woodblocks

Something of a legend among rare stamps, the so-called “Woodblock” provisional stamps of 1861 were engraved in London and were printed from stereotyped plates that were mounted on a wooden block, hence the nickname.

The stamps were created by a Cape of Good Hope surveyor and were supposedly designed in a triangular shape. The design of a female figure sitting on top of an anchor, which is resting on top of a rock, symbolizing the Cape.

The Woodblock Stamps were printed in 1861 and comes in both 1 penny and 4 penny forms. The 1 penny Woodblock Stamp comes in the color Vermillion while the 4 penny Woodblock Stamp comes in the color Blue. However, as is common during this error, the 1 penny stamp sometimes is accidentally printed with the color blue: and the 4 penny stamp is accidentally printed with the color vermillion.

Just over 24,000 of the One Penny and 20,000 of the Four pence “Woodblocks” were printed. At most, there could be but 220 errors in each case. A rarer shade of the One Penny error exists in pale blue and is valued at around £40,000 in sound used condition.