Identifying the King Edward VII British Guiana watermarked Multiple Crown CA Badge of the Colony issues is primarily a matter of determining the watermark and then sorting between ordinary and chalk paper for many of the issues. The design was used from 1889 thru 1910 with two different watermarks. This article deals only with the issues watermarked Multiple Crown CA, which was printed from 1905 until it was replaced by the King George V issues in 1913.

If you have trouble determining the watermarks on these stamps, try looking at them face down against black paper. The stamps watermarked Crown CA will always be centered fairly well to the stamp, and the design does not repeat, so even if you can not see the entire watermark, the CA will always be toward the bottom. The stamps watermarked Multiple Crown CA will have the CA on the sides as well as the bottom, so it is pretty easy to differentiate between them. See the images below for reference. There are watermark varieties for some of the stamps in this set. These include inverted and reversed watermarks. The images shown below are the way the watermark should look as seen from the back of the stamp. Anything different will be one of the varieties.

Once you have determined the watermark, the next step for nine of the stamp values is to sort them between ordinary and chalk paper. The initial stamps were printed on ordinary paper. The later issues were printed on chalk coated paper. Although a silver coin will draw a line when rubbed gently against most chalk paper, I find this does not work very well for the KEVII watermarked MCA issues. I look for a shiny coating on the paper when viewed under a good light source. You can also rub your finger across the face of the stamp. It will slide easily over the chalk coated paper, and will feel like it is catching against the ordinary paper. Another test is the quality of the impression. The chalk treatment was used to insure a better quality printing. For the record, the term chalk is not scientifically accurate, but it is the term that has been used in the catalogs. In order to help you get a feel for identifying the two paper types, each stamp is marked with the paper type, even if it only has one option.

Unlike modern stamps which are issued in the millions, definitive sets from this time period were issued very conservatively. The $2.40 value which was an overprinted revenue stamp was printed in a total quantity of 5,240 stamps.

The catalog numbers are from the 1980 Commonwealth Five Reigns Catalogue (CW), 2013 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue (SG) and the 2011 Scott catalog (ST). The description and dates are from the Commonwealth Catalogue. Please contact Bridger & Kay to obtain a copy of this publication. You can access the other publishers using the "Links to British Colonial Stamp Sites" at the bottom of this page. Although the catalogues show these separately, all of the issues are shown by value in the order they were printed.

The images were saved in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in sorting them. Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for this page to load.

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