Queen Victoria 5/- · inverted watermark

Queen Victoria 5/- · inverted Crown CC watermark

Denomination5/-

Issue date1886–1913

Only this release range is established; the individual issue year remains unverified.

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The story behind the issue

The large-format five-shilling Victoria stamp with inverted Crown CC watermark.

Your notes

Technical details

Issuing authority: Malta Post Office
Postal purpose: Postage
Currency: GBP pre-decimal
Stamp format: Watermark orientation variety
Designer: Not documented
Printer: Not documented
Printing process: Not documented
Stamp dimensions: Not documented
Perforation: 14
Watermark: Crown CC, inverted
Paper: Not documented
Colour: Not documented
Quantity: Not documented

Sources & verification

Partially verified

Séfi explicitly records inverted-watermark specimens and lists Crown CC for this issue. His prose says the paper remained the same as the lower values, an imprecise statement not allowed to override the explicit Crown CC reference list or the existing base record. The bounds mean base availability in 1886 and documented existence by 1913, not continuous production or a proven first-sale interval. Reverse-watermark authentication remains open.

Research notes: The base stamp was introduced in 1886. No exact first appearance of the inverted-watermark variety is asserted.

A. J. Séfi, The Postage Stamps of Malta (1913), chapter XVI, printed pp. 28–29: five-shilling inverted watermark and Crown CC reference list ↗

Image & attribution

Image permission not established

One selected documented watermark-orientation variety; rose shade gradations and the probable imperforate proof are excluded.

In the same issue

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No other stamps in this issue.