  T ogether with a number of other colonial possessions, Gambia was admitted to the Universal Postal Union on January 1st, 1879, and in June of the following year (1880) a more comprehensive series of postage stamps was issued, all modelled after the same fashion as the two denominations which had done service in the Colony for the previous twelve years. The convenience of perforation was adopted at the same time. The new series comprised the following values, the shades being given in the approximate order of printings—
The ½d. citron and ½d. pale ochre are generally believed to be changelings, due to atmospheric or other influences after the stamps were printed. The watermark on this issue appears variously upright or sideways, varieties of each being inverted. The normal "sideways" may be taken as from left to right. Portions of the marginal lettering and the vertical division lines of the panes are also to be found. The following is a synopsis of these varieties—
The subject of perforations is of peculiar interest in this and the next issue of the stamps of Gambia, as while to a certain extent the printings are to be differentiated by shade the chief distinctions may be made in the case of blocks and sheets by the perforations. At first the stamps were perforated by a single line machine gauging 14. A single line machine, as its name implies, simply makes a single long row of holes in one direction— In the present case, where the sheets were so small, the row is much longer than necessary, so in the sheets it extends through the margins on all sides, as in plate II. The horizontal rows may be perforated first (one row at a time), and then the sheet is turned sideways and the vertical divisions are similarly perforated. A peculiarity of this style of perforating machine is that the points where the vertical lines cross the horizontal lines rarely fail to fall foul of each other, and an effect is produced like this— Single line perforation. Note the crossing of perforated lines.In this manner it is possible to tell blocks and pairs of this perforation without any side margins. Single copies perforated in this manner can occasionally be detected by the distance between the vertical perforations. In the later perforation of this issue the distance is fixed (as will be shewn), and the distance is 20½mm., We have seen all the values except the 2d. rose and 1/- green perforated by the single line machine, in practically every case the C.C. watermark being upright, the exception being a strip of three 6d. with the sideways watermark. All the sheets with this perforation appear to have one printer's guide dot in the centre of each side margin. The next form of perforating machine introduced in later printings of the Crown and C.C. 1880 issue is known as a comb machine. The comb machine perforates three sides of a stamp at once, and the form of the first comb machine was arranged thus— The arrangement of the teeth of the comb fitted the arrangement of the panes of the regular Colonial postage stamps printed by Messrs. De la Rue & Co., the narrow spaced teeth in the centre marking the dividing space between two horizontal panes. In perforating the stamps of Gambia in the small sheets of fifteen in three horizontal rows of five, both sides of the machine appear to have been used, the extreme end portion of the comb at either end running off the side margin of the small sheet. When the left portion of the machine was being used the sheet was When the right-hand portion was in use the sheets appear to have been systematically inverted when placed in the machine. This left the bottom margin blank and the top margin cut through. Had the sheet been simply inverted and perforated by the same portion of the machine, as already described, the narrow spaced teeth would have been produced on the left hand margin instead of the right. A comparison of plates III. and VI. will shew that the narrow spacing is on the right in both cases, but in III. the perforating has been started at the top on the left side of the machine, and in VI. from the bottom on the right side of the machine. It is possible that sheets exist with the narrow spaced lines of perforation on the left side. We have searched in vain for such varieties, but they may exist. A sheet inverted when placed on the left side of the machine would shew the top margin perforated through, and narrow spaced perforation to left; while a sheet inserted top first on the right hand side would leave the top margin blank and the bottom one perforated through, and the narrow spaced perforation to left. This comb generally perforates so evenly that there is no clashing of the perforations where the lines meet. Occasionally, however, a sheet may get off the straight and an irregular perforation occurs. The sheets perforated in this machine generally have one guide dot in the left margin, and three at the right (see sheets III.-VII., IX.-XI., XIV., XV.). Comb perforation. Compare crossing of perforated lines with illustration on page 29.The ½d. pale orange vermilion exists doubly perforated at the top and sides. A minor variety of the 2d. rose shews a small white spot ½mm. from the nose. The stamp is No. 6 on the sheet. The variety has been noted on several (not all) the sheets of this value, and in various blocks, pairs and singles. The left and right hand top stamps (1 and 5) of the 6d. value shew the sloping label, which is now very prominent (see plate X.). All the values shew variations in the marks on the back hair and in the curls. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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