The design uses a side face image of Queen Victoria. The die (or stencil) was crafted by Campbell and Fergusson Pty Ltd and then transferred to stone for lithography printing of the stamps. They were printed in sheets of 100, 12 rows by 8 Lines with additional stamps in Row 6 and Row 9 to make up the 100 on the sheet. The first run was imperforated and continued this way until 1857 when roulette machines became available. There were no watermarks on the first releases of these stamps because of the use of local paper.

The octagonal shape was the first use of this shape for stamps in the colonies of Australia, with New South Wales having used the sextagonal for it 1854 issue, I think Victoria wanted to go one better and strived for the ogtagonal shampe. When you compare the designs, the Victorian is a much cleaner stamp but the New South Wales is far more detailed in its design.

Catalogue values vary depending on condition with a mint good condition around $900 at the time of writing.

The quality of paper used for these stamps is of lesser quality than earlier stamps as it was sourced locally because of shortages from Britain at the time.

The octagonal one shilling Victoria state stamp remained in circulation until the end of the 1800’s with various key dates in 1857 when they were rouletted and then in 1859 Robinsons took over the printing and introduced perforations. In 1891 a reprint of the original was ordered using reprints of the original die, but these were printed on watermark paper using V over Crown and 12 1/2 peforation size.

1854 also saw the release of a 6d Orange and a 2 Shilling Green. As these were also produced locally using wood blocks they are known as the woodblock series of Victoria and sometimes the octagonal falls into this category known as a woodblock stamp.

Determining the value of these stamps comprises of assessing the size of the margin, how straight the stamp was cut as being an imperforate issue, it require staff to cut the stamps from the sheet. The rudimentary perforations would come later in Victorian stamps as with all of the state stamps. Also collectors hunt for the letters at the bottom of these stamps. Here is a larger picture of a rare pair of these stamps showing the letters more clearly.

This picture is also a great example of the basic production method and design. The Queen’s face is barely depicted and is more cartoonish. This made it quite easy to create forgeries of these stamps.

In later iterations of this series, the quality of the depiction of Queen Victoria improved markedly as shown below

At the time of writing mint versions of this stamp range from $850 to $2,350 and used (cancelled) versions $50-$225. This range does not take into consideration any examples on covers which are highly collectible and can put the stamp in a time and place.

There are great variations within this series which can also make the stamps more valuable as a sought after collectors item.

All of Victoria’s stamps were published and created exclusively in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria which officially became its own state in 1851. The stamps were engraved and litho locally by Thomas Han

Following its namesake Victoria chose to honour Queen Victoria and released the Vermilion (orange) followed by an orange brown colouration because of the printing process rather than a change specifically to a different shade. An unused specimen of this state at the time of writing was worth $34,000. There were approximately 9600 of these stamps printed but inaccurate records were kept regarding this so it’s just an estimate. Used speciments can be sold from $5,000 – $3,500 depending on the variations, framing, cutting and shade. There were also some Red 1d printed.

Next came the dull chocolate brown.

The 2d Lilac for interstate postage, had only approximately 7200 stamps printed and an unused specimen worth around $3900 at time of writing. Over time the lilac has really faded to a very dull pink and if you’re a bit colour blind like me it is sometimes difficult to distinguise between the dull brown and the lilac.

The 3d Blue also became availalbe for overseas postage had approximately 9600 stamps printed with an unused specimen worth $1700 at time of writing.

Variations

There are numerous variations listed in online catalogues as there were many printing errors in all of these stamps. As they were imperforated, the way they were cut will also determine value and collectability.