Queensland 1 shilling mauve on Beer Duty paper

The 1 shilling mauve is listed in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue as being printed on thick paper in August 1895. (SG 205). This is the famous beer duty paper printing, with a different watermark (Stanley Gibbons w10 large Crown and Q) but still using the existing C Line 12 Perforation Machine. How did this come about?

About 1894 Queensland experienced a period of financial stringency, and it is probable that only a small reserve (if any) of the De La Rue Crown Q (2nd type) watermarked paper was maintained. Thus, when towards the end of 1894 a shortage of paper occurred, probably owing to a delayed shipment from England, recourse was had to several other existing papers that were on hand. In the case of the 1 shilling, it was printed on beer duty paper only.

The paper used to print the Beer Duty revenue stamps - whereby an excise was levied on Queensland manufactured beer - was a very thick white wove paper with 120 watermarks, large Crown and Q, in twelve horizontal rows of ten. The watermarks are much larger than that found on the De La Rue Crown Q (2nd type) paper. 

The reason it was so thick and heavy was because brewers were required to affix the prescribed amount of excise to each cask before being sent away to retail establishments.

Beer duty stamps were larger than the 2^nd sideface postage stamps so with the smaller-sized postage stamps the watermarks were very considerably out of alignment, and examples exist with scarcely any watermark showing. Further information on this paper here.

By the time the existing 1 shilling stocks on the De La Rue 2nd Crown Q paper were exhausted and needed to be printed on the Beer duty paper, several other values had already been printed on this and other types of papers. Consequently the public was alert to this and keen to collect copies for stamp collecting or investment (speculative) purposes! In order to stop this happening, the postal authorities first issued the new 1 shilling stamps only to the Parcel Post Branch at Brisbane in August 1895. On the 15th October 1895 the stamps were released to the general public, but only in small towns where they would be available in limited quantities.

The 1 shilling stamp on beer duty paper was not well received for postage purposes as the paper, being thick and soft, was found to absorb the gum, and the public complained that the stamps would not stick!

32,400 1 shilling stamps (270 sheets) were printed on the Beer Duty Paper (as per the Australian Philatelist 1 May 1902 p. 101) and it appears that 30,000 copies (250 sheets) were supplied to the Brisbane Parcel Office (Robson Lowe p. 115) with the remaining 2,400 copies (20 sheets) being supplied to the country post offices two months later. Therefore I assume that most of the extant mint blocks come from the Brisbane parcel office. It would be an interesting exercise to see how many country postmarks can be located on this issue, as they would be extremely scarce.

This issue has the same perforation as the 1 shilling stamps printed on the De La Rue 2nd Crown Q paper but can be distinguished from the latter by the larger watermark and by feeling the thickness of the stamps as this paper is noticeably thicker and stiffer, almost like a card.

Here are a mint block and a used pair of this issue, The cancellation for the used pair is BRISBANE T.C. [Telegraph Counter] 1895. Note how the perforation 12 single line machine struggled with the thicker paper resulting in the characteristic rough perforations of this issue

Block of 9. Seen at Classicphil auctions

And here is an example from a country post office, Bundaberg, numeral 148

And this stamp on Beer Duty paper looks like it has been cancelled to order

And here is what a beer duty revenue stamp looks like