June 2025
By John F Roe, Philatelic Co-ordinator at Bath Postal Museum and Honorary Secretary, Bristol
Philatelic Society
The 1883–84 low values, the ‘Unified’ series, popularly known as ‘The Lilacs and Greens’, provide a compact and interesting collecting group, as John F Roe shows in the first part of this introductory article.
The Lilac and Green issue of 1883–84 has always caused difficulties for collectors, and yet it is an attractive and fascinating issue of limited extent. The difficulties are mainly to do with the fugitive inks used and the high cost of acquiring the material. This feature reviews the options for collecting this fine set based on a collection some 25 years in the making.
The footnote to this set in the Stanley Gibbons Catalogues reads: ‘The above prices are for stamps in the true dull green colour. Stamps which have been soaked, causing the colour to run, are virtually worthless.’
The catalogue prices for the stamps in this issue vary from £9 to £475 for used and £30 to £1200 for mint stamps; for other varieties they are selectively higher. There is a large risk in buying a used 9d. green catalogued at £475, which might be considered by others to be ‘worthless’.
To overcome the problem of fugitive inks, one way of collecting these is to look for interesting and fine postmarks rather than worry about the colour of the stamp. Such stamps can be found at 10 per cent of catalogue or less. There was a wide range of postmark types in use during the relative short life of this issue between 1883 and 1887 and a selection of these are illustrated later. A review of values used abroad will be undertaken in Part 2 of this article.
A safer way of collecting these stamps, avoiding the problem of fugitive inks, is to concentrate on unused stamps and the varieties of these, but the downside is a much higher cost. A third way is to collect true colour examples used on cover or more cheaply on piece.
The basic set in Fig 1, consisting of ten values in six designs, includes the ½d. value in slate-blue, which replaced the ½d. green issued in 1880. The ½d. had no corner letters whereas the rest of the set was printed in two panes with corner letters AA to LJ and AK to LT and a blank gutter between. There was no 1d. stamp as the first unified 1d. stamp in lilac, in use for postage and inland revenue purposes, had been issued in 1881, and apart from a small design change, was in use throughout the period of this issue.
All values of this issue can be found with ‘SPECIMEN’ overprints as shown in figure 2. These were issued to inland and overseas postal authorities for training and recognition purposes. The overprints were in black and while generally located central to the stamp design, are often found with significant shifts horizontally, vertically, or rotationally. All overprints are referred to in Stanley Gibbons Catalogues as Type 9 with a size of 14¾×2mm.
Examples of stamps with these overprints can be collected as singles or, more interestingly, in blocks and the ½d. comes in two shades of slate-blue. The ½d. example shown here in Fig 3 is of additional interest as the overprint is a forgery. The overprint comprises letters without serifs with dimensions 13×2mm. This does not match any overprints with dimensions listed in the Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Specialised Catalogue (Ref 1), where there is also a warning regarding the possibility of forgery. These days there is little benefit in forging an overprint on any value other than the ½d. slate-blue, as it is the only stamp with a catalogue value less than the stamp with overprint. All other values have higher catalogue values than those with Specimen overprints— most three to four times higher.
Two values (1½d. and 2½d.) of the overprinted set of ten stamps are known imperforate and a marginal 1½d. value is illustrated here in Fig 4.
An attractive marginal block of the 2½d. value in Fig 5 shows the first half of the marginal watermark: POSTAGE
The 9d. value illustrated in Fig 6 is unusual as it has an abnormal watermark. Here the watermark is sideways-inverted. This variety is not listed separately for overprinted stamps in the Stanley Gibbons Specialised Catalogue (Ref 1). Inverted watermarks are described in more detail below.
All of the stamps of this issue can also be found with a ‘CANCELLED’ overprint of Type 14 and these are more difficult to find and attract a catalogue value of around twice that of the ‘SPECIMEN’ overprints.
Specimens and unused stamps are ideally suited for comparison with used stamps to assess their colour quality.
The normal watermark is the Imperial Crown, upright on the stamps in vertical format and sideways on the stamps in horizontal format. Three values are known in each format with the watermark inverted. The 1½d. value illustrated in Fig 7, has an inverted watermark.
Stamps in horizontal format have the normal watermark arranged with the top of the Imperial Crown facing to the right when viewed from the back. For sideways–inverted watermarks, the top of the Crown faces to the left.
An unusual example from this issue, having the watermark sideways-inverted is illustrated by an imprimatur in pale purple from Plate 2 of the 2½d. value, imperforate but having full gum Fig 8. Fig 8 also shows two used 9d. stamps, lettered KC and KQ, with the watermark sideways inverted. Their positions on the diagram are framed in green. It should be noted that none of the sheet positions for the two stamp formats coincide.
De La Rue prepared four schemes of hand-painted essays of each value of this issue together with the high values issued in 1883 and 1884 in a range of 14 to 20 designs. These were presented to the Stamp Committee late in 1882. The fourth scheme was approved with very minor alterations.
These essays were then crudely printed on buff card in the issued colours and all lettered AB/BA (Fig 9). De La Rue was instructed on 14 December 1882 to proceed to print the approved range of stamps from ½d. to £5.
De La Rue carried out colour trials between 1 April and 30 October 1884, using the production plates of only the four Lilac stamps from this issue. The need for trials arose from concerns about potential loss of revenue resulting from the switch from expensive double fugitive inks, previously used for revenue purposes, to single fugitive inks used only for postage stamps. Examples of the 1½d. are illustrated in Fig 10 lettered JF with own gum in purple on buff paper and an imperforate example lettered AI in green on orange paper.
