The 1959 5d blue booklet stamp pane of 6 are in interesting study considering it consists of three types on the one pane. The top pair (type A - imperforate on either left or right of the stamp), the middle pair (type Ba - distorted leg of "A" of "AUSTRALIA") and the bottom pair (type B - imperforate base with either adjacent sides imperforate).

The booklet was issued on March 23rd 1960 on unwatermarked paper: Perforation 14.88 x 14.10 comb (15 x 14). Booklets consist of a pane of 6 (3 rows of 2) and are imperforate on the left, right and bottom edges. Quantity printed: 668,160,000, of which 583,547,404 stamps were delivered to the Post Office in booklets.



If you have a single, pair, block or pane of 6 of the booklet 5d blue stamp shown, the position of the stamp on the pane can be made simple by looking at the imperforations and if it has a distorted leg (you may need a magnifier if your sight isn't 20/20).


Type Ba (distorted leg)


Type B

And to identify the stamp itself as Type A or B (not to confuse it with types A & B of the imperforate positions and distorted leg), count the shading lines in the loop of the "5", if the loop has 4 lines it is Type A and if there are 5 it is Type B.

Also, Type A has a short shading line between "d" and the "5" where the line is not touching either end. Type B has a shading line that extends under the "d"