| The One cent stamp was introduced solely to
pay the tax levy on postal items. It was levied regardless of the postal
charge of the individual item, and was intended to be used for the tax
element alone, but as is stated elsewhere, what the authorities required,
and what both the public and a large proportion of Post Office staff thought
was required, seldom agreed.
The first design was approved on 16 February 1915, and eighteen plates were prepared and put into use from the last week in February onwards. From Plates of 400 subjects, sheets of 100 were issued to postmasters, and a total of 267.5 million stamps were received from the printers in all. |
|
There were no Die modifications in the relatively short life of the issue, but purists identify various changes in the lower left spandrel vertical line, and in the letter 'A' of Tax. Retouches, or re-entries enable several 'types' to be recognised. No major retouches worthy of catalogue status are recorded. Lathework Type B can be found on sheets from Plates 17 and 18.
Updated: 5 Oct 97