A Review by Ernst M. Cohen
Walton, Frank L., Sierra Leone King George VI Definitive Stamps, West Africa Study Circle, 2001, 90 pp., 8-1/2" x 11", hardbound, many ills. (incl. 4 pp. in color) and tables, US$35 + US$15 shipping & handling, checks made out to West Africa Study Circle, to be sent with order to Richard Payne, Anso Comer Farm, Hempstead, Saffron Walden, United Kingdom CB10 2NU.
Acknowledgments, a foreword, ten numbered chapters, references and an index are fitted into fewer than 100 pages because of the admirably concise arrangement of large amounts of detailed information, thus easily found and read. Headings of the numbered chapters are Introduction, Tenders and Stamp Design, Sheet Format, Plate Varieties, Printings by Requisition, Printings by Value, Specimen Stamps, Stamp Properties (Paper, Gum, Watermark, Perforation, Shades), Postmarks, and Postal Rates. The introduction, though entirely devoid of tables, takes less than two pages, but every word and abbreviation is carefully chosen to explain usages throughout the book.
The author not only quotes older references that state that two panes of either 6 x 10 stamps (to 1941) or 5 x 12 stamps (thereafter) were used per sheet, he also calculated the size of the panes and concluded that only the latter format could possibly have fitted on the sheets, and he illustrates why.
The word SPECIMEN was punched into stamps that were distributed by the UPU to its members. Waterloo & Sons prepared these specimens, of which one correct type and six variants, caused by missing pins, are known to exist in the British Library. A couple more were found outside the Library. Forged 'specimen' stamps are known, apparently not fabricated until 1970.
Postmarks are described for different periods, and 72 of them are shown on the four colored pages, though every postmark is black - but the stamps make pretty colored pictures, including shades, inverts (to have the postmark right side up, of course) and an interloper 1d stamp dated 12 May 1937 and postmarked at Pujehun on SP 16, 37.
Only the most common postage rates are given in chapter 10. "More detailed information ... is available elsewhere," though no sources are cited in connection with that chapter. Of the seven usages illustrated, perhaps the most unusual one is the fiscal use of a 2d stamp on the receipt for a gift of £5 Sterling by M. P. Horton for the late Regina Elsie Horton from the estate of Elizabeth Marsden Cole (deceased) on 13 June 1944.
The book should be quite useful for collectors not only of Sierra Leone King George VI stamps but for collectors of British colonies generally as an example of what kind of information is potentially available, how one can present it in highly compact and very useful format, and how to evaluate older information critically.
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