Member ACCC (Australian Commonwealth Collectors Club of NSW) 08 Apr 2021 11:35:23am
The 1949 ½d with foggy hills is a master plate flaw; the retouch is one of the most extensive of all commonwealth retouches. It was first noted in March 1951; the relevant electro was withdrawn later in the year.
This particular variety has a “G NSW” perfin (the foggy hills stamp is on the right, the left stamp is a normal comparison to the variety); the first one seen with a government perfin.
The recut is the dark shading lines above the hill.
What makes these stamps interesting is that the foggy hills stamp may have been pilfered by a staff member who collects stamps, which kind of defeats the original purpose of the government perfin.
This is a well-centred horizontal pair in MUH, scarce and unlisted.
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"Specialised Collector of Australian Pre-Decimal & Decimal Stamps"
That is a definitely a dramatic plate retouch! It would make a great example for a one page stamp exhibit discussing plate changes and how significant they can be from a visual standpoint. Do you have any other examples similar to this that you could share as images?
Member ACCC (Australian Commonwealth Collectors Club of NSW) 08 Apr 2021 09:29:26pm
re: NOT YOUR AVERAGE FOGGY HILLS RETOUCH
Hi Horamakhet
The foggy hills is quite recognisable, and this variety has various degrees of the hills fading, I have a few varieties, one where the hill is nearly gone.
Rob
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"Specialised Collector of Australian Pre-Decimal & Decimal Stamps"
Member ACCC (Australian Commonwealth Collectors Club of NSW) 12 Apr 2021 05:51:55am
re: NOT YOUR AVERAGE FOGGY HILLS RETOUCH
Hi Horamakhet
Happy to be the cause of your tangent, it sometimes reaps rewards.
The top stamp is definitely a foggy hills variety; it isn’t a broken branch, the foggy hills was due to ink stripping and the tree was also affected, and in many cases the extended branch was affected to a point that most of it was missing.
I cannot say whether or not the second stamp has a flaw extending from the back of the wallaroo as I need to see the stamp enlarged, it would need to be the same shading as the wallaroo (Being partially colour blind the enlargement helps).
With the third stamp you would need to place a regular stamp beside the stamp you say shows colour missing adjacent to the last “A” of AUSTRALIA” and up to the bottom of the tree (Again my partial colour blindness gets in the way and an enlargement will help).
The fourth stamp is probably due to too much light exposure rather than ink stripping.
I can definitely see the colour flaw at top left of the stamp on the right of the joined pair, but did you know that the stamp on the left is a re-entry (the tell-tale heavy lines is seen at the top right corner of the cancellation, behind “BANE” of “BRISBANE”, directly under the canopy of the tree).
Rob
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"Specialised Collector of Australian Pre-Decimal & Decimal Stamps"
