| Black Swan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country of issue | Western Australia |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| Engraver | William Humphrys |
| Printer | Perkins Bacon |
| Perforation | imperforate |
| Depicts | black swan |
| No. in existence | 14 or 15 recorded |
| Face value | One penny |
The Black Swan is the first postage stamp issued by the British colony of Western Australia in 1854. It illustrates a black swan, a typical Australian animal at the time and was the only image used on Western Australian stamps until 1902. [1]
In 1854, the one penny denominated stamp was issued imperforate. It was engraved by William Humphrys [2] and printed in London in 1854 by Perkins Bacon. [1]
The later values in the series were produced in lithography by Horace Samson in Perth.
Western Australia only issued swan stamps until the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1912, except for a few stamps of Queen Victoria issued in 1902. [1] The reprints were also lithographed in the colony. In 1912, the main value of the series was overprinted One Penny to be valid for use throughout Australia.
The watermark on all the colony's stamps featured the silhouette of the swan until 1862.
In thematic philately, the Black Swan is the first stamp of the bird topic.
The 1855 4 pence blue (4d), of the Western Australia's swan series of stamps, this was the first invert error, where the frame and center are inverted in relation to one another. [3]
In January 1855, a year after the first series was issued, Alfred Hillman took the printing plates from the archives to make new 4 pence stamps. Two of the plates were damaged and were replaced, but when they were reassembled one of the cliches was placed inverted on the plate.
Before the error was noticed 97 sheets of 60 inverted stamps were produced before Hillmann corrected the error.
Fourteen of fifteen copies of this error are recorded, all of which are cancelled. One is the Royal Philatelic Collection. [3]
A stamp on a stamp was issued by Australia Post, that featured the Black Swan stamp. Firstly in 1929 for the centenary of the colony of Western Australia and again in 1954 for the centenary of the first Western Australian stamp.
The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was first issued in the United Kingdom, on 1 May 1840, but was not valid for use until 6 May. The stamp features a profile of Queen Victoria.
The Penny Red was a British postage stamp, issued in 1841. It succeeded the Penny Black and continued as the main type of postage stamp in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until 1879, with only minor changes to the design during that time. The colour was changed from black to red because of difficulty in seeing a cancellation mark on the Penny Black; a black cancellation mark was readily visible on a Penny Red.
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Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day.
The Inverted Swan, a 4-pence blue postage stamp issued in 1855 by Western Australia, was one of the world's first invert errors. Technically, it is the frame that is inverted, not the image of the swan, but it has become commonly known as the Inverted Swan.
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In philately, an invert error occurs when part of a stamp is printed upside-down. Inverts are perhaps the most spectacular of postage stamp errors, not only because of their striking visual appearance, but because some are quite rare, and highly valued by stamp collectors.
The Inverted Head Four Annas of India is a postage stamp prized by collectors. The 1854 first issues of India included a Four Annas value in red and blue. It was one of the world's first multicolored stamps; the Basel Dove preceded it by nine years. However, an invert error occurred during production, showing the head "upside down."
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This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Barbados.
Western Australia, a state of Australia and formerly a British colony, established its postal service soon after the British settled in 1829; in December of that year, Fremantle's harbourmaster was appointed postmaster. A post office in Albany opened on 14 October 1834, and the main post office moved to Perth in 1835.
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