Nigeria #299a 15k Multicoloured Sugar, 1975-1986 Nigerian Life & Industry Definitive Issue - Watermarked, A Fine NH Single Inverted Wmk, DF/HF Paper With Eggshell PVA Gum, Black Is The Top Colour - Rare & Unpriced in Scott

A fine NH single of the 15k multicoloured Sugar from the 1975-1986 Nigerian Life & Industry Definitive Issue - Watermarked inverted wmk, DF/HF paper with eggshell PVA gum, black is the top colour - rare & unpriced in scott. This denomination is almost never found mint, largely owing to the fact that nearly all were used for postage. 15K was the airmail rate to the UK when the stamp was issued, and the UK is the most common destination for mail. Rather than reprint the supply, the postage rate went up to 18k, which eliminated the need for the 15K. We have sold mint examples to retail customers in the past for between $175 and $250 for an NH single.

2017 Scott does not price mint examples, Our estimate, based on what we have sold them for in the past is $175.

The watermarked lithographed printings of this issue appeared from 1975 onwards, and constitute the scarcest and most complex of all the stamps in this issue. The initial printings were very similar to the unwatermarked ones, and were on a thicker chalky paper with PVA gum. Later printings became successively blurrier and the paper surfacing in the early 1980's took on a grainy texture. In contrast to the previous printings which were almost exclusively medium to high fluorescent, these cover the full range from dead to hibrite, and the readings on the front and back of the stamps are usually different, often wildly different. Very late printings, made on an emergency basis during the inflation period in the early 1990's are on dull paper containing red-orange fluorescent fibres. In keeping with the earlier unwatermarked printings, the colours were printed separately, and the order in which they were printed differs. Thus, we describe them with reference to what the top colour is. 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.