The Quintessential NZ Stamp:

1d Carmine (1855 London Print)

The below is an excerpt based on the book NEW ZEALAND THE CHALON ISSUES 1855 - 1873 by Tom Lee and John Watts - 2009.  Reproduced with permission of John Watts.

The carmine colour of the One Penny London print is quite distinctive. Although it may be found in various depths of shade, the basic colour is carmine, rather deep, but generally speaking, reddish. The 'dullness' as mentioned in some catalogues, is somewhat of a misnomer for although the colour has occasionally a dull appearance to it, it is usually a 'rich' shade (deep 'dried blood' colour).

It has been suggested that the slightly blurred appearance of some of the 1 d London prints could have been caused by the paper being too damp or that the ink had been slightly thin in body. The theory suggests that, contrary to Perkins Bacon's printing records which show that all 50 sheets had been printed on a single day, there could have been two printings.

Invariably the One penny value, when found in superb condition, has a certain 'bloom' to it. This 'bloom' is most noticeable in mint or unused copies and in the six examples

specially cancelled and supplied as a favour by the printers to Ormond Hill, nephew of Sir Rowland Hill in 1861, they were for six of his collector friends and family.  But that's another story!

The shades are the primary distinguishing feature between the 1d SG1 and the later New Zealand prints. Another feature, even though minor, that can assist in assessing if a stamp is a 1d London print is to inspect the design either side of the of the word 'POSTAGE'. In the London prints there is often a white 'flash' going away from the word 'POSTAGE' on both sides. This 'flash' is rather a nebulous thing and was most likely a result of the letters 'POSTAGE' having been considerably raised in the roller die. When the roller die was impressed onto the plate, it would have caused a certain amount of movement within the metal of the plate every time an impression was laid down. These movements in turn resulted in this particular white flashing, which is noticeable to some degree in the 1d London printing.

Later, as the plate wear became more obvious, the flashing became less noticeable so again, the colour remains the main identifying feature of the London printed stamp. It is very difficult to describe any particular shade and the only guideline is to compare with stamps that have been correctly identified.

All copies of. the London 1d value were printed on white paper.  Any attempt made to

emulate blueing of the paper is usually fraudulent or misguided. In addition, the paper of stamps that have been treated for stains or rust often appears whiter than that of untreated stamps.

From a collector's point of view, the 1d London print offers a number of challenges.  First, although the number printed was 12,000, very few mint or unused copies are in existence today. It ts estimated that less than 20 presentable copies in mint condition exist and the word 'mint' is used in this context rather loosely, for it would include all copies of reasonable unused appearance.  

In superb unused condition, barely half a dozen copies are known to exist, most are from those examples retained by Perkins, Bacon.

The Collection is honoured to have three copies of its own - all used and all certified. The first below looks unused but is certified as used. I keep wondering but accept it as it is for now! 😁