1st November 1934Designed and Engraved by
FD. Manley.
Watermarked CA, Perf 11.5
Issued on the centenary of Macarthur's death in 1834.
Macarthur introduced the Spanish Merino to Australia which thrived and consequently
created the biggest primary industry for the country. The design is taken from a photo of
a prize Merino on the original property in Camden, NSW.
The die used to create the 2d, 3d and 9d plates caused a
weak, washed out appearance (particularly on the 2d). After the supply of the first,
large, printing of the 2d the die was corrected, new plate made, and subsequent printings
appeared with 'dark hills' among other minor changes. In fact, a change of ink made more
of a difference to the second 2d issue than any other factor. This alone would not
ordinarily cause a revised die issue to occur. Some so far unrecorded factor such as
cracked plate, caused this modification to take place.
The 3d is an unusually difficult stamp to find, particularly
mint.
The colour of the 9d was continued at the time of the
zoologicals with the 9d platypus. Ash was gearing up for
the Zoo series with these denominations, colours and issues.
Both this, and the Victorian
Centenary, remained on sale together for some time. Probably due to the 9d and 1/- of
each series.
The design proved popular and continued on the zoological series with the 5d ram.
Copper plate electros except for a single Dark hills plate
of Delta metal.
