Otto Peetoom

Ormskirk Stamps
SOUTH WEST AFRICA - QEII
Stamp Issues - Definitives & Commemoratives
Order Form In PDF or In Word
2 June 1953 - QEII Coronation
SG 149 -153
UMM £2
Used £1

Illustrated FDC £8

2 June 1953
Set of five values
This was the only QEII Pre-decimal commemorative Issue

1954 Definitives - Watermark Springbok head
SG 154 - 165 UMM £40
1954 Definitives
SG 154 - 165
On Plain FDC
£30
SG 154 - 165 Used £15

1954 Definitives
SG 154 - 165

In marginal blocks of four

UMM £160

Watermark Reversed
SG 154w
UMM £15
SG 154w
Used £12
SG 159w
Used £35
1961 - 1973 Decimal Definitives

1961 - 63 Coat of Arms Watermark

SG 171 - 185 umm £40
SG
Value
UMM
Used
176
3c
£5
0.50
177
3½c
0.80
0.50
178
5c
£6.50
0.50
180
10c
1.25
0.50
182
15c
£14
3.00
183
20c
3.25
0.50
184
50c
4.00
1.25
185
R1
6.00
£10
1962 - 1966 No Watermark (Five values)

1962 - 66 No Watermark - SG 186 - 191 umm £25

1962 - 66 No Watermark - SG 186 - 191 used £12

1967 - 1970 Watermark RSA

1962 - 66 No Watermark
SG
Value
UMM
Used
186
½c
0.50
0.50
187
1½c
£4
0.50
188
2c
£3
0.50
189
2½c
£9
0.50
190
3½c
£8
191
5c
£6
0.50
Watermark inverted

SG
Value
UMM
Used
A202
½c
£8
A203
1c
£1.25
A205
2c
£5
A206
2½c
£2
Shade
2½c
£4
£4
A208
3½c
£4
A212
7½c
£4
£1
A212W
7½c
Watermark up
Grey blue shade

1967 - 1970 Watermark RSA
The basic set includes five values ½c, 1c, 2c (2 Ptgs) 2½c (3 Ptgs) 3½c and 7½c (4 Ptgs)
The watermark on some of these stamps is faint and even difficult to seen on their margins.

 

Watermark Blues
Ongoing Confusion
Generally speaking the collector views a watermark as seen from the back of the stamp. However the illustrations of watermarks in catalogues depict them as seen from the front of the stamp. Up to 1980, in the introduction to a Stanley Gibbons Part I catalogue there was a specific note which stated...they are always described as seen from the ‘front’ of the stamp... The SG Elizabethan catalogue included watermark varieties that were omitted from Part I, but their listing continued ‘as seen from the front of the stamp’.

South Africa and South West Africa QEII Stamps
From 1963 a new multiple watermark in a triangle reading ‘RSA’ was introduced and in July 1967 a variation of the foregoing became watermark ‘RSA Tete-Beche’ (See SAP Oct 1967). On the grounds that both watermarks were faint and difficult to detect...the SG policy was to simply ‘lump’ them together under one listing. As a compromise SG included a footnote explaining the foregoing.
Another RSA and SWA variation include printings on Swiss and Harrison papers. Under a UV light they respectively appear ‘pink’ and ‘violet’ from the reverse.

Watermark RSA
On the horizontal designs the watermark is either upright or reversed and on vertical designs it is sideways. A footnote in the 1984 Elizabethan catalogue under RSA (SG 198 - 210 and SG 238 - 251) and SWA (SG 202 - 216) is very specific and states...All the sideways watermarks...face right, ‘as seen from the front of the stamp’...

After the SG Elizabethan catalogue was discontinued, the Part I continued its policy of not listing inverted watermarks, thus the RSA and SWA (Elizabethan footnotes) did not feature. This ‘no comment’ policy continued up to and including the 1997 (99th edition) of Part I - From 1993 to 2002 the SG Part I was issued in two volumes.

1998 SG Part I (100th edition) Inverted watermarks, a change in Policy
The editorial announced the inclusion of watermark varieties and new ‘modified’ footnotes appeared under RSA (SG 198 - 210 and SG 238 - 251) and SWA (SG 202 - 216) which state...The normal sideways watermark shows the top of RSA to left ‘as seen from the back of the stamp’...

