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COMMONWEALTH CLASSICS

Victorian Edwardian
The only Australian state to produce stamps portraying King Edward VII was
Victoria, but it did so quicker than Great Britain could manage
■ Report by John Winchester

T
he six Australian colonies
were federated as the
‘The £1 was on sale
Commonwealth of Australia by November 1901,
on January 1, 1901, with control of
their postal services passing to the six weeks before
new central government.
The pace of change had run well Great Britain issued
ahead of any plans to produce a
unified stamp design, however, so
its first Edward VII
the individual states would stamps’
continue to print their own issues
for the time being. inspiration for the new high values
Just weeks later, the death of being designed at the Stamp
Queen Victoria presented them Printing Board of the Victoria Post
with a quandary. Should they Office in Melbourne.
design new stamps, or redesign Speed being of the essence,
existing stamps, to incorporate a Samuel Reading got to work on
portrait of the new monarch, King engraving the die in record time,
Edward VII? Or should they just working from a photograph by
wait for the federal government to William Stuart.
resolve the matter by creating a The circular portrait was
definitive issue for the whole of enclosed in two elaborately
Australia? decorated but contrasting frames,
the £1 design being more floral and
For the State of Victoria, at least, the £2 design more angular, both
the answer was clear. ABOVE & RIGHT: with the obligatory ‘Postage’
Its stamps had hitherto been Victoria 1901-10 inscription joined by several
inscribed ‘Stamp Duty’, but it £1 carmine-rose and different renditions of the value.
needed to separate postal and £2 deep blue The stamps were printed in
fiscal charges, because revenue sheets of 80, arranged 10 x 8, on
from the sale of postage stamps paper carrying the V Over Crown
would now be passed to the watermark of type IV pattern,
Commonwealth. So a new series of sideways. They were line-
definitives was already in perforated, either 12½ or 12x12½.
preparation, with the inscription
changed to ‘Postage’. The £1 carmine-rose was ready to
These stamps recycled a motley be put on sale by November 18,
array of old designs, using various 1901, six weeks before Great
different portraits of the late Britain issued its first Edward VII
Queen, for values up to 5s. Two stamps. The £2 deep blue joined it
new high values were required, on June 2, 1902.
however, in a larger format. any of the Australian states to From 1905 the Crown Over A
This prompted what was, portray Edward VII on its stamps. watermark was adopted, and both
remarkably, the only venture by stamps can also be found with
Images of Edward were not perforation gauging 11. Over the
entirely new to postage stamps. As years, the colour of the £1 varied to
MARKET VALUES a boy, he had been depicted on an rose and salmon.
1868 design for Newfoundland, Both values continued to serve
Catalogue prices start at £350 mint and £130 and he later reappeared in the the state (also being valid for use
fine used for the £1 value, and £750 and £300 same colony’s 1880-82 and throughout the Commonwealth of
respectively for the £2, with some perforation 1897-1918 series, as a mature adult Australia) until Reading directed
varieties adding a premium. and then as an old man. his talents towards the creation of
The last of these portrayals may the unified Kangaroo & Map
have provided more than a little design in 1913. ■

OCTOBER 2021 www.stampmagazine.co.uk 47