TUVALU
1986 60TH BIRTHDAY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAMP ISSUES

Information and Reference of What was Found in the Format Archive and Elsewhere

Varieties and Proofs

Would YOU store YOUR specialized 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II varieties this way?

Information on this series is changing as more information is being discovered. This page and associated pages will be updated as more information is made available.

The 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II stamps issued for Tuvalu are a beautiful set and very colorful.
The series was quite a production for the Format Security Printers requiring a higher number of color stages to produce the final stamps. Due to this higher number of stages the opportunity for more varieties was inevitable and did occur. Usually stamp production ranged from 7 to 9 color stages. With this series there 11 stages due to the framing of the design.

An interesting note for Tuvalu and the islands on the progressives. Except for a few presentation folders it appears that they were apparently mainly confiscated and destroyed! I do have a bit of news on them though. Read on for details!

There is no information on the actual quantities produced of varieties and such but we can pretty much assert that the practices of production for other series including the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives and the Royal Wedding series should coincide with this series as well. Due to the standard principles involved with production of stamps depicting royalty the practices would be the same for this series.

In my recovery of the Saint Lucia and Tuvalu side of the police evidence stock I also received a portion of the progressive color proofs for the souvenir sheets from all the countries involved in this series. With Saint Lucia a major portion. With the Tuvalu and Islands what remained was very small. I fear now that most has been lost or destroyed very probably by terrible storage conditions.
In the recovery some were found in packets which moisture had penetrated and basically destroyed them all. Some were still wet! As if stored in a cellar! Even moldy!

In the acquisitions of the Bileski estate I got several lots of panes of the missing color varieties, perforation varieties, watermark varieties and gum varieties. These being found in the printers archive. Even some of these were torn, wrinkled and damaged in ways from storage in the archive.
I therefore submit to you that apparently some varieties because of these conditions have now become very limited as to what the collector can obtain and thus have become increasingly of higher value. Try to find certain varieties of these on the market and you will find it nearly impossible to impossible to obtain!

On this page I will try to break down what was produced, estimated quantities and valuation of the material.
I will use 2 sections to do this. First being the single stamp issues, secondly the souvenir sheet.

Let's get started!

SECTION 1

THE PERFORATED SINGLE STAMP VARIETIES


I will base the quantities produced on the standards used for other series mainly being the 1986 Royal Wedding Omnibus Series which obviously came out right after this series. Over and over again in the documentation recovered from the trials and directly from the printer the quantities produced for varieties is generally always the same.
Interestingly enough as I stated in the introduction page for this series the progressive color proof Presentation Folders were not allowed to be reprinted due to the reprint agreement excluding this from happening. Therefore in my opinion the progressives were only printed once.

This is an image of the advertisement made in the Urch Harris Commonwealth Stamp Catalog made back in 1987-88 for the 1986 Tuvalu 60th Birthday Stamps and Souvenir Sheet and varieties.

No more varieties have been found (except for one flaw) since this ad so it gives you an idea of what was available and pricing at the time.

For the normal issue being a popular topic and highly collected the quantities produced for the normal issue was around 50-60,000 sets. I base this on quantities produced for the Leader of the World Automobiles and Locomotives series for Tuvalu and the Islands.
Also basing on proposals and marketing plans recovered from Philatelists Ltd. on various stamp issues produced for these countries.

Pricing should run at the stated catalog values.

I have not seen any uncut press sheets of this issue.

NORMAL PERFORATED "SPECIMEN" OVERPRINTED STAMPS

Documentation and evidence show that:
Based on practices of the printer for other series 2,000 sets of specimen overprinted stamps were produced.
These are quite commonly sold on the market thus most of the sets must have been retained.

Pricing should run between $7-10.00 a set.

PERFORATED VARIETIES

PERFORATION ERRORS

THE IMPERFORATE ON THREE SIDES VARIETY

All the values exist with stamps imperforate on three sides. This concurs with the advertisement above.

The 10c Value Imperforate on 3 Sides

The 90c Value Imperforate on 3 Sides

The $1.50 Value Imperforate on 3 Sides

The $3 Value Imperforate on 3 Sides

There is no documentation on the quantity produced for this variety but judging from documentation on other issues I state firstly that the standard practice for the shifted perforation variety is always for 3,000 stamps. The imperforate on three sides variety is an oddity and has not been specified in documents on record.
I believe that the production of this variety followed the same basic printing practice that 3,000 stamps were produced thus 120 panes of 25 stamps. This would produce 600 imperforate on the three sides stamp varieties. Only one row of 5 stamps on each pane were produced with this variety. Because of the positioning of the stamps on the panes these are sold usually in strips of 3 to prove they are imperforate otherwise one could just cut off the perfs to create a false effect.

Pricing should run at $15-20.00 for this variety in the form of strips of 3 or more.

A FLAW?

LARGE BACKROUND FLAW ON THE $1.50 VALUE

Closeup View

Documentation and evidence:
None given. A constant flaw on the upper right stamp of the pane?

Pricing has been established at Stampdile at around $10.00 for the pair imaged.

That basically sums up the perforated varieties.

THE IMPERFORATE VARIETY

Standard print orders and practices were for 5,000 imperforate sets. Another 3,000 would be produced for the progressive color proofs.
Please be very careful when purchasing singles as some perforated stamps have been tampered with cutting off the perforations to make them look like imperforates.

