Rob1956

THE CORONATION SERIES
Although there are usually six to a simplified set comprising of the 5/-, 10/- and £1 for the Ash printing and the same for the McCracken printing, there are actually twenty one stamps in the series, I have eighteen, and that doesn’t include the varieties.
The very difficult stamps in this series is the £1 specimens, there are three, the Ash (dull blue shade with a blue-black overprint), McCracken (deep dull blue shade with a blue-black overprint), and the Ash slate-blue with a grey-black overprint.
I have a well-centred Ash overprint, a difficult centring to find as the majority are off-centred.
Regarded as the most attractive stamps from the era of King George VI, there is no denying that the finely detailed artistic work of the £1 stamp is simply perfect.
A 5/- stamp showing a prominent off-set unfortunately is not in this collection.
10/- Coronation stamps with grossly misplaced perforations exist, it is almost certainly part of the stamp theft from the Note Printing Branch of the 1940s.

QUANTITY PRINTED ON CHALK-SURFACED PAPER (thick)
There were seven printings of the 5/- stamp. Issued on April 1, 1938: Plate 1 – 4,000,000 and 1,600,000 from Plates 2 and 3, totaling 5,600,000. There were 3 shades - Dull Lake, Brown-Lake and Reddish Lake.
There were five printings of the 10/- stamp. Issued on April 1, 1938: Plate 1 – 1,120,000 and 320,000 from Plates 2 and 3, totaling 1,440,000. There were 2 shades – Dull Purple (John Ash printing) and Reddish Purple (W.C.G. McCracken printing – The “By Authority” imprint).
The 10/- stamp with the slight aniline quality have fugitive ink and are soluble in water. Only a small number of these stamps in mint unhinged condition exist.
There were four printings of the £1 stamp between May 1938 and November 1, 1945 comprising of 1,920,000 stamps. There are two shades: Dull Blue (Ash printing) and Deep Dull Blue (McCracken).

QUANTITY PRINTED ON UNSURFACED PAPER (thin)
There were two printings of the 5/- stamp (September 1947 and May 1948). Issued on January 27, 1948, totaling 3,600,000. There were 2 shades - Reddish-Lake (tinted paper) and Reddish Lake (white paper).
There was one single printing of the 10/- stamp. Issued in November 1948, totaling 160,000 stamps. There was 1 shade – Deep Purple.
There was one single printing of the £1 stamp. Issued on April, 1949, totaling 160,000 stamps. There was only 1 shade – Dull Blue.

The “SPECIMEN” overprint was first issued in Collector’s sets in April 1944. There were four printings of the overprint totaling 2,860 stamps; of this number many were ruined buy mold, rust and other forms of neglect. It is believed the number has decreased considerably over time. The Ash and McCracken “SPECIMEN” were made at the same time by using existing stock of both printed stamps, the McCracken overprint being very rare as about 200 of the McCracken stamps were overprinted and many of these were hinged or have perforations missing, it is believed that here may be less than 100 in mint unhinged condition will all perforations intact.

There are many forgeries existing of the “SPECIMEN” overprint; do not accept this stamp without a certificate of authentication accompanying it.

 
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re: KGVI Coronation Series

Great post Rob, thanks for the info. I don't have many Robes in my collection yet but this will help to find the varieties.

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