60 years after it was issued a new stamp has been discovered from the popular island of Malta. Warwick and Warwick have discovered a King George V 10/- stamp with a watermark variety, which has never previously been recorded.
The stamp in question is the 1922 10/-, with watermark crown CC, overprinted Self-Government (SG 105), but with watermark reversed. It is in mint condition. The same stamp, without the overprint, is known with watermark reversed and is numbered SG 35x in the Gibbons catalogue. However, SG 105 has never previously been recorded with the reversed watermark. This means at least one sheet of 60 existed at the time of the overprint. How many more have survived un-noticed in stamp collections? We are sure that the overprint is correct and not forged.
Stanley Gibbons will be notified of the find so that the stamp can be included in the next edition of the British Commonwealth catalogue.
We auctioned this possibly unique stamp in our February 6th 2013 auction and it realised £949.
By Colin Such.