A well centered and very fine example of this rare 3/- booklet from the 1959 Wilding Graphite Issue With the inverted multiple St. Edward's Crown watermark, and black graphite lines printed on the back of the panes. The contents have the following characteristics:
Paper type: Vertical cream wove paper, watermarked inverted multiple St. Edward's Crown.
Printing method: Photogravure
Rate page features: August 1959 date printed in lower left corner.
Printer: Harrison and Sons
Perforation or die cut: 15 x 14 comb (Type I)
Stamp colours: 1/2d orange, 1d ultramarine, 1.5d deep green, 3d purple.
Gum Type: smooth cream coloured gum Arabic (dextrine gum) with a semi-gloss sheen
The covers display the following characteristics:
Cover fluorescence: Dull fluorescent on front and back
Cover seal type: unsealed
Cover design: Type B GPO cypher
Cover binding type: stitched with black thread
Interleaving inside? Yes, 5 double sided text pages, with adverts, giving a medium fluorescent reaction under UV light
Cover Colours: deep red with black writing
Counting mark on cover?:Yes
The Gibbons catalogue value for a F-65 mint example of this booklet is £250. This translates to $500. However, counter versions are scarcer and should be worth a premium over this amount. The booklet offered here grades VF-76 as follows:
Cover freshness: 10/10
Centering of the panes: 50/70 (average of both panes)
Condition of cover edges: 5/5
Freshness of the panes: 5/5
Absence of visible cover flaws or stains: 4/5 (pencil notation on front cover)
Condition of interleaving and contents: 2/5 (perfs trimmed along one edge of each pane)
The white papers of the panes do exhibit variations under long-wave ultraviolet light, starting with the multiple crown watermark. Generally they vary from low fluorescent to hibrite, as well as various flecked papers.
The perforators used also vary, and the differences lie in whether the vertical perforations extend into the selvage:
- Type I - vertical perforations do not extend into the selvage, so that selvage is fully imperforate at the vertical sides.
- Type I(1/2v) - as above, but one corner of the selvage is skimmed off.
- Type AP - Side perfs extend all the way through the selvage, but the middle row of perforations do not.
- Type P - all perforations extend all the way through the selvage.
