Birds

Birds

Australian Native Birds

Designs by Mrs H. Temple Watts.

The Native Bird series was issued in three tranches;

9d, 1/6d and 2/5d	11.3.64	Ordinary paper
6d	19.8.64	Ordinary paper
2/-, 2/6d, 3/-	21.4.65	Helecon paper

In fact, experimental printings for this series began in 1962. The 5d magpie is one example. The 2/5d also was printed in 1962, but the cream paper used dulled the picture. Fresh printings were made on white paper and issued in the first tranche. The earlier stock however was finally released as an emergency measure, just prior to decimalisation.

Layout

All stamps in this series use the Medium Format, 60 on

Helecon Paper

Helecon impregnated paper was used for all stamps after 1965. By the time of the last tranche of 3 values were printed, Australia had moved to the use of helecon paper. The following table illustrates the quantities of each type.

		Ordinary		Helecon
11.3.64	9d	1,517,940	25.2.65	816,203*
11.3.64	1/6d	2,514,000	25.6.65	1,865,276*
11.3.64	2/5d	3,279,487
19.8.64	6d	8,649,000	2.6.65	8,347,318*
	2/-	-	21.4.65	12,145,567*
	2/6d	-	21.4.65	3,726,000
	3/-	-	21.4.65	5,358,353*

The odd numbers for most quantities reflect their 'withdrawn from sale' nature at decimalisation.