By Ann Wood
When one thinks of collecting British Guiana stamps, their mind may immediately be drawn to the British Guiana 1856 1c Magenta, which sold for US$9.4M in 2014 and is considered the “world’s most expensive stamp”. However, there is only one person who can fill in that space in his British Guiana stamp collection and that is currently Stuart Weitzman, an American shoe designer. Even Queen Elizabeth II (QEII), a stamp collector of British Guiana stamps, is missing the 1c Magenta in the Royal Philatelic collection.
So, what about the rest of us? Should we just give up on collecting British Guiana stamps, which happens to be a very desirable country to collect? Of course not! There are many British Guiana stamps within our grasp that one can purchase for minimal prices and still satisfy the need to say, “I am a British Guiana stamp collector.”
In 1952, following the death of King George VI, new issues of British Guiana stamps were ordered all with the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and these stamps have many unique types which can make a very interesting collection. This is a good era to start a British Guiana collection because millions of these stamps were printed and are very easy to find.
While some of the larger denominations of this set sell for high prices, several of the smaller denominations can be purchased for as little as GYD$50-$100, depending on the condition of the stamp and if it is ‘mint’ or ‘used’.
Below is a complete set of this pictorial issue which contains great scenes from British Guiana and a left-facing portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.
1 cent. General Post Office, Georgetown
2 cents. Botanical Gardens
3 cents. Victoria Regia Lilies
4 cents. Amerindian Shooting Fish.
5 cents. Map of the Caribbean
6 cents. Rice Combine-harvester
8 cents. Sugar Cane Entering Factory
12 cents. Felling Greenheart
24 cents. Mining for Bauxite
36 cents. Mount Roraima
48 cents. Kaieteur Falls
72 cents. Arapaima
1 dollar. Toucan
2 dollars. Dredging Gold
5 dollars. Arm of British Guiana
Scott # 253-67
These stamps were issued in1954 and printed by two different printers – Waterloo and De La Rue, with the latter being more expensive varieties. The printers have distinguishing colours or measurements or perforations on these stamps that make them unique. All the stamps in this set are perforated 12.5 x 13 and the watermark is multiple crown & script CA, watermark upright. There is also a subset of nine of these same stamps that was printed in 1963-65, Scott 279-87 with multiple crown & block CA.
Even though these stamps look alike there are several varieties and hunting for them can be rewarding since ones with errors are valued much higher in stamp catalogues. For example, let’s look at the 3 cents red brown & olive, Victoria Regia Lilies stamp with a catalogue value of GYD$50 used.
As you can see stamps can have many characteristics, such as watermarks, perforation, colour, size, printer, topic and much more that make stamp collecting even more interesting and sometimes profitable. For example, the “clubbed foot” and “weed flaw” errors price is GYD$12,000 in the 2017 catalogue.
The varieties in this set are numerous and there are even more unlisted ones. You can find this type of information in stamp catalogues at the Guyana National Library.
I encourage you to collect British Guiana stamps. You can start your collection with this QEII era or with any British Guiana stamps. The King George V, King George VI and even the Queen Victoria eras also have affordable stamps.
The QEII era stamps and many other British Guiana stamps will be on display at the Guyana Philatelic Society GUYPEX 2017 Stamp Exhibition at the Georgetown National Library on November 9-10, 2017.
