STAMP ERROR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 283, 3 December 1935, Page 9

STAMP ERROR

AN INVERTED HEAD PHILATELIC TREASURE A philatelic error of particular interest to stamp collectors in this part of Ihe world has recently come to light, an» when accorded publicity is likely to 'cause philatelists to look hastily over their Cook Islands stamps in the hopes of finding a similar error —one whose value has soared up to sixty or more pounds, wheras the normal specimen is worth only a penny or two. This error has to light in the penny stamp, a red one with a black centre showing a portrait of Captain Cook. Normally, of course, Captain Cook’s head is tho right way up, but in the error it is upside down, and, curiously enough, this reversal easily escapes notice. unless careful scrutiny is made. Reversals of this nature in stamps printed in two colours are not very uncommon, being a mistake fairly easily made jn the double printing. But it is seldom that a sheet containing such an error is sold to the public, •careful scrutiny before issue usually detecting the mistake. Tn this instance, however, it would appear tbaf a whole sheet of SO penny stamps with this reversal of Captain Cook’s head was, somewhere about nine months or a year ago, sold over the counter piecemeal at Rarotonga. Probably in most instances purchasers did not notice that there was anything wrong with the stamps. The latter would be affixed to letters in the ordinary way, cancelled with a postmark, and the envelope, stamped and all, when it reached its destination, confined to oblivion in the waste paper basket or the grate. It is probably correct to assume that at, least 50, very likely more, of these 80 stamps are now gone beyond recall. But there may be 20 or 30 of them whi'ch have been kept l»y the recipients or which have come into the hands of stamp collectors, and their value, now in the vicinity of £5O apiece, will probably go higher in the near future.

The existence in New Zealand of four or five of these stamps is now definitely known of, and a photograph of one is reproduced in the livening Post. This was received by Mr J. R. Pearson on a letter posted to him from Rarotonga some nine months ago. When he received it he did not then notice the inversion of the head in the centre of the stamp, and it was only recently, when he received word from relations in Rarotonga that su*ch stamps had actually been sold at the Post Office there and used on letters, that he made his philatelic discovery. At the same time that Mr Pearson’s stamp was purchased, a padre at Rarotonga purchased three others. Ho commented on the fact that whichever way up he stuck them on a letter they looked upside down. He was philatclically minded enough to send them to three stamp-collecting friends in New Zealand. It was recently stated in a London philatelic journal that only one su‘ch stamp was known to be in existence, but that statement is now disproved. Printed in London This Cook Island aeries of stamps, to which the inverted penny under consideration belongs, was first issued in March, 1932, being recess-printed by Messrs Perkins, Bacon, and Co., Ltd. (London). The printing was done on unwatermarked paper. In the following year the plates were sent to New Zealand, and since then all printings from them have been carried out py the Government Printing Office in Wellington. The New Zealand printings can easily be distinguished from the London printings by the fact that the former are on paper watermarked with the star and letters N.Z. to be found on all- current New Zealand stamps. There are minor differences, too, in the colour of the gum. used on the back and in the shade of the red herder.- The inverted Centre speei-

mens are on unwatermarked paper, indicating that the mistake originated with the London printers and not in New Zealand, and there is no reason to suppose they are otherwise than genuine mistakes which have been authentically used for postal purposes. That they did not come to light until after Nf.w Zealand had taken over the printing from the London firm is accounted for by the fact that the latter printed sufficient stocks to last for a year or *wo. Philatelists are too often preyed upon by fakers and forgers, who find them a hapUy hunting ground wherein to practise their wiles, as was instanced not so very long ago in a notorious Court ease in Wellington, but in this case the happy possessor of an “inverted Captain Cook” may be reasonably sure that he has a real treasure in his album. * There have been previous eases of inverted centres in some of the Island

stamps, all of whiteh are printed in two colours, but such errors are very scarce. Other countries, too, have made similar mistakes in their stamps, one of the rarest and most valuable of such errors being an inverted »wan on one of the very earliest West Australian stamps. A Cook Island penny of the 1920 issue, which has its central view of the wharf at Avarua inverted, is now worth about £l2O.