CLASSIC CINDERELLA MYSTERIES - AUSTRALIA

Hi, I thought I would start up a thread on these unusual stamps.  I will add more later when I have time.  Not much is known about these stamps.  Hence the "mystery."  Read on...

The stamps below are from the Murray Steam Navigation Company which operated a service along the Murray River in Victoria.  The company issued four stamps in denominations of 1/2d (black), 1d (red), 2d (blue), and 3d (green).  Some 25 sets are known. There is a single cover with a 3d stamp.  This is accompanied on the cover with a stamp of Victoria with the two pence Laureate design.  That cover is dated 1869.  

Click on the images below to enlarge.

An interesting set of stamps, even if they do turn out to be bogus.

Nearly all the online information about the Murray S N C seems to come from a single source. And information about the stamps would appear to be likewise, though a brief trawl has provided images of three distincet sets. Those illustrated above are almost certainly the set currently on eBay marked down to just under $5000. They are, of the three sets I have seen, to be in the best condition and most accurately perforated.

There are a couple of posts here with this set illustrated.

But the author here suggests only 10 sets exist rather than 25 of others.

Why have so few stamps survived? If there is a HALF PENNY and a HALF PENCE variety it suggests a reprint of this value, though the PENCE stamps may have been withdrawn as being gramatically incorrect, and replaced. One could argue that saving/collecting stamps were low on the priorities of the early settlers of the Murray Darling basin, but post goes both ways. Goolwa at the mouth of the river was a large port by the standards of the day and would have had residents who share our hobby.

There seems to be no contemporary records of the post. This is perhaps why some suggest these may be bogus. A used cover is harder to mock up than stamps, but not beyond the capabilities of some. Surely there must be some company records and accounts stored in some dust covered box in an archive library in Adelaide.

Have a read here  http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/murray/content/riverAsHighway/steamIntro.htm

Oops sorry people :) Was so into this that I did not realise it was the same..