Hong Kong [2nd Post]

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Today I will only present stamps from the George VI series from 1938/1948... it presents the "simple" design adopted for Queen  Victoria and also by Queen Elizabeth....one thing You can see right from the beginning , is that the multiple CA wmk is much more visible in the lower values... in fact, the presence of chalk surfaced paper in the higher values (from the 80c until the 10$) diminish considerably the visibility without any appropriate process to see it ...

other important factor is the possible existence of many shade varieties...

there are 6  values missing ( 1c,4c,8c,15c,25c,10$) and many other varieties of each one of them... 

Let's see the stamps...

the stamps are all of the same size of course, and the discrepancy is due to the usual image bonding...In this image I show two 30c stamps , but I should have shown just one  because I've got many shades of other values that aren't presented in the image... I keep them for the next images with the spare stamps... I don't know if such thing as a "regular viewer"  exists , but some of you could be somehow troubled because I show so many spare stamps in these definitive series... Yes I show them and I keep them in the collection  because i think it is important to have as many as possible for each value , because generally in these kind of series the small detail is important and sometimes we could be surprised during our observation of the stamps...

These are the spare stamps of the values I have until 80c...despite the fact that SG only present us the 2c stamp without shade varieties, it is very obvious that we've got some more or less dark grays and some dull grays...in the 5c value we've got some dull green's , soft yellow green's and green's , but catalogs only state it as green...for the 10c , SG present us 4 varieties .. to know : bright violet, dull violet, dull reddish violet and reddish lilac...I've got here in the picture above the 4 of them and at least one more that "don't fit"...In the other hand , I don't have the 20c black but some of  the other shades of scarlet red are presented...The 30c appear in the SG catalog with two main colors and several shades : olive green and blue... only the "blues" are presented with some more or less dull blue stamps....the 50c appear as purple, bright purple, reddish purple and  deep purple...here in this image I have some of that varieties, perhaps not all of them...
it is interesting to notice that this shade differences are most notorious in the King's hair , perhaps even most than at the lined background...
A key aspect to always have in mind is that some of these shade varieties appear together with differences in the perforation... the main perforation used in this series is the 14 but  varieties as the olive green 30c or the deep purple 50c appear together with differences in the perforation or in the paper (in the 50c stamp chalk surfaced paper could be used..)

The picture above represents the spare stamps of 1$ and 2$ I have...the 1$ stamp could exist in two main color combinations: dull lilac & blue and red orange & green...a shade of yellow orange & green is also noted...in the Hong Kong stamps it is always interesting to have postmarks from particular mail stations and it is the case of the 1st and last 1$ stamps, with good postmarks...

I want to talk now about a variety known as "short leg R" that could appear in the 1$ stamps... I've got a stamp with this "strange event"  , already in the collection, but I decided to show it again, so I scanned it again, just to present now , in the right place to do it..

"Short Right Leg to R"

Normal "Dollar" Label

As you can see the right leg of the R of "Dollar" is short and somehow different from the usual one...I don't have values for this stamp because SG only show the value for MNH stamps...

well,this was a very soft view over this series, and I must remind the viewers that an expert in these stamps could write several pages about it...as a world collector , I always try to know the basic for each series , just to do a clear classification of the stamps...

In future posts regarding Hong Kong stamps I will have the remaining series of King Edward VII and George V and also updates to this and to the previous post of Hong Kong...

It is time to wish you all a Great, Great Year of 2017... I think that my next post will be already in the new Year...

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Hong Kong

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Today and for the first time I have some Hong Kong stamps.. The Portrait definitive stamps of Hong Kong , all obey to a standard design that started with Queen Victoria and continued until Queen Elizabeth.. there are some differences in the stamps of King's Edward VII and George V ( more elaborated design with frame ornaments and vignette with circular form..) , but King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II returned to the initial Queen Victoria's  simpler design...

In today's post I will present some stamps of Queen Victoria and others from Queen Elizabeth II.. I leave the King George VI and specially King's Edward VII and George V for other posts because there must be a careful analyses of the Wmk, that in some cases are simply not visible (Chalky paper, again..) ..

