Issue of 1886-87.
In 1886 a number of the stamps began to appear on the paper
watermarked Crown C.A., the initials of "Crown Agents." The colours
were changed, and a new value inscribed "2 1/2 PENNY" on the value tablet
was added. The values and colours are--
1/2d. grey-green, myrtle-green (shades).
1d. carmine, rose-carmine, crimson.
2d. orange-yellow, orange, deep orange.
2 1/2d. pale ultramarine, deep ultramarine.
3d. grey, slate-grey, pearl-grey.
4d. brown, deep brown.
6d. olive-green, bronze-green, grey-green.
1s. violet, deep violet.
All values exist with the embossing double; several with the embossing
double, one of the impressions being inverted; part double and treble
perforations; and the white and the yellow gum.
The watermark Crown C.A. is uniformly sideways in this issue, the
normal position being from right to left (Fig. F.), but it may be
found inverted (Fig. G.).
[page 38]
[Illustration: Fig. F.]
[Illustration: Fig. G.]
The method of cutting up the sheets of Crown C.A. paper was to
guillotine the half sheets horizontally in half and then twice
vertically, dividing each horizontal half into three small sheets, the
half C.A. sheet of paper yielding six small Gambia sheets (plates XII.
and XIII.). The operators both at the guillotine and at the press
seem to have taken the utmost care to arrange all the small sheets
uniformly for passing through the press, as the varieties shewing the
watermark from left to right are rare. The diagrams on plates XII.
and XIII. will illustrate more clearly than a verbal explanation the
precise method of dividing up the Crown C.A. paper.
The early printings of the Crown C.A. issue were perforated with
the comb machine described in the previous chapter, but in the later
printings a new comb machine was introduced, which has not the narrow
spaced teeth in the margin, and, consequently, has not the double
row of perforation on the right hand margins of the sheets. The
perforations produced by the two machines gauge the same, and are not
distinguishable in single specimens or blocks, but only in sheets
or specimens with pieces of margins. The effect of the two different
combs on the sheet may be compared on the two sheets of the 6d. value
illustrated on plates X. and XI. We may note (plate VIII.) the second
comb with the teeth extending [page 41] through the top margin,
leaving the bottom margin blank, shewing that some of the sheets were
perforated from the bottom, which would produce this effect.
Unused imperforate copies exist of all values in the following
shades--
Imperforate 1/2d. grey-green.
" 1d. pale crimson.
" 2d. orange-yellow.
" 2 1/2d. pale ultramarine.
" 3d. pearl-grey.
" 4d. brown.
" 6d. slate-green.
" 1s. deep violet.
Copies in trial colours, perforated 12 instead of 14, exist as
follows--
1/2d. rose.
1/2d. violet.
1/2d. dull green.
1/2d. pale dull orange.
3d. olive-green.
On some of the sheets of the 1/2d. value stamp 2 shews a slightly
elongated left stroke of the letter m in Gambia; No. 5 on the same
sheet shews a similar defect in the right stroke of the letter. (See
plate III., which reproduction, however, only shews the variety on
stamp 2.) Stamps Nos. 1, 12, 13 on the same sheet illustrated shew
a peculiarity in the form of a broken nose. We have not been able to
trace other copies shewing a similar defect, so possibly it is simply
due to over-inking or faulty inking of the colour plate.
The plate of the 3d. was altered in the final printing, two additional
printers' guide dots being added in the [page 42] left margin, and the
top and bottom dot on the right being removed (plate VIII.). This was
printed in pearl-grey only.
The early printings of the 6d. value shew the sloping labels; they
also shew the slight enlargement of the stamps in the top row. These
varieties occur in the olive-green, bronze-green, and grey-green
shades. Later a new plate was made without the defect in the top row,
and this was printed in grey-green only. (Cp. plates XI. and XIV.)
It may be noted that there are two varieties of the overprint on the
SPECIMEN stamps of this series, one having the letters sloping upwards
from left to right, the other being horizontal.
[Illustration]
[page 45]