It is similar in every detail to the 1s. value lately issued, except figures (2) in each corner, and the colour is a washed-out blue, which a contemporary calls " Palermo" blue.
It is reported in Ewen's Weekly that, "pending the issue of this stamp, the Post Office Department, finding the stock of 2s., brown, exhausted, had another hundred sheets printed. These, however, are on a different paper to that last used, the quality of the latest issue being much inferior. The perforation is also slightly different, owing to the maker of the latest perforating machine having slightly stretched the gauge. By careful measurement we make it 12¾. The new issue will not come into operation until the old stock is exhausted."
Basset Hull believed this perforation to be from a single-line machine but remarked that he and his committee had never seen a copy of this stamp with a 12¾ single-line perforation. Nonetheless, if it existed it would constitute the first record of the use of the E1 single-line machine.
Here is what Ken Scudder has written about this printing:
"The February 1900 printing, in the distinctive lake brown, was a small emergency printing of 100 sheets, out into stock pending the release later that year of the new 4 numeral 2/-. Most of this printing was perforated with the 12.5, 13 comb machine. but a very small quantity were perforated with both the Perf 12 line and the Perf 12.5, 13 irregular line machines. Most postal cancellations are of the Parcels Post Branch with dates from January to December 1901. Others have been seen cancelled to order with dates of 1901 or 1902."
I have 6 copies from this period:
The dates are: (l-R) 18 January 1902, 28 November 1900, 20 June 1900, 13 January 1902, 23 August 190-, 11 June 1900. The 1902 dates are exceptionally late, later than those seen by Scudder, and, as he mentioned, most of those postally used after 1900 came out of the Brisbane parcel branch. The only one that isn't is no 1, which is Bundaberg
Here is an enlarged version of my copy date stamped Brisbane parcel post 13 January 1902, perf 12.75.
This is the perforations from the E1 perforation machine. When combined there appears to be a possible match at the top and the right!
It is reported in Ewen's Weekly that, "pending the issue of this stamp, the Post Office Department, finding the stock of 2s., brown, exhausted, had another hundred sheets printed. These, however, are on a different paper to that last used, the quality of the latest issue being much inferior. The perforation is also slightly different, owing to the maker of the latest perforating machine having slightly stretched the gauge. By careful measurement we make it 12¾. The new issue will not come into operation until the old stock is exhausted."
Basset Hull believed this perforation to be from a single-line machine but remarked that he and his committee had never seen a copy of this stamp with a 12¾ single-line perforation. Nonetheless, if it existed it would constitute the first record of the use of the E1 single-line machine.
Here is what Ken Scudder has written about this printing:
"The February 1900 printing, in the distinctive lake brown, was a small emergency printing of 100 sheets, out into stock pending the release later that year of the new 4 numeral 2/-. Most of this printing was perforated with the 12.5, 13 comb machine. but a very small quantity were perforated with both the Perf 12 line and the Perf 12.5, 13 irregular line machines. Most postal cancellations are of the Parcels Post Branch with dates from January to December 1901. Others have been seen cancelled to order with dates of 1901 or 1902."
I have 6 copies from this period:
Here is an enlarged version of my copy date stamped Brisbane parcel post 13 January 1902, perf 12.75.
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