Saint Vincent, with notes and publishers' prices

by Francis John Hamilton Scott Napier; Sir Edward Denny Bacon

We give the dates of the various issues comprised in Section II. as accurately as it is in our power to do, but, as we do not enjoy for the stamps of this section the same advantages as we did for those printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., we are now obliged for our information to fall back entirely upon the philatelic periodicals, the authorities we have chiefly relied upon being the Philatelic Record and the Timbre-Poste.

With the change of contractors alterations took place in the paper, colours, and perforation of the stamps—printers’ accessories that naturally differ with each individual firm. At the time Messrs. De La Rue & Co. took over the contract they had, in the case of stamps of the size of the majority of those of St. Vincent, ceased using their well-known paper watermarked with a crown and “C.C.,” and had substituted in its place a paper with watermarks of a crown over the letters “C.A.”—these initials standing for “Crown Agents.” This paper is milled or surfaced, medium in thickness, and varies but slightly in both of these two respects. It was specially made for the electrotype plates used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. in the surface-printing process they employ for most of the current British Colonial stamps. The entire sheet measures 21¼ inches in height by 11 inches in width, or 54 centimetres by 28 centimetres, approximately. In order to correspond with the stamps on these electrotype plates, the watermarks in the sheet are grouped in four panes of sixty, and those in each pane are arranged in ten horizontal rows of six, with a line in watermark enclosing each pane. The two upper panes are separated from the two lower ones by a space of an inch, and this interval is watermarked with the words “Crown Agents,” in a straight line in double-lined block capitals 12 mm. in height. 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 consequence is that the watermarks, “Crown C.A.,” are irregularly distributed over the sheets of all the different values, never being in proper register with the stamps, but more so in the cases of the Halfpenny and the Five Shillings, on account of the sizes of these two values being so very different from that of the De La Rue stamps for which the watermarks are spaced.

We have seen that the plates of the Halfpenny, One Penny, and Sixpence contained sixty stamps, in six horizontal rows of ten, and that of the Five Shillings twenty stamps, in four horizontal rows of five. The “Crown C.A.” paper was, therefore, quite large enough to be divided horizontally, so as to take three impressions of any of these plates. The result of this division of the sheet is that the impression of the plate that happens to be printed on the middle portion has one row of stamps, either partly or wholly, watermarked with as much of the inscription, “Crown Agents,” as the length of the plate will permit; and specimens of all the above values, as well as of the two issues of the One Penny surcharged “2½ Pence,” and the Six Pence surcharged “Five Pence,” by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. are found so watermarked. The plates of the Four Pence and One Shilling, which only contained thirty stamps in three horizontal rows of ten, admitted of the paper being so cut that the words “Crown Agents” are only found watermarked in the margins of the sheets of these two values.

The sheets printed from Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s plates were even less adapted to the perforating machines used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. for stamps of their own design printed on “Crown C.A.” paper, than, as we have seen, were the Perkins-Bacon plates to that paper. These machines, to which we give the name of “comb,” perforate the top and two sides of every stamp in an entire horizontal row at each descent of the pins. The second descent of the pins, therefore, perforates the bottom of the stamps in the first row and at the same time the top and two sides of the stamps of the second row. This process is continued through the sheet until the bottom of it is reached, when the last descent of the pins perforates the bottom of the lowest row of stamps, and at the same time continues the vertical lines of perforation into the bottom margin of the sheet. 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. In consequence of this, the stamps of St. Vincent, and those of other Colonies for which Messrs. De La Rue & Co. use the old plates of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., have to be perforated by a different make of machine to that they usually employ for colonial stamps.

For the stamps of St. Vincent three varieties of perforating machines have been used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. First, a comb-machine of the gauge of 14, similar to the one they employ for perforating the current One Penny &c. of Great Britain, in which the horizontal line of pins is long enough, without the interposition of two vertical lines placed close together, to perforate a row of ten or more stamps; second, a single-line or guillotine-machine with 12 holes in a space of 2 centimetres; and third, a similarly constructed machine to the second, but with a gauge of 14.

In order to distinguish between the perforations of the guillotine-machine gauging 14 and those of the comb-machine which also gauges 14, it is necessary to have either a block of at least four stamps, or a vertical strip with the top and bottom margins of the sheet attached. By examining the points where the lines of perforation intersect each other, or noticing whether both margins of the sheet have been perforated through or not, it is possible to decide the nature of the machine. If, at the point where a vertical and a horizontal line of perforation intersect, there is one hole common to both lines, this hole being of the usual size, or if either the top or bottom margin of the sheet is imperforate, then the perforation must have been done by the comb-machine. On the other hand, if the lines of perforation cross each other so that there is no one hole common to both lines, or if there appears to be such a one that it has evidently been made larger by the passage of a second pin, or if the top and bottom margins of the sheet are both perforated through, then we may be equally certain that the perforation has been performed by the guillotine-machine.

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.

The guillotine-machine gauging 12 is more irregular still in the spacing of the pins, as an examination of our illustration No. 21 will show. For instance, the tenth hole from the bottom is further from the ninth than it is from the eleventh, and the second and third holes from the top, and also others, will be seen to be more or less out of line. The gauge also varies; for if two centimetres be taken up the central line, commencing with the fifteenth hole from the bottom, that space will be found to contain eleven holes, plus the distance between the eleventh and twelfth, which is equivalent to a gauge of 11¾.