I am feeling unimaginative this week. So I will show you some pretty looking things from North Borneo philately. The early printers of North Borneo stamps, Blades, East and Blades, seemed to be very keen to submit different colour trials before a decision was made on each value. For the 1888 25c value, there are at least a dozen different colours on record. These ones here have no perforation across the centre which is my preference. The others were either perforated 12 or 14 across the centre.
It was suggested new dies were engraved for this 1888 high values issue because the original dies for the 1886 high values were destroyed in a fire. It is beneficial to know the subtle differences between them as the earlier issue is much more uncommon and valuable.
Do you have an idea how much they are worth?
ReplyDeleteThey are certainly pretty to look at.
Well, I think between £10-20 each depending on condition for this particular value. They are certainly attractive.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the subtle difference in the stamps made from the original dies?
ReplyDeleteMy knowledge here is lacking. As far as I know, these stamps were printed using lithographic methods. The image was transferred from the original die to the lithographic printing plate. So theoretically die proofs should be a more perfect result with no flaws. The adhesives here are colour trials and so no different from the normal stamps.
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