Inverted Swan

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Inverted Swan
Inverted Swan.jpg
Country of production Western Australia
Location of production Perth
Date of productionJanuary 1855
Nature of rarity Invert error
No. in existence15 + a partial
Face value4-pence
Estimated value US$37,500 - US$80,000

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.

Western Australia State in Australia

Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, and the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of 2,529,875 square kilometres, and the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. The state has about 2.6 million inhabitants – around 11 percent of the national total – of whom the vast majority live in the south-west corner, 79 per cent of the population living in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated.

Invert error

In philately, an invert error occurs when part of a postage 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.

Contents

In 1854, Western Australia issued its first stamps, featuring the colony's symbol, the black swan, as did all WA stamps until 1902. While the 1d black was engraved in Great Britain by Perkins Bacon, other values, including the 4d blue, were produced by Horace Samson in Perth using lithography, and with different frames around the swan design for each value.

Black swan Species of bird

The black swan is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders, and are unusual in that one-quarter of all families are parented by homosexual pairings, mostly by males. Both partners share incubation and cygnet rearing duties.

Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co was a printer of books, bank notes and postage stamps, most notable for printing the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamps, in 1840.

Lithography Printing process

Lithography is a method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by German author and actor Alois Senefelder as a cheap method of publishing theatrical works. Lithography can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or other suitable material.

The error

In January 1855, additional 4d stamps were needed. When Alfred Hillman brought the printing stone out of storage, he found that two of the impressions had been damaged, so he had to redo them. One of the replaced frames was tilted; the other was accidentally redone upside-down. The stone's block of 60 was transferred four times to make the printing stone, and 97 sheets were printed before Hillman discovered the mistake and corrected it, resulting in a total of 388 errors being printed.

However, the errors went unrecognised and unreported for several years. Only 15 complete copies, plus a part of a stamp in a strip of three, have survived. No unused copies are known.

One example was discovered in Ireland in the 1860s, acquired by the Duke of Leinster, and bequeathed to Ireland in 1897. It is on display at a museum in Dublin. [1] It was on displayed in 1890 at Royal Philatelic Society London's first philatelic exhibition. [1] Other examples are in the Royal Collection, the Tapling Collection of the British Museum, and at museums in Sydney, and Perth, in addition to private collections.

Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Duke of Leinster was an Irish peer.

Dublin Capital of Ireland

Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Situated on a bay on the east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, it lies within the province of Leinster. It is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region as of 2016 was 1,347,359. The population of the Greater Dublin Area was 1,904,806 per the 2016 census.

Royal Philatelic Society London philatelic society

The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as The Philatelic Society, London. The society runs a postal museum, the Museum of Philatelic History, at its Devonshire Place headquarters in London.

Copies of this stamp have been sold over the years such as, a 1980 auction realisation US$80,000,[ citation needed ] for $37,500 in 1983[ citation needed ] and for £122,400 in a Spink auction on 19 May 2015. [2]

Spink & Son

Spink & Son are an auction and collectibles company known principally for their sales of coins, banknotes, stock and bond certificates and medals. They also deal in philatelic items, wine and spirits, and other collectible items.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 tracy, Linda (2019). "Inverted Swan Stamp... An Error that has become a Rarity". Documentation Discoveries. National Museum of Ireland . Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  2. ↑ Stephens, Glen (June 2015). "World Record Price for Australasia". July 2015 Market Matters. Glen Stephens. Retrieved 17 November 2019.

Sources

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