QC-TO-5

Queensland - Colonial period: 1861-1900.
Ordinary rate transmission form: QC-TO-5.

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Special aspects

General characteristics:

Heading and notes:	Heading Electric Telegraph, Queensland. No form number.
Message area:	10 boxes in 2 lines.
Reverse side:	Blank.
Colours (text & form):	Black on pale yellow.
Size of form overall:	165 × 198 mm.

Distinctive characteristics of this form:

has pre-printed stamp image in brown with
1/- denomination;
has serrated edge at left indicating it had been torn from a pad;
printed in 1880s;
the details provided below are:
Background to the issue;
The form;
Design and printing.

After the amalgamation of the Post and Telegraph Departments on 15 December 1879, the Department followed the lead of Victoria (1873) and Western Australia (1879) by issuing a pre-stamped transmission form. Date of issue is unclear but it may have been 1882. It therefore closely followed the first issue of the 1880 Postal Note The form has the date starting with "188_".

The form was printed on cream to light yellow paper and impressed with a 1/- brown indicium to pay the cost of 10 words for a message sent within the Colony. The cost of additional words could be paid in postage stamps - which was not a recognised/authorised form of payment of telegraphic charges at that time in Queensland.

It is probable, given the serrations at the left, that a counter-foil might have been attached to the form.
There is, however, no record as to whether this was so nor how big it may have been.

The forms were bound into 500 books of 20 forms. Only 76 books were however sold. The balance was destroyed.

QC-TO-5.

Unused transmission form with the printed 1/- brown Queen Victoria image.

Design and printing.

Die proof on slightly thick wove paper. Only recorded example. Provenance: Alan Griffiths. Spink Oct. 2012, Lot 1478 (all three items in this row).	No details of the process for design and printing of the form are recorded. The design is derived from the basic Ridgeway die used for the 1882 postage stamps. The forms were probably printed by lithography by the Government printer.
	Die proof copy on thick paper, line perf 12 and obliterated with a 10 mm part circle presumably to form part of the c. 1895 U.P.U. presentation sets.	Copy cut from a form (notice smaller margins) and presented as a die proof and with a counterfeit postmark.

Details of use and rarity.

Form sub-number	Schedule number	Earliest recorded date	Rarity rating
TO-5	None.	Not known used.	NC unused but unknown used.