First let us talk about the Queen Victoria Hong Kong Series that present this design...there are three main series with normal stamps, without being Surcharged or Overprinted... All this 3 series have perforation 14 , so that is not the distinctive factor here... The watermark plays the most important role in the differentiation of these series... The first series (and also the first Hong Kong series) has no Watermark.. the Second presents us a Crown above two letters (CC)  , and the third a Crown and (CA)... the watermarks , in these stamps are clearly visible and it is easy to make the classification of the stamps...

So, I can tell that all the stamps i present are from the Third series (with Wmk Crown above CA...) issued from 1882/1902.. this time frame is the one presented in the Scott Catalog, and I think it is a correct approach because dividing this series into several one's according to the issue date , would be only 'complicating what could be simpler'... well, I only have these 14 stamps to present and 4 of them are spares, but time will come when some of the high values will also be presented .. (Hope is the last one to Die..!)... the last stamp , the 12c troubles me, because it looks much older than it is.. the colors are faded, the stamp is in very bad condition, but it is without doubts from this series... there are many color variations with the presence of different shades, and i think ( by looking to these stamps..) that  well centered stamps should have a high increase in their value...

1882/1902 "Queen Victoria" (13) [Typo] Sc(36b,36b,37,37,39,40,40,41,43,43,44,44,45,46)

These are stamps from the Queen Elizabeth II 1st Definitive Series issued in 1954...this first group present us the values i have to show ... all of these stamps are spares , because I already had this series classified.. it is a relatively simple series without any kind of 'hot spot'... there are many different shades for each color...

  

These are some of the spares , but they don't have any special interest, but I have to show them...I must say that I can only rely on the Scott world catalog to classify this series, because my SG Commonwealth ends with the reign of George VI...so, it is possible that I actually missed 'some of the action' in this series... Anyway, I like to keep large number of stamps from definitive series from any country and in a near future more specialized catalogs are on the way, so I will take another close look to them...

1954/1960 "Queen Elizabeth II" (14) [Typo] Sc(185,186,187,188,189,190,191,192,194,196)

This is a stamp from the 1978 25th Anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth , where the simplicity of the original Queen Victoria Design is again used , resulting in a very beautiful stamp.

1978 "25th Anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II" (2) [Litho] Sc(347)

For the last part of this post , I choose to present my KGVI Kenya, Uganda & Tanganyika stamps...two common design series (The Silver Wedding and the Coronation series) and the 1938/1954 Various Designs series...

Sometimes , the unexpected happens...this morning , I was finishing the classification of the 38/54 series , when my scanner ended..!! it just ended!! it started to make strange noises and it  doesn't work anymore...the sh values remain unclassified and without scans, so I promise that next week (I hope a new scan has arrived...) in the beginning of the post, I will show these stamps that are missing today...

All these [Recess] Printed stamps from KGVI are really excellent stamps.. Good engraver works, good designs , excellent printings, overall Above average Works..! As I said before these two series at right and left are common Designs and are used in many of the colonies, Protectorates and Empire Territories in general... 
[Left] 1937  "Coronation Series" (3) [Recess (De La Rue)] Sc(60,...,62)
[Right] 1948 "Silver Wedding Series" (1) [Photo (De La Rue)] Sc(92)

The stamps of the series 1938/1954 present the same designs as those used in the KGV series of 1935, but with the portrait of KGVI... This is a series with some difficulties when we talk of it's classification.. there are many different perforations, there are mistakes, varieties , etc.. ( I don't present any of these 'picture' varieties because I don't have any of them in these sgroup of stamps...)  these stamps I have to show could have different perforations and dates of issue... however I will gather those stamps that are similar 

I will show the stamps one by one, because they are really beautiful and because these were the last scans of my EPSON SX230...

the 50c are also missing  but they will be included in the stamps to be presented next week..

1938/1954 "King George VI portrait with Various Designs" (20) [Recess (De La Rue)]  

This was a strange post, with little to say and with some unexpected events..

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