Sir Edward Denny Bacon

“ We are fortified in our opinion that more than one kind of perforation was used for the same printing, by the impossibility of believing that one whole printing of the One Penny, red, was perforated B × A. This variety is so scarce, that the number of specimens known to us can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. ”

“ Vincent to deal only with the A machine, we might, with no great degree of inaccuracy, and for the sake of general simplicity, call the perforation of the A machine “141⁄2,” or “14 to 15”; but since it was used so much in conjunction with a far more irregular machine—that is, the one we have called “B”—it is better to treat them both in the same manner, and call the first one “A,” rather than label it with a gauge which, strictly speaking, does not belong to it.
This perforation A, either alone or compounded with B, was in use from the first issue of stamps in 1861 until 1878 ”

“ Irregularity in the spacing of the holes does not seem to have been contemplated, but, as the vast majority of machines make holes spaced at regular intervals, this system of taking a gauge of 2 centimetres, applying it to a line of perforations, and counting the holes contained [31] in that space in order to get a number by which that particular perforation may always be identified, works admirably in practice in by far the greater number of cases. ”

“ That made by the A machine is well known in many other British Colonies—Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Ceylon, Grenada, Natal, Queensland, St. Helena, Trinidad, Turks Islands, Western Australia—that is, in most of the Colonies whose stamps were printed from plates prepared by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., and is one of the best known perforations in the world of Philately. Although its eccentricities are trifling compared with those of its fellow, the B machine, since it was in use in St. Vincent before that one, we take the description of its perforation first. ”

“ In the star more usually found all the six rays are of similar size; in the other variety the two opposite rays in the vertical line are narrower at the base than the other four, so that they are thinner throughout their length, and end in a more acute angle. This last variety of star is in shape almost exactly like the larger stars found in the paper used by the same firm for printing the stamps of South Australia and certain other Colonies. ”

“ As in the case of the A machine, after the B machine had been in use some considerable time (about 1876) , its perforations show a change of character, the holes being seldom punched right through; the discs of paper remain in their places, so that when the stamps are severed the [36] edges are very ragged. Otherwise there is no change whatever, the holes, or the marks where they should be, being still circular, and spaced in the same irregular manner.
Besides the two simple perforations A and B, we find one compound when the two machines are used in conjunction for the same sheet. ”

“ In their books the printers still adhered to the term “pink,” but although no sample stamp of this printing was preserved, we can be quite certain that it consisted of 300 sheets of One Shilling, dark claret, as both the other two printings of “pink” Shillings have been accounted for.
In colour it is a rich dark claret, with very slight shades, and even most of these are due to the deep toning of the paper, as the gum used is always the darkest to be found in St. Vincent stamps, and the paper is invariably more or less deeply stained. ”

“ The only variety of the surcharge that we have found is a stamp which has the serif of the numeral “1” sloping upwards. There appear to be no other varieties of surcharge on the sheet, unless we reckon as such the slightly varying positions of the letter “d” or a type of the figure “1” which has the right hand projection of the foot broken off.
This provisional One Penny was chronicled in the Philatelic Record of April, 1885, and there can be no doubt it was issued in March. Its perforation is of course the same as that of the Two Pence Halfpenny of Issue 20. ”

“ The design of the watermark was, however, such that it made no difference which end of the sheet was put first into the press, and it passes our comprehension to know how an inverted watermark could therefore be distinguished.
Although all the stars in St. Vincent stamps are of the same size, owing to the “bits” being hand-made they vary a little in shape, and we have seen faulty ones having one or more rays with the points broken or twisted out of their proper direction. Besides this there are two rather distinct varieties in the shape of the star. These exist side by side in the same sheet. ”

“ Vincent stamps. It can never be mistaken for the perforation A, for not only [43] is its most frequent gauge a higher one than that to which the A machine usually attains, but its pins, or plungers, make clean-cut circular holes, smaller in size, but otherwise just like the early perforations of the B machine, although, from insufficient care and attention being paid to the working of the machine, it is rather difficult to find specimens that show the holes clean cut on all four sides. ”

“ A description of the forgeries known to us would be of little use. They all fail in the perforation, most of them in the dimensions of the surcharge, and one rather dangerous one we recently discovered has the figures on the two halves of the stamps wrongly spaced. The one most likely to be met with is the least dangerous, as it has a large cross stroke to the top of the figure, instead of a serif, [68] besides being wrong in many other particulars. ”

“ The normal colour is evidently one which requires great nicety in manipulation, a slight difference in mixing forming the two shades, which are very distinct. Like the Penny and Six Pence already known these stamps are on thin woven paper, without watermark, and perforated. The Four Pence is perforated by a machine which removes a little circular piece of the paper, like that in use for the English stamps, but the holes very much wider apart. ”

“ It is to the vagaries of the B machine that we are principally indebted for the extraordinary number of perforations, simple and compound, that have been ascribed to the stamps of St. Vincent, as well as to those of the few other Colonies for which this machine was used. These Colonies are Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, and Turks Islands. ”

“ Vincent stamps, thus describes it: “... the stamps ... are perforated (if that term be quite accurate) by an instrument fixed in the machine, which leaves a series of [33] indentations ... which does not remove a particle of paper except in a very occasional spot, hardly one in a thousand. On severing the stamps by tearing, a rough indented edge is left...” This is quite correct, and we cannot better the description of the work of the A machine given by this old-time philatelist of nearly thirty years since, who collected and studied stamps in a day when perforation-gauges were not. ”

