Graphite lines on Great Britain stamps
gtucker
with what looks like wide black graphite lines on the front. It is on
the 1952-4 set. All the stamps look mint, some with no gum (the stuff is
all hinged). Any thoughts on this stuff?
--
-----------------------------
gtu...@fox.nstn.ca
Seaside Book & Stamp
Halifax, N.S., Canada
-----------------------------
Michael Meadowcroft
automatic sorting. As such they were a predecessor of phosphor bands.
One set even had both graphite lines and phosphor bands!
Michael Meadowcroft
Wolfgang Richter
In Canada, if you run across stamps with gum and with black lines on
the front, you are looking at unused precancels. Ie: the stamps have
been cancelled ahead of time and sold for a discount. If the stamps
have no gum, then they have been used. Is this what you are talking
about?
I know of GB stamps from the common definitive QE II set where some
were issued with black graphite lines ON THE BACK. Is that what you
are talking about as the experimental issue?
--
Wolfgang Richter, Systems Consultant E-mail: wolf...@sfu.ca
Academic Computing Services
Simon Fraser University Telephone: (604) 291-4449
Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Fax: (604) 291-4242
--
Wolfgang Richter, Systems Consultant E-mail: wolf...@sfu.ca
Academic Computing Services
Simon Fraser University Telephone: (604) 291-4449
Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5A 1S6 Fax: (604) 291-4242
Michael D. Dixon
media (e.g., graphite lines and phosphor tags), nor
pre-cancels. They are defaced Wilding issues for use
in the Post Office Training School. See article by some
guy named Dixon in November 1988 issue of The American
Philatelist.
Cheers:
Michael
Wolfgang Richter (wolf...@newsserver.sfu.ca) wrote:
: Michael Meadowcroft <Mead...@bramley.demon.co.uk> writes:
--
Michael D. Dixon "I think there is a world market for
Phone: (301) 299-7157 about five computers."
FAX: (301) 983-0857 - Thomas J. Watson
e-mail: m...@access.digex.net - Chairman of the Board of IBM (1943)
Michael Meadowcroft
on the back.
Michael Meadowcroft
Clive Alexander
>Michael Meadowcroft <Mead...@bramley.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
>>Graphite lines were an experimental attempt at providing a means of
>>automatic sorting. As such they were a predecessor of phosphor bands.
>>One set even had both graphite lines and phosphor bands!
>>
>>Michael Meadowcroft
>
>In Canada, if you run across stamps with gum and with black lines on
>the front, you are looking at unused precancels. Ie: the stamps have
>been cancelled ahead of time and sold for a discount. If the stamps
>have no gum, then they have been used. Is this what you are talking
>about?
>
>I know of GB stamps from the common definitive QE II set where some
>were issued with black graphite lines ON THE BACK. Is that what you
>are talking about as the experimental issue?
>
>--
> Wolfgang Richter, Systems Consultant E-mail: wolf...@sfu.ca
Michael is quite correct.
The BPO experimented with the graphite lines on some of the QEII
"Wildings" (so called because the portrait used was by Dorothy Wilding).
They tried graphite lines on the front and back of the stamps, on the
sides next to the perforations and in the middle of the stamp. The idea
was that the sorting machinery would pick up the graphite lines
magnetically. The trouble wa that sometimes the letter would contain
paper clips or some such and also some papers would be slightly metallic,
so confusing the machinery. This sorting machine was used in order to
make sure that all envelopes were proerly oriented in the automatic
cancelling machine. If an envelope was inserted into the batch up-side
down this would be detected and the machine would then flip the envelope
around so that the stamp could be cancelled. It is a common
mis-perception that these machines were used to determine if the letter
contained a stamp or not.
This graphite line method was abandoned after a few years in favour of
the phosfor bands. This in turn was abandoned in favour of paper which is
coated completely in flourescent dye.
BTW, These stamps with the bands on the front are quite scarce. You have
a valuable stamp there.
Hope this clears it up for you
Cheers
Clive Alexander
Pretoria
South Africa
alex...@telkom.co.za
Eric Yendall
>with what looks like wide black graphite lines on the front. It is on
>the 1952-4 set. All the stamps look mint, some with no gum (the stuff is
>all hinged). Any thoughts on this stuff?
Sounds to me that you have British post office training stamps used in
training of PO counter clerks. Curiousity value only.
Cheers.
Michael D. Dixon
either deliberately (not acceptable as they would have
marred the Queen's image) nor accidentally (at least, there
are no reported examples). Those examples of GB Wildings
with lines on the front are Post Office Traing stamps.
The simple test is that graphite lines are 1 mm wide only;
Post Officetraining school bands are 2.75 to 3 mm wide.
See the photographs in my article in The American Philatelist,
November, 1988.
Michael
Eric Yendall (e.ye...@worldlink.ca) wrote:
: > I have GB definatives
Robert Lyttle
> Got something that I do not understand. I have GB definatives
> with what looks like wide black graphite lines on the front. It is on
> the 1952-4 set. All the stamps look mint, some with no gum (the stuff
is
> all hinged). Any thoughts on this stuff?
>
> -----------------------------
> gtu...@fox.nstn.ca
> Seaside Book & Stamp
> Halifax, N.S., Canada
> -----------------------------
These stamps have been overprinted for use by the Post Ofice training
school. Various definitives were overprinted in this manner. Some UK
dealers offer them for sale; I m not sure of there value, but they are
relatively inexpensive.
Rob (r.ly...@qub.ac.uk)
Robert Benfield
Robert Lyttle <rly...@otho.cs.qub.ac.uk> wrote:
>In article <3qn2ec$f...@Owl.nstn.ca> writes:
>> Got something that I do not understand. I have GB definatives
>> with what looks like wide black graphite lines on the front. It is on
>> the 1952-4 set. All the stamps look mint, some with no gum (the stuff
>
>school. Various definitives were overprinted in this manner. Some UK
>dealers offer them for sale; I m not sure of there value, but they are
>relatively inexpensive.
>
Prices for this material are hard to define because there is not
enough of a market to set a proper market price. Leakage of
the stamps from the Post Office Training School to collectors was
supposed to be illegal (amounting to theft of the items) and I know
of no standard catalogue listing. That said, prices mentioned in
auction catalogues and dealers' lists for this training school
material are very high. Rushstamps list is probably the most
accessible dealers' list to include them. I've really no idea
whether people actually pay the prices mentioned but it's clear
that these training school stamps are very desirable items for a
GB collection.
Robert