Due to a paper shortage, stocks of the ordinary watermarked paper ran out and the 1d. had to be printed on thick beer duty paper, going on sale on 16 January 1895. By late January stocks of this emergency printing were running low and there was also widespread dissatisfaction with this printing as the stamps were falling off envelopes due to adherence problems.
A further emergency printing was therefore considered necessary, and owing to the problems associated with the original emergency printing it was decided that until the anticipated supplies of the of the usual paper were received from London, a further emergency printing, using plain wove paper with lithographed Burelé bands on the reverse as a security measure, would be issued. Meanwhile the supplies of ordinary watermarked paper had arrived in Brisbane in 1 February 1895.
The Burelé band printing went on sale at post offices on Tuesday 19 February 1895 and quickly attracted interest from collectors and speculators due to the Burelé band on the back. As the normal watermarked paper stocks had now arrived in the colony, the Burelé band printing were replaced on Friday 22 February 1895 (Scudder gives this date but I have been unable to corroborate it. Robson Lowe in the Empire in Australia p. 116 gives a date of 28 February 1895) by a new 1d. stamp, the so-called Cameo issue as the background shading around the Queen's head had been removed.This meant that the Burelé band printing was only on sale for a handful of days before being replaced! Accordingly postally used examples are rare, while mint copies, blocks and sheets are relatively plentiful as they were snapped up for speculative purposes. Scudder writes that 420,000 stamps were issued. However in the London Philatelist vol 4, May 1895, p. 144, a remark made in connection with this printing was that "The quantity issued of these appears to have been very small". The following month (p. 172), a figure of 300,000 was given.
I have divided the postal usage into three periods:
- Postally used in February 1895, that is, during the period when these stamps were on sale at the post offices. This usage is extremely rare and only two examples have been seen that fall within the three day window when this issue was definitely on sale (19 - 21 February 1895). To date only examples have been seen from Brisbane, suggesting that this issue may only have been sold at the Brisbane GPO
- Postally used till the end of 1895. Some examples have been seen from this period used in towns other than Brisbane.
- Philatelic use after 1895. This includes blocks from a sheet from Hughenden posted in 1898 which presumably was originally a mint sheet purchased for speculative purposes. This period also includes the only example known on cover
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Philatelic usage
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