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Auction: 1021 - The "Alvarado" Collection of NSW, the Perkins Bacon & Co., Plates in Association with Millennium Philatelic Auctions
Lot: 480

x The Five Shillings Coin From the original sketch of a Post Office employee, T.W. Levinge, sent to Perkins, Bacon & Co., Edward Henry Corbould made a finished drawing and Frederick Heath engraved the die. Perkins, Bacon & Co. made a plate of fifty 10 x 5. Paper watermarked 5/- was bound in books of fifty sheets, and on the left edge of each sheet was a printed scroll of convolvulus flowers. The first printing of fifty sheets was put on sale on 2 April 1861. Up to 1899, when the stamp was withdrawn and replaced by the Centenary design, 162,500 were printed in quantities varying from 2500 to 30,000. Of these some were overprinted o s and specimen. When the stamp was withdrawn the unsold stock was overprinted Reprint or Specimen and put on sale to collectors. In 1894 the stamp was reprinted in deep red-purple and cancelled N.S.W. in three concentric ovals but very few copies were sold. On 15 August 1895 a further 1000 reprints were made in dull violet and overprinted o s, but of these 792 were destroyed. In 1897 the stamp was reissued as the top value of the Diamond Jubilee set and subsequent printings were made throughout the reign of Edward VII and at the beginning of the reign of George V, the last being in 1911. In this period there were fifteen printings with 302,500 stamps. This was one of the few classic stamps that was born, lived, died and was resurrected to serve a further life of seventeen years. Proofs Die Proofs In black on India paper (52x39mm.) inset on thin card (67x58mm.), fine. Photo Estimate £ 4,000-5,000 provenance: H. Gordon Kaye

Sold for
£3,500