|
I've looked up subject GB pair. It looks like a die 2--shading added to lion's body--and if
it has no watermark, it looks like what you have is a paper trial. According to the latest (10th edition)
GB Specialized Catalogue from Stanley Gibbons, Vol. 2, page 154, there were four trials in carmine
and four trials in the issued scarlet (shades) on various unwatermarked wove papers. They are all
priced at 50 pounds for a single, presumably uncancelled. Your pair is clearly cancelled by what I take
to be a London canceller for the West Central district. Presumably it is a machine cancel.
If so, a book on British machine cancels by Jack Peach (U.K. Machine Marks)
should list the cancel. However, the cancel seems unusual to me--it appears
not to have the standard double-ring date head. Perhaps others can help on that. I am not aware
of cancelled paper trials, but I am not the world's greatest expert--just a struggling student.
[Bob Maushammer]
|
