint unhinged counterpart, there is no other in existence, or currently there is no better, which I would sell the mint hinged stamp when a mint unhinged replacement is found, the latter is rarely done. The Cancelled-to-Order of the 1927 Opening of Parliament House, Canberra has historical importance, such as with the 1932 Opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Cancelled-to-Order: The Canberra stamp is well-known for having three types of Canberra or Parliament House circular date stamps.

a) PARLIAMENT HOUSE CANBERRA/F.C.T.
b) CANBERRA/F.C.T. (23.5mm diameter)
c) CANBERRA/F.C.T. (28mm diameter)

Collectors have generally understood that the postmarking took place in Sydney, and the P.M.G. file had confirmed this. Both small and large post marks were used. Although sales of post marked stamps were available to collectors since 1913, it was not the case with the Canberra commemorative, at the time of issue of the Canberra stamp it was Departmental policy that only current stamps were included in these sets.

Since there had never been a commemorative stamp before, there was no policy on the inclusion or otherwise of such issues. The sale of these sets had been very poor throughout the 1920s, and during 1927, the Department decided to improve sales by increasing the number of stamps to include those obsolete issues which could be supplied, and including OS punctures as well. Under such criteria, the Canberra stamp was included, as was also the same stamp punctured. The stamps uploaded is part of the collector sets mentioned, one stamp is missing, the small single CDS.

SHADES

The official colour description was carmine-red, a rather poor description of a stamp that is usually classed as brownish-lake by the ACSC. There is the usual shade variation as seen in the images that might be expected in a print run of this size, with reddish and brownish extremes, but there are no shades of any importance.

PERFORATION

In 1927, the Note Printing Branch had several single-line perforating machines. One was gauge 14, and the others were gauge 11. The former was used throughout the 1920s for the perforation of postage due stamps, and the latter were the preferred machines for perforating intaglio Territories’ stamps (the Nauru “Ships” and New Guinea “Huts”). It is uncertain how many perf. 11 heads were held by the Branch, but these were clearly inadequate for a job as large as the Canberra stamp, and nine additional machines of similar gauge were purchased. Although the gauge of all these machines was similar, extreme of large hole and small hole perforation are encountered.

The perforation was the most time-consuming part of the production process, each sheet requiring 20 passes through the machine. The enormity of the job, compared to any previous work involving single-line perforation, made some mistakes inevitable. Most important ate the errors of omission of lines of perforation.

A few variations of double perforations exist; one such perforation is shown in the first image.

 
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Rob1956

My clan Coat-of-Arms Scotland
31 May 2022
05:52:58pm

re: THE 1927 CANBERRA COMMEMORATIVE

I have a very good collection of pre-decimal and decimal Navigators, including shades, cracked plates, a rare pre-decimal Presentation Pack with both £2 Navigators, one with the SPECIMEN at lower right corner, and two with the SPECIMEN in central position, one in the Presentation Pack and the other single etc. I'll upload them most likely tonight.

The images in this post were issued in 1927 during the reign of KGV (QEIIs grandfather), the Queen was born in 1926, she was only an infant then.

Rob

 
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Rob1956

My clan Coat-of-Arms Scotland
01 Jun 2022
08:46:32am

re: THE 1927 CANBERRA COMMEMORATIVE

Hi Harro.

We are all human, I made some embarrassing mistakes in the past about stamp information.

I think I posted my collection of Navigators in the past to this forum, since then I added a few more items to the collection, in an hour or so I will repost the collection, all are in mint unhinged condition.

Rob

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Rob1956

My clan Coat-of-Arms Scotland
13 Jun 2022
08:10:42pm

re: THE 1927 CANBERRA COMMEMORATIVE

Hi Franz

The 1927 Canberra stamp was Australia's first commemorative and there is a lot of history behind it, I have not seen the booklet version. The cancellations on these stamps is what made them historically significant, whereas the stamp itself is historical as the first commemorative.

Rob

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Rob1956

My clan Coat-of-Arms Scotland
14 Jun 2022
01:43:29pm

re: THE 1927 CANBERRA COMMEMORATIVE

Hi Dave

Is the gum toned?

Rob

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Horamakhet

19 Jun 2022
12:22:57am

re: THE 1927 CANBERRA COMMEMORATIVE

Hi Rob

Have you seen this variety on the 1927 Canberra Commerative.

Extreme right bottom corner.

Parts of the brown colour are missing. I don't think it is listed in the ACSC. Correct me if I am wrong.

Regards

Franz

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