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The 1937 Coronation Stamp of King George VI: Introduction to Cylinder 7

Introduction

There seems to be no doubt that Cylinder 7 was the most-used of all the 17 cylinders for the Coronation stamp that went into production. Cylinder blocks from this cylinder are commonly available and marginal blocks showing the Colon Flaw are almost always on offer. What is not generally appreciated is that the cylinder was cleaned and rechromed more than any other and most of the signature flaws were corrected at one or other of these operations. There were seven distinct printings and no doubt there are distinct states within at least some of the early printings. For convenience and ease of management, each printing is treated here as a distinct and complete state.

The stamp is well known for having a very large number of printing flaws and it was once very popular to collect the flaws on used singles and build a collection of matched pairs. Few of the flaws were identified to cylinder and so were of little help in a study of the complexity of the stamp, nor in understanding the comparative scarcity or othennrise of material. As part of the analysis of the stamp in general, as large an amount of mint material as possible was collected over a period of some thirty years and every printing flaw found to be constant was carefully recorded.

Similarly, well over a thousand first day covers were amassed and the stamps carefully examined. A significant number of flaws were found and identified to cylinder. The results were striking. First, it became clear that every cylinder had been used and the stamps included in the great distribution to every post office in the Kingdom in time for sale on the day of issue. The shock was that 40% of the flaws appeared to come from Cylinder 7. Two factors must temper this conclusion. The first is that Cyl.7 has an above average number of constant flaws that would give it a weighting in the calculation. The second is the law of small numbers says that the smaller the number in a calculalion, the greater the likelihood of unusual results. Even so, the data does strengthen the apparent reality that Cylinder ? produced more stamps than any other cylinder.

Studying that amount of material brought to light the mention of a transfer shift in the GB Journal in 1958 and it turned out that the first cylinder to be numbered 7 had suffered a transfer shift and after a very short production run was trashed and remade. Add to lms that material from the last couple of printings is very difficult-to-rare and we have on the one hand the commonest cylinder of the 17, and the rarest. And it is the latter that leaves this study incomplete, and makes it a great opportunity for further study and greater contribution.

Robin Restall
Cambridge, 2020

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Frame 1

  1. Introduction
THE TRANSFER SHIFT
  1. The earliest press report
  2. Report in the GBPS Journal in 1958
  3. The Twice-made Cylinder
  4. Transfer Shift - What happened?
  5. Two cylinders, Ray Flaw comparison
  6. Stop pane cylinder block
  7. Comparing two cylinder blocks
  8. Comparing Controls and cylinder numbers
  9. Comparing Ray Flaws
  10. Illustrated FDC with flaw used on cover
  11. Illustrated FDC Lundy Flight covers with flaws used on cover
THE NO STOP PANE - CONSTANT FLAWS
  1. List of major flaws No Stop panes
  2. The White flaw inside the 7 (1)
  3. The White flaw inside the 7 (2) - Birch letter to Doupe
  4. The White flaw inside the 7 (3)
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Frame 2

THE NO STOP PANE - CONSTANT FLAWS (cont)
  1. King's extra decoration flaw (1)
  2. King's extra decoration flaw (2)
  3. Significant flaws
  4. Pair of multipositive flaws
  5. Pair of multipositive flaws on covers
  6. White spots in the epaulette
  7. The Black Pearl flaw (1)
  8. The Black Pearl flaw (2)
  9. Pearl on Tiara (1)
  10. Pearl on Tiara (2)
  11. Pearl on Tiara (3)
  12. Spur on G of Monogram (1)
  13. Spur on G of Monogram (2)
  14. Late use cover with flaw
  15. Two unrecognixed flaws
  16. Identifying an anonymous block
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Frame 3

THE NO STOP PANE - CONSTANT FLAWS (cont)
  1. Spur on foot of A (1)
  2. Spur on foot of A (2)
  3. Dry Print cylinder block
THE COLON FLAW - A CASE STUDY
  1. Colon Flaw - a pre-War press report
  2. Colon Flaw - State I, full marginal strip
  3. Colon Flaw - Progressions, Colon and Ray Flaw
  4. Colon Flaw - before and after correction
  5. Colon Flaw - False Semi-colon
  6. Colon Flaw - from Transfer slip cylinder
  7. Colon Flaw - State III, full marginal strip
  8. Colon Flaw - after correction
  9. Colon Flaw - Corrected colon, marginal strip
  10. Colon Flaw - used on cover (1)
  11. Colon Flaw - used on cover (2)
  12. Colon Flaw - used on cover (3)
  13. Colon Flaw - used on cover (4)
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Frame 4

THE COLON FLAW - A CASE STUDY (cont)
  1. Colon Flaw - used on cover (5)
THE NO STOP PANE - STATES
  1. No Stop, identifying the first state
  2. First state (1)
  3. First state (2)
  4. First state (3)
  5. First state (4)
  6. Second state (1)
  7. Second State (2)
  8. Second state (3)
  9. Second state (4)
  10. Third state (1)
  11. Third state (2)
  12. Third state (3)
  13. Third state (4)
  14. Fourth state (1)
  15. Fourth state (2)
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Frame 5

THE NO STOP PANE - STATES (cont)
  1. Late states
  2. No stop, sixth state
THE STOP PANE - CONSTANT FLAWS
  1. Stop, the constant flaws
  2. Constant flaws
  3. Flaws not constant
  4. Micro flaws
  5. Registered FDC with flaw
  6. Illustrated cover with flaw
  7. Registered cover with flaw
  8. Pearl in Orb flaw
  9. Flaws on Queen
  10. Ghost tennis ball
  11. The tennis ball
  12. Bar on Lanyard (1)
  13. Bar on Lanyard (2)
  14. Bar on Lanyard (3)
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Frame 6

THE STOP PANE - CONSTANT FLAWS (cont)
  1. Extra shine
  2. Pale blob on Queen's shoulder
THE STOP PANE - STATES
  1. Stop pane, the seven states
  2. First state (1)
  3. First state (2)
  4. First state (3)
  5. First state (4)
  6. Second state (1)
  7. Second state (2)
  8. Second state (3)
  9. Second state (4)
  10. Watermark variety
  11. Third state (1)
  12. Third state (2)
  13. Third state (3)
  14. Third state (4)
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Frame 7

THE STOP PANE - STATES (cont)
  1. Fourth state, seven to seven flaw
  2. Fourth state (1)
  3. Fourth state (2)
  4. Fourth state (3)
  5. Fifth state (1)
  6. Fifth state (2)
  7. Fifth state (3)
  8. Fifth state (4)
  9. Sixth state (1)
  10. Sixth state (2)
  11. Sixth state (3)
  12. Sixth state (4)
  13. Seventh state (1)
  14. Seventh state (2)
  15. Seventh state (3)
  16. Seventh state (4)