Nigeria #305, 305a 50k Multicoloured Pottery, 1973 Nigerian Life & Industry Definitive Issue, 6 VFNH Singles Photogravure Printings With Black & Brown Background on HF/MF7, HF/MF6, MF7/MF7 & MF7/MF6 Papers

6 VFNH singles of the 50k multicoloured Pottery from the 1973 Nigerian Life & Industry Definitive Issue photogravure printings with black & brown background on HF/MF7, HF/MF6, MF7/MF7 & MF7/MF6 papers. With shiny gum Arabic. All values from 12k up to 1N, except for the 50k were issued as lithographed printings (called delacryl) on the technical data sheet that came with the first day covers issued. These photogravure printings are either experimental printings, or they are subsequent printings made when there shortages of the lithographed printings. For the 50k, the default printing was the one with dark brown background, and 5,000,000 were issued of this. This printing with black background was issued in much lower quantity, with the exact number being unknown.

2017 Scott values the basic stamps at $9.5.

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.