Lagos SG#2 2d Blue First Printing Crown CC Watermark Perf. 12.5 Frame Break F-69 Used

A well centered, and fine used example of the 2d blue Queen Victoria De La Rue Keyplate stamp from the 1874-1876 Perf. 12.5 Crown CC issue, with frame breaks in the lower left corner. According to J.F Ince in his definitive work, there were a total of 14,160 stamps issued across 4 different printings between May 12, 1874 and May 13, 1875. This example is from the very scarce first printing, from May 12, 1874, of which only 1,980 stamps were printed. In addition, it has what appears to be a constant plate flaw in which both the outer frameline and inner value tablet frames are broken at left. This is quite a spectacular plate flaw for a De La Rue Keyplate issue. We do not know for certain whether it is constant as sheets are generally not available to allow one to plate this variety. If it is constant that it would likely only occur once on each sheet, which would mean that there were only 33 examples originally printed. It is postmarked with a nice clear strike of a July 27, 1874 Proud type D6 Lagos CDS cancel with timecode B. Vertical wove paper showing no visible mesh and watermarked crown CC. Stanley Gibbons values a VF-75 used example of the more common fourth printing at 42 pounds = $84. However as only 14% of the stamps in existence are from the first printing, and the fact that most plate flaws from this period are worth in the 150-300 pound range, this example should be worth approximately $150 in this condition. The stamp offered here grades F-69 used as follows: Margins/centering: 44/60 Paper freshness: 5/5 Colour: 5/5 Impression: 5/5 Absence of visible paper flaws: 5/5 Perforations: 0/10 Cancellation: 10/10 Adjustment for clipped corner perforation: -5 points