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I have a used Victoria 2p Lilac with Twelve holes perforated each letter O & S.

My question is "Do I need a specialised Australian catalog to find out value" etc?

My on line SG does not help nor Scott's 1840-1940 specialized. would appreciate any answers.

Hi, bldylimey, welcome to the forums. I assume the stamp has slightly curved "postage" on either side of Queen Victoria's head. Can you post an image?

This stamp, if this is it, would have been issued sometime after 1901 following the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia. The perforated OS stands for "Official Service", and would have been used for Government correspondence.

Most Australian catalogues have never listed perf OS states stamps, but I understand that The Australian Commonwealth Specialists Catalogue has recently produced an edition which includes all states stamps issued after the formation of the Commonwealth (January 1 1901). These OS perfins are probably included in that catalogue

Somebody here with a copy may be able to help as to price. I doubt that it is worth a whole lot though - I have several copies of this stamp.

Norm

The ACSC lists these, but you need to know whether the watermark is V4, V5, or crown double-lined A (and watermark orientation -- these can be inverted or reversed) and the exact perf. The perfs on these are horrible to distinguish. The perforators used were line 11, rotary 11.75 x 12.25, comb 12.4 x 12.2, and line 12.4. There are also mixed perfs (one perforator does the top and bottom and another does the sides) and compound perfs (in this case, perf 12.2 top and bottom, perf 12.4 at the right and perf 11 at the left -- sheesh!). There's also a thin paper variety.

I sold all of my Victoria to Les Molnar a while back so that I wouldn't have to worry about such things!

Greg

Greg is correct that there are a number of variations, but generally, these do not attract much premium over the standard issue - it may be in large part due to the fact that the major catalogs do not list them. Several million were punctured OS of this denomination, so it is not a rare stamp.

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Les Molnar (stampsofvictoria.com)

Hi, Les. Unless it is something like V4 perf 11, which cats $750.

Going to be at Maresch?

Greg

Yes limey .. if you can post an image it sure helps. SIMPLE to do:

http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=284

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