Issue of 1880.
Together with a number of other colonial possessions, Gambia was
admitted to the Universal Postal Union on January 1st, 1879, and
in June of the following year (1880) a more comprehensive series of
postage stamps was issued, all modelled after the same fashion as
the two denominations which had done service in the Colony for the
previous twelve years. The convenience of perforation was adopted
at the same time. The new series comprised the following values, the
shades being given in the approximate order of printings--
1/2d. golden yellow, deep golden yellow, pale orange, vermilion,
deep orange vermilion, citron,[1] pale ochre.[1]
1d. lake, deep lake.
2d. pale rose, rose, deep rose.
3d. pale ultramarine, deep ultramarine, deep blue.
4d. sepia brown, deep sepia brown.
6d. pale blue, blue, deep blue.
1s. bright green, deep green.
[Footnote 1: The 1/2d. citron and 1/2d. pale ochre are generally believed
to be changelings, due to atmospheric or other influences after the
stamps were printed.]
[page 26]
[Illustration: Fig. D.]
[Illustration: Fig. E.]
The watermark on this issue appears variously upright or sideways,
varieties of each being inverted. The normal "sideways" may be taken
as from left to right. Portions of the marginal lettering and the
vertical division lines of the panes are also to be found. The
following is a synopsis of these varieties--
Crown C.C. vertical (Fig. A).
" " inverted (Fig. C).
" sideways (Fig. D).
" " inverted (Fig. E).
Portions of words "CROWN COLONIES."
Division lines of the panes.
The subject of perforations is of peculiar interest in this and the
next issue of the stamps of Gambia, as while to a certain extent the
printings are to be differentiated by shade the chief distinctions may
be made in the case of blocks and sheets by the perforations.
At first the stamps were perforated by a single line machine gauging
14. A single line machine, as its name implies, simply makes a single
long row of holes in one direction--
.................................................................
In the present case, where the sheets were so small, the row is much
longer than necessary, so in the sheets it extends through the margins
on all sides, as in plate II.
[page 29]
The horizontal rows may be perforated first (one row at a time),
and then the sheet is turned sideways and the vertical divisions
are similarly perforated. A peculiarity of this style of perforating
machine is that the points where the vertical lines cross the
horizontal lines rarely fail to fall foul of each other, and an effect
is produced like this--
[Illustration: Single line perforation. Note the crossing of
perforated lines.]
In this manner it is possible to tell blocks and pairs of this
perforation without any side margins. Single copies perforated in
this manner can occasionally be detected by the distance between the
vertical perforations. In the later perforation of this issue the
distance is fixed (as will be shewn), and the distance is 20 1/2mm.,
[page 30] measuring from perf. point to perf. point across the stamp.
Any stamp differing in width to any extent more than 1/2mm. from
20 1/2mm. may therefore be set down as perforated by the single line
machine.
We have seen all the values except the 2d. rose and 1/- green
perforated by the single line machine, in practically every case the
C.C. watermark being upright, the exception being a strip of three
6d. with the sideways watermark. All the sheets with this perforation
appear to have one printer's guide dot in the centre of each side
margin.
The next form of perforating machine introduced in later printings
of the Crown and C.C. 1880 issue is known as a comb machine. The comb
machine perforates three sides of a stamp at once, and the form of the
first comb machine was arranged thus--
...............................................................
: : : : : : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : : : : : :
: : : : : : : : : : : : : :
The arrangement of the teeth of the comb fitted the arrangement of the
panes of the regular Colonial postage stamps printed by Messrs. De la
Rue & Co., the narrow spaced teeth in the centre marking the dividing
space between two horizontal panes.
In perforating the stamps of Gambia in the small sheets of fifteen
in three horizontal rows of five, both sides of the machine appear
to have been used, the extreme end portion of the comb at either end
running off the side margin of the small sheet. When the left portion
of the machine was being used the sheet was [page 33] inserted upright
and the top row of stamps perforated first, the effect being that the
top margin is not cut through by vertical perforations, and the bottom
row is (see plate III.).
When the right-hand portion was in use the sheets appear to have been
systematically inverted when placed in the machine. This left the
bottom margin blank and the top margin cut through. Had the sheet been
simply inverted and perforated by the same portion of the machine, as
already described, the narrow spaced teeth would have been produced on
the left hand margin instead of the right. A comparison of plates
III. and VI. will shew that the narrow spacing is on the right in both
cases, but in III. the perforating has been started at the top on the
left side of the machine, and in VI. from the bottom on the right side
of the machine.
It is possible that sheets exist with the narrow spaced lines of
perforation on the left side. We have searched in vain for such
varieties, but they may exist. A sheet inverted when placed on the
left side of the machine would shew the top margin perforated through,
and narrow spaced perforation to left; while a sheet inserted top
first on the right hand side would leave the top margin blank and the
bottom one perforated through, and the narrow spaced perforation to
left.
This comb generally perforates so evenly that there is no clashing of
the perforations where the lines meet. Occasionally, however, a sheet
may get off the straight and an irregular perforation occurs.
The sheets perforated in this machine generally have one guide dot
in the left margin, and three at the right (see sheets III.-VII.,
IX.-XI., XIV., XV.).
[page 34]
[Illustration: Comb perforation. Compare crossing of perforated lines
with illustration on page 29.]
The 1/2d. pale orange vermilion exists doubly perforated at the top and
sides.
A minor variety of the 2d. rose shews a small white spot 1/2mm. from the
nose. The stamp is No. 6 on the sheet. The variety has been noted on
several (not all) the sheets of this value, and in various blocks,
pairs and singles.
The left and right hand top stamps (1 and 5) of the 6d. value shew the
sloping label, which is now very prominent (see plate X.).
All the values shew variations in the marks on the back hair and in
the curls.
[page 37]