“ Looking at the date these varieties were first catalogued, they probably came from sheets out of the lot despatched on March 27th, 1861. Some of the later consignments seem also to have contained imperforate sheets, as we have seen an entire one of the Six Pence, which came out of the lot forwarded on June 15th, 1868. Of late years quite a number of the imperforate stamps have turned up, but we do not believe that any of these ever saw the Colony, and in our opinion they stand upon very different ground to the early chronicled varieties. ”

“ The comb-machine perforating 14 is far more regular in the spacing of the pins than the guillotine-machine of the same gauge. If a long line of perforation of the latter be examined, it will be found that here and there the holes are not in line, and also that there is a slightly wider distance between certain of them, although the gauge of the perforation does not perceptibly vary from 14. ”

“ We ourselves are quite content to look on all stamps perforated by the B machine as being of one and the same perforation, and we have so treated them in the Reference List, extending the same system to the perforations of the A machine. ”

“ If the sheet has been put to the machine in an inverted position, it is the top margin we find perforated vertically. The machines are, however, so constructed that in the centre of the long line of pins two of the vertical lines of the “comb” are placed much closer together than the rest, in order to perforate each side of the narrow central space separating the panes of stamps—vide our description of the paper watermarked “Crown C.A.” This arrangement of the pins makes the machine utterly useless for perforating a row of more than six stamps placed close together. ”

“ The two panes on the right are separated from the two on the left by a narrow unwatermarked space of 6 mm. There is no marginal watermark at either the top or bottom of the sheet, but at each side the words “Crown Agents for the Colonies” are watermarked in a straight line of double-lined block capitals 7 mm. in height, the words on the left reading upwards, and those on the right reading downwards.
From these particulars it will be seen how ill-adapted this paper is for plates of the size of those of the St. Vincent stamps. ”

“ The large number of collectors, not only in this country, but also on the other side of the Atlantic, who now make the postal issues of the various West Indian Colonies of Great Britain the object of their quest, justifies us in believing that the present volume (the fourth of the series) will be received with as much interest as that which has been evinced for the preceding volumes. ”

“ All postmarked specimens that may be met with must have either been passed through the post by inadvertence, or been obliterated by favour.
In concluding these remarks we beg to acknowledge with thanks the kindness of Mr. T. Maycock, Mr. M. Giwelb, and Mr. W. H. Peckitt, who have lent us stamps for illustration, and of Messrs. Whitfield King & Co., who sent us for examination a great number of entire sheets of the De La Rue printings, which have been of the greatest assistance to us in writing the notes to Section II. of this Handbook. ”

“ With this issue a radical change of paper took place, and the new paper, which was watermarked with a star, continued to be exclusively used as long as Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. supplied stamps to the Colony. It varies very much in thickness; the thinnest variety is about the same thickness as the thinnest of the unwatermarked paper, but the thickest sometimes approaches card. This is especially noticeable in certain issues, in which the thick paper predominates, and we will refer to this subject in subsequent notes.
The star of the watermark is a six-pointed one, measuring 13 mm. ”

“ The stamps must have been immediately put in issue, as they were in use in August. They were chronicled in October, both by the Timbre-Poste and the Stamp Collector’s Magazine. The notice in the latter is as follows: “Within the last month or six weeks the number of St. Vincent stamps has been doubled by the emission of a Four Penny, blue, and Shilling, purple-black.” In the Timbre-Poste the colour of the Shilling is called “pourpre,” but in the same publication of April, 1867, M. Moens calls the colour “ardoise.” ”

“ Vincent, and came back through the post in instalments during the course of 1883 and 1884, whenever their owner had a demand for used specimens. This explains the late dates seen on some of these stamps. At the present time there is nothing to choose in point of rarity between used and unused specimens.
There are a good many foreign-made forgeries of this surcharged One Penny, but all we have seen have been very poor attempts, and none of them have ever been made on the right stamp, the one usually selected for forging being the pale yellow-green Six Pence of Issue 11. ”

“ Gray in England, Moens in Belgium, and Potiquet in France—can only be looked upon as archaic productions, interesting certainly because of their associations, but of no appreciable utility now-a-days to the student of stamps. It is, however, worthy of remark that the difference between imperforate and perforated stamps was then recognized, as they are distinguished from each other in the catalogues both of Moens and Potiquet ”

“ On every Letter arriving in this Colony, by Her Majesty’s General Post, from any place beyond the limits of the Colony, except from or passing through the United Kingdom; and on every Letter posted in this Colony for transmission to any place beyond the limits of the same, except to or through the United Kingdom, there shall be charged, and paid to Her Majesty, for the use of this Colony, Postage by weight, according to the following Scale, that is to say—
Not exceeding half-an-ounce—One rate of one penny. ”

“ No doubt the confusion which has arisen has been caused by the too zealous and indiscriminate use of a perforation gauge limited to two centimetres, and applied to single specimens of stamps, which has led true compounds to be confounded with those apparent deviations from the normal gauge arising from irregularities in the spacing of the holes, irregularities existing in both of the two machines used for these stamps by Messrs. ”