Nigeria #291a/297a 1k-10k Multicoloured Hides & Skins - Yankari Game Reserve, 1973 Nigerian Life & Industry Definitive Issue, 8 VFNH Singles Photogravure Printings On MF Paper, Shiny & Satin Gum Arabic, Different Shades

8 VFNH singles of the 1k-10k multicoloured Hides & Skins - Yankari Game Reserve from the 1973 Nigerian Life & Industry Definitive Issue photogravure printings on MF paper, shiny & satin gum Arabic, different shades. The 1k includes both the printings with bright green foliage, and with dark green foliage. The 2k stamps include two very similar printings with shiny gum Arabic, differing only in the intensity of the purple, which, in turn is only different because the light blue on one stamp is slightly deeper and brighter than the other. Then there is a printing with a less shiny, satin gum Arabic, that is printed using a shade of cerise, rather than magenta in the background, causing the purple to appear more as a shade of lilac. This is a fairly scarce printing, as there were only a few in my stock. Then the 5k is present with both emerald coloured fields and yellow green fields.

2017 Scott values the singles at just $4.15 for the basic stamps. However, our estimate of the value, with the scarcer 2k is$10.

The photogravure printings of this issue were the first to appear in April 1973, though first day covers prove that some of the lithographed printings were produced and issued at the same time. The photograure stamps were all issued with shiny gum Arabic, on a bright white chalk-surfaced paper that typically glows medium fluorescent (MF) under long-wave UV light. The NSP&M Co. Ltd. imprints at bottom left on each stamp typically show very fine periods in between all the letters, but on a few stamps in each 50 stamp sheet, there will be some where the periods are either so faint that they appear to be missing, or they are missing entirely. Scott is hopelessly inaccurate on the mint stamps of this issue, which are seldom found in the market. This is why all the values in Scott are in italics. I very highly doubt that any of them are worth just 25c each. In 10 years of daily buing on E-bay and Delcampe I managed to assemble a stock of about 2 dozen sets of the photogravure printings and about as many of the unwatermarked lithographed and even fewer of the watermarked lithographed stamps, plus a few multiples. That's hardly anything at all. Used is no problem at all - most were used up for postage, but mint is another story. The sheets of this issue are 50 stamps and had imperforate selvedge at top and bottom. The side selvedge has a single extension perforation hole beyond the outer vertical perforations, on both left and right margins.