All values exist with the embossing double; several with the embossing double, one of the impressions being inverted; part double and treble perforations; and the white and the yellow gum.
The watermark Crown C.A. is uniformly sideways in this issue, the normal position being from right to left (Fig. F.), but it may be found inverted (Fig. G.).
The method of cutting up the sheets of Crown C.A. paper was to guillotine the half sheets horizontally in half and then twice vertically, dividing each horizontal half into three small sheets, the half C.A. sheet of paper yielding six small Gambia sheets (plates [XII.] and [XIII.]). The operators both at the guillotine and at the press seem to have taken the utmost care to arrange all the small sheets uniformly for passing through the press, as the varieties shewing the watermark from left to right are rare. The diagrams on plates [XII.] and [XIII.] will illustrate more clearly than a verbal explanation the precise method of dividing up the Crown C.A. paper.
The early printings of the Crown C.A. issue were perforated with the comb machine described in the previous chapter, but in the later printings a new comb machine was introduced, which has not the narrow spaced teeth in the margin, and, consequently, has not the double row of perforation on the right hand margins of the sheets. The perforations produced by the two machines gauge the same, and are not distinguishable in single specimens or blocks, but only in sheets or specimens with pieces of margins. The effect of the two different combs on the sheet may be compared on the two sheets of the 6d. value illustrated on plates [X.] and [XI.] We may note ([plate VIII.]) the second comb with the teeth extending through the top margin, leaving the bottom margin blank, shewing that some of the sheets were perforated from the bottom, which would produce this effect.
Unused imperforate copies exist of all values in the following shades—
| Imperforate | ½d. grey-green. |
| " | 1d. pale crimson. |
| " | 2d. orange-yellow. |
| " | 2½d. pale ultramarine. |
| " | 3d. pearl-grey. |
| " | 4d. brown. |
| " | 6d. slate-green. |
| " | 1s. deep violet. |
Copies in trial colours, perforated 12 instead of 14, exist as follows—
| ½d. | rose. |
| ½d. | violet. |
| ½d. | dull green. |
| ½d. | pale dull orange. |
| 3d. | olive-green. |