The King George VI Sierra Leone stamps were printed from 1938 until about 1952. The stamps were all printed by Waterlow & Sons, so you will see that the perforations are all similar and color shades are not that dramatically different. The primary way that I can differentiate them is by comparing the paper and gum as seen from the back. This helps determine relative time periods when the stamps were printed.

The pages from my collection were created using information presented by W. J. W. Potter & Lt. Col. R. C. M. Shelton in their "The Printings of King George VI Colonial Stamps" which was published by Stamp Collecting Ltd. in December, 1952. The publication listed tables for each of the countries' issues that were included. The Potter & Shelton details were copied to an Excel spreadsheet. This document is included for download if you want to see it.

The stamps in my collection are identified by the Commonwealth, Gibbons, and Scott numbers in that order. The page images were scanned in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in viewing them. Feel free to select the page and let it download to your screen and save it to your hard drive for viewing. If you are using a PC, selecting the page will typically open it in Microsoft Photo Viewer (or whatever you are using as your default). From there you can enlarge the size for more close-up viewing. If you are using a phone - go find a PC or a Mac. The images are 1200 pixels wide and you will go mad trying to view them on your phone.

Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for each page to load.

This article was written to help you identify your stamps.
Please feel free to ask a question, or suggest a correction.