Australian Stamp Variations: Summary of 2006 Australian Issues

What a record breaking year 2006 was for stamp variations! Australia Post marketing exceeded their previous high of 262 in 2005 with a mammoth 352 variations last year. In 2006 they had 29 issues with a total of 215 stamps. Collecting one mint gummed stamp from each issue cost $282.20. This is high because the 3 reprints issues were not sold at face value and the imperf $5 ‘Treasures from the Archives’ could only be obtained in a sheet of 10 stamps. Also contributing were the 4 Commonwealth Games sheetlet issues of 107 stamps. Collecting each of the 2006 variations cost over $1900!

I have graphed the total number of variations since 1966. If you would like a copy of my 1966 – 2006 Variations Statistics sheet please send me an e-mail (address below). My 1966 – 2006 Australian Stamp Variations catalogue is now available. Ask your local philatelic dealer or send me an e-mail to order a copy. It contains full details of all the above variations and pictures of the main 2006 variations. Order form below.

Of course, many of the 2006 variations were not sold at face value. Some had a mark-up of over 250% ! Here are some examples. (Items in the Australia Post “Impressions” catalogue are not included.)

Australia Post marketing is certainly looking for more ways to force collectors to pay above face value to buy the variations.

2006 was dominated by the Commonwealth Games and the 17 sheetlets (including the 3 “filler” stamps) and associated booklets of reprints and P-stamps. We even had a number of “firsts” last year.

“First Time” Variations

The five “firsts” for 2006 were:

• The perfumed ‘Rose’ stamp

• The ‘Soccer’ circular “debosssed” miniature sheet.

• The die cut ‘Whales’ miniature sheet.

• The square photo tab on the P-stamp in the ‘Commonwealth Games Logo’ Snapshot! booklet.

• The joint Australia / Austria ‘Formula 1 Legends’ sheetlet private issue by Max Stern.

A whole sheetlet of self-adhesive perfumed Roses stamps was issued in January to make your 2006 collection smell just great! The ‘Soccer’ miniature sheet was 170mm in diameter – hardly “miniature”! Did you get one on a First Day Cover? (See “Rare” Variations, below.) We have only had rectangular miniature sheets in the past. Now we also have one with a die cut whale on the top edge. The ‘Logo’ P-stamp in the Snapshot! booklet with the large square photo tab as part of a self-adhesive stamp was the first time this format had been used. Previous self-adhesive P-stamps were only available with the rectangular photo tab. Both tabs were imperforate on the right.

The ‘Formula 1 Legends’ private issue appeared in the form of a Special Event Sheet. (See the front cover and Page 18 of the November issue of Stamp News.) It was the only way to obtain the three ‘Driving through the Years’ cars in strips of 3 of the same car – the Holden FE, the Toyota LandCruiser and the Morris 850. (See picture, below.)

“Rare” Variations

Some of the 2006 variations were hard to find. Many of these were not listed in the Stamp Bulletin or on the Australia Post website.

• $5 imperforate ‘Treasures from the Archives’ stamp.

• ‘Winter Olympics’ sheetlet.

• The 21 reprints of earlier issues – see table below.

• ‘Commonwealth Games’ imperforate self-adhesive 50c ‘Logo’ stamp.

• ‘Commonwealth Games’ block of 9 gummed 50c ‘Logo’ P-stamps with perforated photo tabs.

• ‘Soccer’ “trimmed” miniature sheet in mint.

• ‘Soccer’ blocks of 9 with tabs.

• ‘Driving through the Years’ block of 9 with tabs.

• ‘Driving through the Years’ strips of 3 cars.

What a start to 2006! A huge ‘phone-in’ to try and obtain a sheetlet of 10 imperf $5 stamps for $84.95, included postage. Limited edition marketing at its best!

The Winter Olympics Gold Medallist sheetlet of 10 x 50c gummed stamps depicting Dale Begg-Smith snuck-in sometime in early 2006. It was never listed in the Stamp Bulletin and soon disappeared off the Australia Post website. According to my contact at Australia Post, it was actually issued on 21st February.

The 21 reprints were issued in two prestige booklets on 28th February and 1st March and a Snapshot! booklet on 15th March 2006.

Details of the differences between these reprints and the original issues were listed in the 2006 June and August issues of Stamp News. The variations included blocks & pairs, image, size and perforation.

The ‘Commonwealth Games’ imperforate self-adhesive 50c ‘Logo’ stamp is created by removing the photo tab from the P-stamp. Many collectors are not interested in tabs, particularly photo tabs. In this case the stamp is die cut on 3 sides and imperf on the right. A Special Event (P-stamp) Sheet was available at the Games Village. It contained 9 x 50c gummed ‘Logo’ stamps with perforated photo tabs on the right.

The ‘Soccer’ circular miniature sheet was not available on a First Day Cover. Instead it was trimmed to 120 x 80mm to fit on a standard envelope. So, officially, the “trimmed” miniature sheet was only available postmarked. The mint “trimmed” miniature sheet can easily be created to complete one’s collection. The ‘Soccer’ blocks of 9 stamps were issued on two Special Event Sheets. Each 50c ‘Goal’ stamp had 9 different tabs.

The ‘Driving through the Years’ strip and block were issued on a Souvenir Stamp Sheet. The se-tenant strip of 3 had the cars in a different order from the normal strip of 5 stamps. The block of 9 had this strip of 3 with 9 different tabs. Strips of the 3 same cars formed part of the Australia / Austria joint issue in October.

The 2006 Collection of Australian Stamps

As pointed out in last month’s Stamp News, the annual collection did not contain all the stamps issued during the year. It did however contain a number of variations in place of the single gummed sheet stamps. Collectors of variations were well catered for, especially with the exclusive 4 x 50c Queen’s 80th Birthday sheetlet with tabs.

Also in the Collection there were a number of se-tenant strips of 5 stamps that were cut into two sections (2 stamps + 3 stamps). These ‘destroyed’ strips have been ignored in the above table.

Well, that concludes my summary of 2006 – a record year for variations. I wonder what Australia Post will serve up in 2007?

David Mallen is co-author of the Australian Stamp Variations catalogue. He may be contacted on david@asv.net.au