GregsStamps

I'm still flyspecking

2006-06-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

I'm still playing with penny reds, and came across this guy. The blob behind the kangaroo jumped out at me. That blob isn't listed in any of the books (or if it is I can't find it). I'm trying to plate it from secondary characteristics, but having no luck. I don't suppose anyone out there has its twin?

Why I hardly ever tackle the penny reds, part 605

2006-05-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Plate 7, positions 37 and 43. Position 37 slows the flaw under neck (first recorded 1916) but 43 doesn't have the corner flaw (first recorded Jan 1915). And the perfs seem to be single line, which would make it a 1914 printing. The pair makes no sense at all. Anyone?

Bashful

2006-04-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

So I set up a stamp blog and then pretty much ignore my stamp collection for three months. But I've been spending more time with it the last few days. One of the neater things I've found (I'm still working on halfpenny greens) is this stamp, which features a headless kangaroo. I call it Bashful. Bashful is an example of the dry ink variety, printed on large multiple watermark paper (BW 65ca). I'd love to be able to plate Bashful, but it's such a mess that I doubt it is possible.

It can be a challenge to decide what is a dry ink variety and what's just a poor-quality post-war printing. Bashful is so extremely badly printed that there's not much doubt. I think, as with many things, there is a continuum. Presumably as ink dried and thickened the print quality got worse and worse, until you had extremes like bashful. It might be interesting at some point to lay out a page showing stamps from perfectly printed, finely detailed copies through to messes like Bashful. Some day!

I've bifurcated

2006-01-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

I've decided that all the stamp stuff on my regular blog is likely alienating regular people, and my regular stuff is alienating stamp people. So I've started this separate blog for philatelic topics. Now I have to figure out if I can move some old topics from there to here.

I'm now working on halfpenny green Aussie KGV heads, so that's likely to be the topic du jour. Followed, of course, by those exciting halfpenny orange Aussie KGV heads.