THE KEY PLATES

In 1872 a set of standard dies were prepared by De La Rue specifically for revenue use.

The design included a blank tablet at the base which was to be appropriately overprinted according to the intended use of the stamp. Well over 50 different overprints can be found. However it appears that the different keyplate values were perhaps just a little too similar and thus some overprints also included the value.

Die 1		Die 2

The same basic die for the Queen's head was used for the initial issues. However when the 4d, 4s, £3 and £6 values were issued a revised head was used. Although there are a great many differences, the bow at the back of the Queen's head is perhaps the most easilly seen.

"Scales"	"VR"	"Garter"

The first issues used three different watermarks, depending on the face value of the stamps. The "scales" watermark was used for values £1 and above, "VR" for values 1s and above but below 1s and "garter" for values below 1s.

"Two Orbs"	"Script-VR"	"Orb"

From 1881 the three watermarks began to change over to those illustrated above.