Hello, continuing with the George VI stamps I thought it worth talking about the basic low value definitive. Three issues spanned the years from 1937 with various additional issues through to 1951. All are easily collectible as there is no significant catalogue value to them but if you have a number of these stamps it is always worth looking at the watermarks as there are sideways and inverted watermarks on many of the lower values, and some of these can be hard to find and of a higher catalogue value.

All issues were printed in photogravure, perf 15 x 14 with the Block G_VIR watermark however there are three sources of printing as I understand it: This is simplified for the purposes of this piece:  Stamps printed in sheets of 240 with upright watermark,  stamps printed for booklets from which you can find inverted watermarks, and stamps printed in coils from which you can find sideways watermarks. The SG Specialised  Stamp Catalogue Great Britain Volume 2 should be referred to for more detail.

The three stamps shown are, left to right; SG 462 from the 1937 issue, SG 485 from the 1941 issue and SG 503 issued in 1951, showing the colour changes for the ½d value.

Finally, to whet your appetite if you have a just won the lottery, this tete-beche example will set you back £18,000, courtesy the SG web site,  - “1937 1/2d Green. Superb unmounted o.g. horizontal imperf strip of four tête-bêche imprimaturs” – (head to tail with official approval for printing)

Sometimes just seeing these make philately just so enjoyable.

Enjoy your stamps and those special finds you make.  Michael  cddstamps.com  where, as you must know by now, you can cheaply fill a few gaps in your GB GVI collection, just not with tete-beche pairs!