NAURU STAMP

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 16

NAURU STAMP

FULL SERIES OF FOURTEEN ' RECENTLY ISSUED.

A full seyies of fourteen stamps,- in a distinctive: design, has.. been issued for that:-famous little atoll' in the '• Pacific, Nauru, a circular islet not .more than twelve miles in circumference, and having a population of 1985. persons, most of them islanders of t}ie South Seas. The Nauruanas and the South' Sea Islanders will' be proud of their new stamps, writes Ered. J. Melville in the "Daily Telegraph," but it will be jeft to the handful of Europeans and the Chinese labourers to use them on letters. The design shows one of the British Phosphate Commissioners' steamers lying off tha co^st. The engraving and printing has beeil done at the Commonwealth Treasury at Melbourne by the ■recess-plate process, and the stamps are in sheets of 120 (12 by 10) on paper which is without any \yater-mark. " The design is simple and the" lettering bold, but the engraving of the vignette is f-o open that the picture lacks strength and finish, and in some of the colours adopted show 3up rather poorly. It does not compare with the engraving of the quaint "Kookaburra" bird stamp rf Australia, although it is probably the work of the same engraver. The values and colours are:—pale brown; Id, greun, l^d, scarlet; 2d,; orange; 2|d, indigo;'3d, pale ultptmarine; 4d, olivergreen; sd, brown; 6d, violet.; '9d,' sepia; Is, lake;'2s 6d, (^arkgreen ; ss, cjaret;. 10s, 'yellow. ' ' * Nauru first came into philatelic prominence early in 1916*1 consequent upon the dispatch from London of a small supply of ordinary British stamps overprinted "Nauru." The consignment consisted of 3600 of each oE the'id and Id values, 1120 of the '2id. 120 of the ss, and 60 each of the 2s 6d and 10s. They were not to be sold in the ordinary way. but \yerc to l) e .affixed to prepaid correspondence by the postaj agent. Such a method of. stamp-issuing could only lead to abuses, by creating an artificial..value for the unused stamps, and in 1916 a, large supply of English stamps were, overprinted, and sent out, and the embargo on their sale was removed. The values were Id, 2d, 2£d, 3d, 4d, sd, 6d, 9d, Is, 2s 6d, ss, and 10s. A recent addition to the series was tlie lJ,d, \vith similar overprint. Some of the printings are already regarded as rarities,, notably the 2s 6d brown (De La Rue print), the 5s rose-carmine, and 10s deep blue (Waterlow prints).