Identifying King George VI StampsLeeward Islands 1/ Issues
My reference for the colors of these stamps is "The Printings of King George VI Colonial Stamps" by W.J.W. Potter & Lt. Col. R.C.M. Shelton which was published by Stamp Collecting, Ltd. in 1952. The printing dates and quantities printed are from Study Paper No. 10 published by the King George VI Collectors Society in 1977, and authored by F.R. Saunders and M.R. Boyle. As you can see, there were nine 1/ issues printed during the years of production with a total printing of 483,000 stamps. For the record, the stamps were printed in sheets of 120 which comprised 2 panes of 6 x 10 with a center strip that divided the two frames.
If you are trying to sort the stamps of the Leeward Islands keyplates, you will need to understand how to identify the various Head Plate Die states. There are three Dies of the Head Plate. Feel free to visit the Leeward Islands Small Keyplate Die Plates site for more information before you read the information in this site.
Once you have sorted the stamps by Die, it is fairly easy to sort them by printing. A listing with sorting tips is shown below for each Die option.
The 1938 printing is easily found by the yellowish gum. It is also a more different shade of green compared to all of the other issues, so it tends to stand out from the other printings.
The Grey & Black and Black & Grey printings are fairly easy to determine once you have figured out where each color belongs. The difficulty is finding the difference between the 1943 and 1944 printings. We had blocks with Jubilee lines (printing marks around the border of the stamps) to show us the difference when we originally sorted this value. The one with 1 Jubilee line is the 1943 printing, and the one with 2 Jubilee lines is the 1944 printing. If you do not have a block with the Jubilee line, notice that the 1944 printing is a little deeper black than the 1943 printing. We also found that the 1943 printing is fairly common, so it tends to be the one you have if you cannot decide.
The March 1942 Die III printing is fairly scarce, and tends to be found in several states. The quality of the impression tends to vary from very poor quality to medium quality. Even the one shown in the middle looks poorly printed when compared to the high quality of the 1947 printing. The duty plate will be found with both black and a silver-grey color that resembles the November 1942 (Die II) printing. To determine the proper printing, compare the Head Plate Die and the color as you make your decision.
The remaining Die III printings were produced between 1947 and 1951. They differ from the 1942 printing in terms of quality (much better) and color. Although not visible on the internet, the 1947 printing is an intense black. The other two issues appear similar to the Grey & Black August, 1942 Die II printing, but are a deeper color and of course are Die III. I hope this helps you sort your stamps. We have these issues for sale sorted by printing. Use the link below to request current prices. Please do not treat the scans as totally accurate in terms of color. Internet Browsers do not clearly show the entire range of colors in the spectrum. The centers of all the stamps appear a little washed out due to the effects of my scanner. This article is intended to help collectors identify their KGVI Stamps. Please feel free to write with additional information. It will be added to revised versions of this article.
The remaining Die III printings were produced between 1947 and 1951. They differ from the 1942 printing in terms of quality (much better) and color. Although not visible on the internet, the 1947 printing is an intense black. The other two issues appear similar to the Grey & Black August, 1942 Die II printing, but are a deeper color and of course are Die III.
I hope this helps you sort your stamps. We have these issues for sale sorted by printing. Use the link below to request current prices.
Please do not treat the scans as totally accurate in terms of color. Internet Browsers do not clearly show the entire range of colors in the spectrum. The centers of all the stamps appear a little washed out due to the effects of my scanner.
This article is intended to help collectors identify their KGVI Stamps. Please feel free to write with additional information. It will be added to revised versions of this article.