Monochrome 1913 illustration of the shared Victoria halfpenny design. The 1885 stamp is GREEN; this earlier-design illustration is not colour-matched. Paper and watermark are not authenticated.
1885 / Heritage
Queen Victoria · halfpenny
Queen Victoria definitives
Denomination½d
Issue date1885-01-01
The story behind the issue
Six values marked the change to Maltese stamps for both inland and overseas mail. Séfi reproduces a postal notice recording advance sale from 27 December 1884, for use from 1 January 1885.
Technical details
- Issuing authority
- Malta Post Office
- Postal purpose
- Postage
- Currency
- GBP pre-decimal
- Designer
- Not documented
- Printer
- Not documented
- Printing process
- Typography
- Stamp dimensions
- 18½ × 22½ mm (historic reference measurement)
- Stamps per sheet
- 240 stamps in four panes of 60
- Plate number
- 1
- Perforation
- 14
- Watermark
- Crown CA
- Paper
- White wove paper
- Colour
- Green
- Quantity
- Not documented
Sources & verification
Verified- A. J. Séfi, The Postage Stamps of Malta (1913), chapters III and XV–XX: original sheet arrangements and plate marks ↗
- Collin and Calman, A Catalogue for Advanced Collectors, Part VII, printed p.428: Victoria printing, paper and reference measurements ↗
Image & attribution
Alexander Joseph Séfi, The Postage Stamps of Malta (1913); earlier local halfpenny design illustration, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain — exact Commons illustration page declares PD-scan / PD-old; 1913 publication, author Alexander Joseph Séfi died 1934
Base designs only; shades, errors, proofs and later printings excluded.