The South African Colour Catalogue
Their initial policy for listing watermarks was not in line with Stanley Gibbons as they noted them ‘as seen from the back of the stamp’. I recall having a conversation with Lutz Hefferman, the editor of the SACC, at one of the Rosebank SAPDA shows in Johannesburg during the early 1990’s.
I pointed this difference in policy out to him and he informed me that he intended to change in line with SG...however it appears that by 1998 the accepted policy for watermarks had changed to ‘as seen from the back of the stamp’. When, how or why it changed I do not know and it is perhaps academic...except that and obvious error, in both the SG and SACC, may be the result of the ‘chopping and changing’ policy for viewing watermarks... somehow the viewing from either the front or the back created ongoing problems that have not been resolved to this day. I refer in particular to SWA the 1967 - 1970 printings of the 7½c SG 212 or SACC 207b.

2015 SG Commonwealth Catalogue (117th edition) under ‘Preface’.
..The two ‘RSA’ watermarks of South Africa and South West Africa are now separately listed...

South West Africa RSA Watermark (1967 - 1970)
The watermark on the ½c is inverted and upright on the 2½c and on the other values it is sideways. According to the SG catalogue the ‘normal’ version has the RSA triangle pointing left (as seen from the back).
Thus a variation ought to be facing right. SG lists two such variations being the 1c and 7½c both facing right numbered SG A203a and A212w.
The normal 7½c (issued 1967) is noted as SG A212 facing left and the SACC agrees stating it as 207b...as the first printing is during 1967 and there is no footnote, both the foregoing is essentally incorrect.

RSA facing left occurs on the 1c, 2c, 3½c & 7½c (as seen from the back)

RSA facing right
On the 1c the SG listing does not appear in the SACC and so far I have not seen an example of this variation. There was only one printing of the 1 cent.

Both SG and the SACC initimate (incorrectly) that the initial 1967 printing of the 7½c has the watermark facing left - it faces right!

  The Printings of the 7½c
Initial (first) printing (1967) Sheet No is in black and a faint watermark faces right and not left, only 3,600 sheets printed. In addition the colours on the stamp are much deeper than the reprints.

Clear Watermark facing left
On the reprints, the 1st (17,800 sheets) 2nd (22,500 sheets) and 3rd reprint (14,000 sheets) Thus the 7½c (Wmk right) is the only faint version of the watermark.

Sheet No's on the Reprints 1st reprint four figure red sheet Nos.
2nd reprint dull red ‘flat’ sheet Nos.
3rd printing, smaller darker red sheet Nos. In addition the reprints reflect much lighter colours compared to the initial (wmk right) 1967 printing.

To recap 7½c wmk right, 3,600 sheets printed. 7½c wmk left 54,300 sheets printed. The foregoing suggests that the watermark right ought to be much more valueable than watermark left. The SG value for mint reflects a 25p difference e.g. £3.50 (left) £3.75 (right) and the SACC has its pricing the wrong way around R120 (left) and R55 (right)

Faint and clear watermarks on the 2c and 2½c
The cylinder blocks on some reprints assist in defining which printing is which.
For instance the 2c 1st ptg has a faint watermark and the 2nd ptg is clear.
2½c First two printings (clear wmk) and 3rd ptg (faint wmk) There are two distinct shades on the third ptg, listed in the SACC but not in SG.


1967 Printing (black sheet Nos) Watermark right
Deep colours



First Reprint (red sheet Nos) Watermark left
Much lighter colours

 
1959 - 1972 Postage Dues
1960
SG
D55 - 56

Two values blocks of four UMM
£12
1959
SG D52 - 54

Three values in blocks of four UMM £12
1961 Postage Dues - SG D57 - 62 Six values in blocks of four UMM £20
SG D57 - 62 Six values Used £20
1961 Postage Dues on Cover

Envelope from SA with 1c & 2c coils posted
MAITLAND 8 IX 83
Windhoek 12 IX arrival backstamp
Underpaid 7c & Taxed double
Collected & paid with 1961 dues
D59 & 60 - 5c x 2 & 4c

Note misplaced centres of 5c Dues

£100
1972 Postage Dues

Namibia Pre-Independence Philatelic Archive
Sold by Stephan Welz, Johannesburg on 24 October 2001

Lot 180 - Offered the 1c & 8c double pane Imperforate Proof sheets of 200
Cylinders 332 A/B and 336 A/B, the lot was heavily contested and sold for a six figure sum in Rands. The sheet was split into 15 units, blocks of 4(6) - 8(3) - 12(2) - 24(2 + Cyl A)
Cylinder B is in a unit of 56 (14 x 4) and includes the manuscript marginal notations
Imperforate Blocks of four £500 - Gutter Blocks of eight £1250
Imperforate
Corner
Marginal Blocks
of 24
£3000
SG D63 - 64
Blocks of 8
Perforated
UMM
£25

Bechuanaland