The Charity Stamps of Colonial Australia.

Victoria - 1897 Hospital Fund.
2½d (2/6) red-brown stamp

The details addressed on this page are -

• the designs of the 2½d (2/6) Hospital Fund Charity stamp;
• the alternative standard issue 2½d stamp in 1897;
• details of the printing and the issue;
• large multiples;
• examples of cancellations on 2½d (2/6) stamps off cover and a summary listing
• CTO cancellations and the use of the 2½d (2/6) stamp on cover are discussed elsewhere.

Design of the 2½d (2/6) stamp.

The 2½d. (2/6) red-brown stamp featured a very similar portrait of Queen Victoria (but there are slight differences) within an ornamental frame.

To the right are the figures of a mother holding a young baby and a young girl standing to the side. Also included are a Cross and an Anchor to symbolise Faith and Hope respectively.

The postal denomination of the 2½d stamp paid the foreign letter rate.

The standard 2½d. stamps.

The usual 2½d stamp, issued first in 1890 to pay the cost of the basic overseas letter rate, was designed by Maximilian Tannenberg.

There were many printings in red-brown.

Those wishing to send a letter overseas therefore had the choice between these two stamps -
depending on whether they wished to pay 12 times the basic rate for postage by using the Hospital Fund stamp.

Main details of the printing.

This stamp was also printed from electrotype printing plates.

Multiples.

The largest multiples of the 2½d (2/6) stamp are:

• one block of 8. Unfortunately this block appears to have been broken into two blocks of 4
  (see Gary Watson's comment and the image for Lot 631 in the Prestige Philately catalogue of September 2011).
• one block of 6;
• one strip of 5.

There are several blocks of 4.

Three covers are recorded with pairs.

Stamps off cover.

For the 2½ (2/6) 1897 Victorian Charity stamps, mint hinged and unused examples are common.
Singles and pairs can only be rated as scarce if they are in good MUH condition with reasonable gum.

Unfortunately the majority of stamps off cover are unused (no gum) and/or are in poor condition with thins, creases and stained.
Almost all examples are singles which generally come in matched dates for the two denominations - possibly used on a cover and later removed.
There are a moderate number of "used" singles.

A high proportion of the cancellations on the Hospital Fund stamps are actually CTO date stamps
but that fact is not identified as such in descriptions by sellers. The CTO cancellation is distinctive with no inscription at the base.
Other cancellations are very faint and indecipherable.

Image left: 2½d (2/6) brown Queen Victoria with CTO Melbourne date stamp of 22 October 1897 - the First Day of Issue.

There are between 5 and 20 good used examples with distinguishable dates and these are listed below. A scarce example was used, like the 1d (1/-) stamp, before the issue date at Crowlands on 19 October 1897 (Status Auctions, February 2003. Lot 1587). Good used examples are much more elusive than unused or mint examples. Some stamps are used in the Commonwealth period - well after their validity for postal use. Some cancellations are barred numerals and so date of use cannot be determined.

Listing of the known date stamps on the 2½d (2/6) stamps.

The list below records the clear date stamps on the 2½d (2/6) 1897 Victorian Charity stamp.
Faint, smudged and incomplete date stamps are not included because of the difficulty in ascertaining their degree of genuineness.

The post-1905 cancellations may have been genuine postal use as people used "the old stamps from the drawer".

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Designed, developed and © by Dr. James N. Johnstone.