Pricing should run at $7-10 a set. Pairs are preferable or stamps with selvage as they are more provable to be authentic imperforates.

PROGRESSIVE COLOR PROOFS

The Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday 10c Value Progressive Color Proof Presentation Folder

The Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday 90c Value Progressive Color Proof Presentation Folder

The Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday $1.50 Value Progressive Color Proof Presentation Folder

The Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday $3 Value Progressive Color Proof Presentation Folder

All values as you can see exist in presentation folders.
At present it appears only the 90c and $3 values are easily available on the market in Presentation Folders. Standard practice was to print 3,000 sets of the progressives.
The $3 value in presentation folder appears to be still available at Rushstamps. The 90c value in presentation folder is still available at Stampdile.
The other two values appear to be a little bit harder to find now. The imaged 10c and $1.50 values I found on eBay from one seller.
None are on the market as singles or multiples by themselves. In reference to all values, either the limited number were used in the presentation folders and the rest destroyed or they were lost or confiscated and destroyed.

BUT HERE IS SOME NEWS!!

In my recovery of the police evidence a folder was found containing every value from the Tuvalu and Islands side of the Omnibus series!
Each of the lower three values contained strips of 5 of each stage. Sadly the finals, final colors without frame and background color, and the black stages were all in strips of 3. All the high values were in strips of 5 except for the finals which again were only in strips of 3.
Still a wonderful find of what can now be considered an extreme rarity!
I have cut a pair off all the strips of 5 and am offering them as sets on Delcampe at $100.00 a set. Of course only one set of each value is all I can offer. Therefore only one collector can get any one value in this form!
One can get the finals elsewhere thus making the $3 value complete and almost making the other 3 values complete except for the black and final colors without frames stages.
Below I present images of the full sets in strips of 3. Unless new evidence is found, which is doubtful, these full sets are unique!

The Unique Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday 10c Progressive Color Proof Strips of 3 Set

The Unique Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday 90c Progressive Color Proof Strips of 3 Set

The Unique Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday $1.50 Progressive Color Proof Strips of 3 Set

The Unique Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday $3 Progressive Color Proof Strips of 3 Set

Pricing should run at $25-35.00 for either of the Presentation Folders.
Being in the unique status as these strips are pricing really cannot be calculated on them.

SECTION 2

THE SOUVENIR SHEET

Following is the rundown of what was saved in regards to the souvenir sheet.

THE PERFORATED SOUVENIR SHEET

It is estimated that 10-12,000 normal issued souvenir sheets were produced. This is based on practices by the printers during the time. Usually quantities of souvenir sheets in respect to the single issued stamp sets was around 30% of the quantities issued.

Because of these factors pricing for this souvenir sheet should run at average Scott listed pricing of $4-6.00.

THE IMPERFORATE SOUVENIR SHEET

Documentation and evidence shows that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 2,000 imperforate souvenir sheets were made.
Another 1,500 were produced with the progressive color proofs. I have acquired only around 200 via the police evidence. These are available on the market at various locations.

In accordance pricing should be around $10-15.00 each.

THE PERFORATED AND IMPERFORATE SOUVENIR SHEET WITH SPECIMEN OVERPRINT

Documentation and evidence show that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 1,000 of each were made.
I have acquired around 25 imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted souvenir sheets via the police evidence.
The imperforate variety is not available on the market.
It is possible and in all probability that the imperforate variety was confiscated and destroyed. Thus the 25 found are all that exists!
The perforated version is available through Rushstamps.

In accordance pricing should be around $10-15.00 for the perforated variety.
Unless more of the imperforate variety is found which is doubtful pricing should be $50.00 or more for it!

THE PROGRESSIVE COLOR PROOFS OF THE SOUVENIR SHEET


Documentation and evidence show that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 1,500 progressive color proof sets of the souvenir sheets were made.
There is nothing anywhere offered for the progressive color proofs of the souvenir sheet. Again the probability that they were all destroyed is very real.
The above imaged set which is missing the all colors before black added stage and the yellow stage I found in one of the Bileski estate lots which came from the Format Printers Archive.

Pricing cannot be calculated for this.

A note on the progressives:
You may have noticed there are two all colors proofs on many sets. This is because the full progressive color proof set has 9 stages. The eighth stage is the black addition. Many progressive color proof sets from many different issues have been and are being sold without this stage present thus they are not complete sets.
I have also noticed that the final color progressives for other country souvenir sheets are sometimes being sold as an error as it does not have the inscriptions. This is not correct. It would only be an error if it was perforated.

THE MISSING BLUE BACKGROUND ERROR

Is this really an error or is it just the way it was scanned? Possibly the seller just enhanced the image.
As you can see in the Urch Harris catalog the souvenir sheet is listed as this variety. and this is what it would look like.
This imaged souvenir sheet not being sold as anything more than the normal souvenir sheet.
Documentation on missing color errors that were produced for souvenir sheets reference a range of 2-3,000 perforated varieties produced and 1,000 imperforate varieties produced. I have seen no imperforate versions and cannot verify if this is even one of them.

Pricing should be around $10-20.00 for each if any are found.

At this time there is no evidence that any other types of errors were made for this particular souvenir sheet.

This basically sums up the stamp varieties for the Tuvalu 1986 60th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II stamp issues. As new information and evidence is found it will be added to this page.

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