The security concerns of the Stamp Committee were apparently well founded, as can be adjudged from the forgery in Fig 11. This 9d. stamp lettered BA is printed on a bleached 2½d., so is watermarked, and comes with a duplex PADDINGTON . W postmark.
These stamps were printed as part of the approval process and examples can be found for all values and from two plates of each value or eight plates (7 to 14) of the ½d. value. The stamps were imperforate, gummed, and taken from different parts of a sheet, and some plates were printed in a pale shade.
This example of a 3d. value in Fig 12 is taken from Plate 2 in pale purple and lettered AK where its position on the sheet is highlighted on the diagram showing (shaded) the 22 copies taken from this imprimatur sheet.
The SG Specialised Catalogue (Ref 1) lists and prices blocks of four stamps for each value. It is believed that this has been done to show an uplift of values of some 25 per cent for the blocks to deter the previous habit of collectors and dealers breaking up the blocks and selling the stamps as singles. In Fig 13, a mint block of the ½d. is shown in the pale shade and a mint block of 6d. lettered CS–DT is also illustrated.
De La Rue were contracted to carry out official perforation trials for this issue and all stamps from the issue are understood to have been perforated 12 instead of the issued perforation of 14. These trial stamps were never issued for use so should always be found with gum and overprinted ‘SPECIMEN’ Type 9. Six stamps are illustrated in Fig 14. Again these stamps provide a very good example of the true colours of this issue, but at a catalogue value of around £400–£500 each and rising they are becoming increasingly more expensive to obtain.
All values in the set of ten are found with Line perf 12. These are unused and without an overprint. Examples of these are very difficult to find and with the exception of the ½d. have a catalogue value in excess of £2500.
Similarly, nine of the ten values are known unused and imperforate. Again these stamps are very hard to find and have catalogue values from £3500 to £8000, an increase of some 75 per cent over the last seven years. It is likely that these imperforate stamps were from sheets left over from the perforation trials referred to above. The 9d, issued in 1883, is not known imperforate.
Plug flaws occur on some stamps of the Lilac and Green issue when the plug carrying the corner letter is unevenly fitted into the printing plate. This can result in a faint coloured mark or arc around and adjacent to one or more of the corner letters. A horizontal pair of the 1½d. value from near the bottom right corner of a sheet lettered SI–SJ, provides in Fig 15, a number of excellent examples of the ‘plug flaws’ that can exist on the stamps with corner letters. These are shown in greater detail in the enlargement which illustrates flaws in all four corner letters.
An enlargement of the 9d. value (Fig 16 )also illustrates a ‘plug flaw’ in the SW corner (Computer enhanced).
Some of the Lilac and Green stamps were also used with official overprints. Six of the values were overprinted for use by the Inland Revenue and on government parcels as shown in Table 3.
The government parcels overprint allowed all departments to prepay postage on their parcels and send parcels over three pounds in weight by letter post, avoiding having to pay the railway companies 55 per cent of the postage on all items carried by Parcel Post. The 9d. stamp was the first to be issued with this overprint on 1 August 1883. The 1½d. and 6d. followed on 1 May 1886.
A fine copy of the 1½d. lilac with the Government Parcels overprint comes further overprinted with ‘SPECIMEN’ Type 9. This is illustrated in Fig 17.
The 1½d. value with this overprint has two varieties relating to the superscript ‘T’ in ‘GOVT’. In one example the dot under the ‘T’ is missing, occurring three times on each sheet and in the other the dot appears to the left of the ‘T’, occurring four times on each sheet. These varieties are known in both
mint and used condition but are not illustrated here.
Three examples of the 9d. with the Government Parcels overprint are shown in Fig 18. The first comes further overprinted with ‘SPECIMEN’ Type 9, the second as an imperforate imprimatur, and the third as an unused example.
The catalogue value of the 1½d. and 6d. stamps with the additional Specimen overprint is higher than those of the basic set with Specimen overprints, but more interestingly the reverse is true of the 9d. value. Over the last seven years these Specimen overprints have seen a rise in catalogue value of 50 per cent to 60 per cent.
Only the 9d. value with the ‘GOVT. PARCELS’ overprint is found as an imprimatur. This example is one of only 28 copies taken from the imprimatur sheet and comes in superb colour, well centred and with original gum. The sheet location of the imprimatur stamps are shown in the diagram in green, and this example lettered IS is highlighted in pale green. The sheet location of the ‘SPECIMEN’ copy, lettered HH, is indicated in dark blue and the unused example lettered DT in pale blue.
The ‘I.R./OFFICIAL’ overprint on stamps for use by the Inland Revenue is shown in Fig 19, with an example cancelled by a barred oval postmark, clear of The Queen’s profile.
Examples of the unused Lilac and Green Inland Revenue overprints, were overprinted ‘SPECIMEN’, Type 9. These have a higher catalogue value than overprints on the basic set at £325 each for the two lower values and £1250 for the 1s. value. No other varieties are recorded.
Figs 20 and 21 show a variety of postmark types in use in London and the Provinces between 1884 and 1886 and in 1890.
Lilacs and Greens used abroad will be the subject of Part 2 published in the October 2013 issue of Gibbons Stamp monthly.
GSM
June 2025
GSM
May 2025
GSM
April 2025
Enjoy thousands of items, create custom searches bespoke to you, add to your wishlist and stamp collection from any computer, anywhere!
Register today Already have an account? Sign inFor the benefit of all website users, we have launched the function of single sign-on. One single password will now be valid across all of our platforms, including:
Now you will only ever need to sign in once.
If you're trying to access your account for the first time since the update, your old password will no longer work.
You'll need to set a new password using the Forgot Password page. Click the button below and follow the instructions provided.
Reset my password
