The left and right hand top stamps (1 and 5) of the 6d. value shew the sloping label, which is now very prominent (see plate X.).

All the values shew variations in the marks on the back hair and in the curls.

[page 37]

CHAPTER V.

Issue of 1886-87.

In 1886 a number of the stamps began to appear on the paper watermarked Crown C.A., the initials of "Crown Agents." The colours were changed, and a new value inscribed "2 PENNY" on the value tablet was added. The values and colours are--

d. grey-green, myrtle-green (shades).

1d. carmine, rose-carmine, crimson.

2d. orange-yellow, orange, deep orange.

2d. pale ultramarine, deep ultramarine.

3d. grey, slate-grey, pearl-grey.

4d. brown, deep brown.

6d. olive-green, bronze-green, grey-green.

1s. violet, deep violet.

All values exist with the embossing double; several with the embossing double, one of the impressions being inverted; part double and treble perforations; and the white and the yellow gum.

The watermark Crown C.A. is uniformly sideways in this issue, the normal position being from right to left (Fig. F.), but it may be found inverted (Fig. G.).

[page 38]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. F.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. G.]

The method of cutting up the sheets of Crown C.A. paper was to guillotine the half sheets horizontally in half and then twice vertically, dividing each horizontal half into three small sheets, the half C.A. sheet of paper yielding six small Gambia sheets (plates XII.

and XIII.). The operators both at the guillotine and at the press seem to have taken the utmost care to arrange all the small sheets uniformly for pa.s.sing through the press, as the varieties shewing the watermark from left to right are rare. The diagrams on plates XII.

and XIII. will ill.u.s.trate more clearly than a verbal explanation the precise method of dividing up the Crown C.A. paper.

The early printings of the Crown C.A. issue were perforated with the comb machine described in the previous chapter, but in the later printings a new comb machine was introduced, which has not the narrow s.p.a.ced teeth in the margin, and, consequently, has not the double row of perforation on the right hand margins of the sheets. The perforations produced by the two machines gauge the same, and are not distinguishable in single specimens or blocks, but only in sheets or specimens with pieces of margins. The effect of the two different combs on the sheet may be compared on the two sheets of the 6d. value ill.u.s.trated on plates X. and XI. We may note (plate VIII.) the second comb with the teeth extending [page 41] through the top margin, leaving the bottom margin blank, shewing that some of the sheets were perforated from the bottom, which would produce this effect.

Unused imperforate copies exist of all values in the following shades--

Imperforate d. grey-green.

" 1d. pale crimson.

" 2d. orange-yellow.

" 2d. pale ultramarine.

" 3d. pearl-grey.

" 4d. brown.

" 6d. slate-green.

" 1s. deep violet.

Copies in trial colours, perforated 12 instead of 14, exist as follows--

d. rose.

d. violet.

d. dull green.

d. pale dull orange.

3d. olive-green.

On some of the sheets of the d. value stamp 2 shews a slightly elongated left stroke of the letter m in Gambia; No. 5 on the same sheet shews a similar defect in the right stroke of the letter. (See plate III., which reproduction, however, only shews the variety on stamp 2.) Stamps Nos. 1, 12, 13 on the same sheet ill.u.s.trated shew a peculiarity in the form of a broken nose. We have not been able to trace other copies shewing a similar defect, so possibly it is simply due to over-inking or faulty inking of the colour plate.

The plate of the 3d. was altered in the final printing, two additional printers' guide dots being added in the [page 42] left margin, and the top and bottom dot on the right being removed (plate VIII.). This was printed in pearl-grey only.

The early printings of the 6d. value shew the sloping labels; they also shew the slight enlargement of the stamps in the top row. These varieties occur in the olive-green, bronze-green, and grey-green shades. Later a new plate was made without the defect in the top row, and this was printed in grey-green only. (Cp. plates XI. and XIV.)

It may be noted that there are two varieties of the overprint on the SPECIMEN stamps of this series, one having the letters sloping upwards from left to right, the other being horizontal.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[page 45]

CHAPTER VI.

Queen's Head Series, 1898.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

On the 31st January, 1898, the following notice was issued in reference to the postage stamps of the Colony:--

"WITHDRAWAL OF PRESENT ISSUE OF GAMBIA POSTAGE STAMPS.

"On the 1st May, 1898, the present issue, if not previously exhausted, of all denominations of Postage Stamps in the Gambia that are then in the hands of the Government will be destroyed, and a complete new set of stamps will then be put in circulation.

"ADMINISTRATOR'S OFFICE, BATHURST, GAMBIA, _31st January, 1898_."

[page 46]

After being faithful for nearly thirty years to the graceful design of the "cameo" stamps the Colony adopted the regular De la Rue type printed from a general key plate which did duty for a number of colonial issues.

Essays were prepared by making impressions from this key plate, shewing the profile of the Queen to left in a circle, and the words POSTAGE--POSTAGE at the sides, the top tablet being left blank for the name of the Colony, and a s.p.a.ce for the s.e.xagonal tablet of value at bottom also being left blank. The essays consist of such impressions with the name GAMBIA and the proposed values painted in by hand, to shew the approximate effect of the stamps which would be produced from this key plate. Only a very few such essays are known.

The values which were actually produced in the new series were--

d. dull green and green (plates 2 and 3).