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Revenue stamps of most British
Commonwealth countries are fantastic things to collect. Often printed by
the same companies who printed the stamps, common designs are often used,
sometimes in a larger format to the postage stamps.
Like the postage stamps of South Africa, the revenue stamps were inscribed
bilingually. At first both languages appeared on one stamp. From 1946 the
revenue stamps were inscribed bilingually throughout the sheet, so one stamp
would be in Afrikaans, the next would be in English etc. Revenue stamps
were not generally collected at their time of issue, their collecting has
only become more widespread in the last twenty years, so you are unlikely to
find large quantities of mint revenue stamps, or multiples, cylinder blocks
etc. For this reason the KGVI bantam issues in complete units and 1946/52
bilingual pairs are quite scarce and most KGV to early QEII period issues
are very hard to find in mint condition with original gum. If you can find
pairs, the bilingual issue of 1946/52 mostly come in vertical pairs, due to
the layout of the documents that they were used on. The space available to
apply the revenue stamps is usually a strip of margin at the left or right
of the document, often not wide enough to apply a horizontal pair. Indeed
it is generally only philatelists that care whether their bilingual pairs
are horizontal pairs, certainly not the clerk toiling away to apply the
correct tax to a pile of documents!
King George V
There are two types of revenue stamp issued during this reign. The first,
issued in 1913 is similar to the King’s Heads postage stamps issued in the
same year. It utilises the same Mackennal head design of the King’s
profile. All of the stamps are bicoloured except the first £1 blue, which
was replaced in 1917 with a red and green design. Coincidently (or
otherwise?) the £1 postage stamp was issued in the same year in the same
colours. A word of caution, the colours of these stamps run in water, so
they are best left on piece.
The second KGV issue was released in 1931 and was a smaller format than the
previous issue. Again, the stamps are bicoloured and now have the year or
printing incorporated into the design, just below the point of neck of the
King. The years are shown in four digits and can be found from 1931 &
1933/7. The majority of values can be found with most years apart from the
15s, which was only issued in 1937 and can be difficult to find.
King George VI
This reign has three different sets, two of which have some quite
interesting design alterations made during their period of issue. The first
set appeared in 1938 and was in use until 1942. The 1938 issues have the
year of issue below the neck of the King and are inscribed in four digits.
Between the years 1939/42, this was reduced to two digits, slightly larger
and therefore easier to read. All values appear with the 1938 date except
the 15s, this being first issued in 1939. There was also a change to the
country inscription on the 2s6d in 1941 & 1942. This value was first issued
in 1938 with Afrikaans the language to the left of the King’s portrait. It
was reprinted in 1939 & 1940 in the same format. Then in 1941 & 1942 the
country names were switched and the name in English appeared to the left of
the King’s portrait.
During the war, which South Africa entered in 1941, the same paper saving
measures were applied to the revenue stamps as were applied to the postage
stamps, hence we see revenues in the “Bantam” format. They were printed as
pairs in a horizontal format and separated by a roulette perforation, gauge
6½. The format is identical to the 1s Bantam War Effort postage stamp, SG
104. The Bantam revenues were inscribed bilingually, so they do not
alternate in language throughout the sheet. The date appears, in two
digits, inside the oval, below the King’s head.
One of the most interesting revenue issues of the whole British Commonwealth
was the 1946/52 set of South Africa. This third KGVI set has several design
variations that reflect the same variations found on the postage stamps.
All of the stamps have the year in two digits below the King’s portrait.
The first two years, 1946 & 1947, were printed using an unscreened
rotogravure process. From 1948 the revenue stamps were printed using a
screened rotogravure process, where the design appears as small dots under a
glass. In 1952 the stamps were redrawn, the designs were slightly smaller,
the background lines behind the King’s portrait are finer and the portrait
is more defined.
The last KGVI issue also has language errors, where the two different plates
used for printing the stamps were transposed. Hence a stamp with the
country name “Union of South Africa” in English, has the Afrikaans word for
revenue, “Inkomste” rather than the English word and vice versa. This error
can be found on the 6d, 1s6d, 2s, 3s & 5s stamps. |
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