GBStamp.co.uk

June 22nd 1911, the day of the King's Coronation, saw the first ½d and 1d Downey Head stamps issued. The design is credited to Bertram Mackennal and G W Eve having been based on a photograph of the King taken by W and D Downey. The Downey stamps, despite their relatively short life, offer collectors and philatelists a huge array of variations to study and collect. Not only were two dies of the three-quarter Downey portrait used for printing, but three watermarks, many ink shades and several constant flaws and characteristics including the well known "No Cross on Crown" varieties which can form the basis of specialist collections on their own.

The Downey head issues were widely considered to be unsuccessful and some blamed the inexperinece of the printers (Harrison & Sons) and others the design. In August 1912 new definitive stamps were issued featuring a design based on Bertram Mackennal's coinage head of the king. Although Harrison & Sons continued to print these stamps, some were also done at Somerset House. It remained this way until 1924 when Waterlow & Son also began printing the same designs but now on Multiple Block Cypher watermarked paper.

Although based on the same king's profile, the definitive issues finally got a new design in 1934 when the Photogravure series started in use. These stamps underwent some subtle resizing over time to accomodate improvements in the preforation process leading to three formats identified as Large, Intermediate and Small. All 11 basic values were printed in the Small format (design measures 18x21.7mm). the four values to 2d were printed in Intermediate format (18.3x22.2mm) and only the 1d and 1½d values were issued in Large Format (18.6x22.5mm). Although affected by less shade variations there were still watermark varieties produced, often from stamps issued in booklets.

The High Value stamps from King George's reign have become known collectively as the "Seahorses" due to their design featuring Britannia and horses on the ocean with the king's portrait in a circular frame. Although the basic design didn't change, there were four seperate issues of these stamps involving three different printers although the £1 top value was only ever printed by Waterlow. The subtle differences between printer techniques and inks have created yet another area rich for study and collecting by specialists.

It was during the reign of King George V that the first Great Britain commemorative stamps were issued to mark the 1924/25 Empire Exhibition at Wembley. After those two issues the 1929 London Postal Union Congress saw five stamps issued to mark the event. It wasn't until 1935 that another commemorative set was issued to mark the King's Silver Jubilee. A mistake during printing the Jubilee stamps led to the creation of one of Britain's best known errors; The Prussian Blue.

The 1935 Silver Jubilee 'Prussian Blue' is a much darker shade of blue than the normal stamp

The George V era can boast many other notable philatelic events including the first ever issue of Postage Due stamps in 1914, using a design that would remain in use until 1970 when Britain adopted a decimal currency.

Illustrations of the London & Windsor Postmarks used for the 1911 first UK aerial post
(not to scale)

Earlier in the King's reign the first United Kingdom aerial post also took place between Hendon in North London and Windsor Great Park to the west.

King George V has also been credited by many people for increasing the popularity of philately in Great Britain during his reign by being a keen stamp collector himself. This being so we have much to be grateful for as, not only did he raise the profile of this great hobby, his reign saw the creation of a huge diversity of fascinating stamps for future generations to enjoy, collect and invest in.

Update: A major event is being organised titled "Empire Mail: George V & The GPO". This promises to be a unique exhibition that will explore the reign of King George V and is a feature of London 2010: Festival of Stamps.

Tweet

Stamps  Philately

GB Stamp Home Page     More GB Stamp Articles