Penny Red Watermarks

For the first 15 years or a watermark consisting of a small crown was used. The watermark "bits" were made from fine brass wire shaped by hand, leading to some minor variation in the shape and size of design.

Type 1

Block of type 2

Type 2

Then in 1855 a switch to a large crown watermark took place. The watermark "bits" were now punched from a sheet of brassThis crown was modified in around 1861 when the two small lines in the lower arches were removed.

Vertical watermark misplacement [3K] Horizontal watermark misplacement [3K]

Additional markings were made in the margin of the sheet, consisting of a line intended to mark the start of the stamp impressions, plus the word "POSTAGE" in several places around the plate. Parts of these can be seen on marginal stamps in which the watermark is misaligned.

Occasionally the sheet was placed into the printing press upside down which gave rise to stamps in which the watermark appeared inverted. Indeed the sheet could even be fed in reversed, though due to the symmetry of the crown watermarks such occurances can only be identified from exampls with parts of the POSTAGE watermark attached.

An interesting error occured with the large crown watermark. Two of the watermark bits had to be replaced and it seems this replacements were made by hand and thus differed from the normal watermark. These affected stamp positions MA and TA. However, the above example is lettered ML which occured due to the sheet being fed into the printing press reversed.

WATERMARKS