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Home > 2010 Issue Summary > Great Rail Journeys

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Stamps featuring trains/railways are a popular thematic, and this issue is sure to appeal.

Two of Australia's longest rail journeys, the Indian Pacific and the Ghan are shown on the 55c stamps, along with the West Coast Wilderness Railway in Tasmania. The larger $2.10 stamp features the Kuranda Scenic Railway in Queensland.

Collectors might be excused for thinking that some of the designs look familiar. The Ghan has appeared twice before, in 1993 in its green and gold livery, and in 2004 in its current red livery celebrating the opening of the Darwin to Alice Springs section of the line. Even more familiar is the Kuranda Scenic Railway stamp, with an almost identical scene shown on the 45c stamp of 1993.

1993 Ghan Stamp 2004 Ghan Stamp 1993 Kuranda Stamp
Ghan stamps from 1993 and 2004, and Kuranda stamp from 1993

Issue Information
The issue consists of three 55c stamps and a $2.10 stamp.

Stamp Design: Melinda Coombes
Printing Process: Lithography (more information)
Stamp Size: 55c 37.5 mm x 26 mm
$2.10 50 mm x 30 mm
   
Designs: 55c The Ghan
55c West Coast Wilderness Railway, Tasmania
55c Indian Pacific
$2.10 Kuranda Scenic Railway, Queensland
   
Usage: 55c Small letter rate within Australia (details)
$2.10 Letter rate to Europe, Africa, America (to 50 grams)

Gummed Sheet Stamps
Each gummed stamp was issued in separate sheets.

Great Railway Journey Stamps Great Railway Journey Stamps Great Railway Journey Stamps Great Railway Journey Stamps
Sheet stamps

Astute collectors might notice that the illustrations of the stamp pack and first day cover in Stamp Bulletin 304 showed a se-tenant strip of three 55c stamps. The same illustrations were used on Australia Post's webshop. Australia Post has confirmed that no 55c stamps were printed in se-tenant strips.

Great Railway Journey Pack
Pack illustration on webshop

Great Railway Journey Pack
Actual contents of pack

Another surprise was the sheet layout of both the 55c and $2.10 stamps. It is odd that Australia Post decided not to include a gutter design in the 55c gutters, despite the immense popularity of trains as a thematic topic!

55c Ghan Gutter strip
55c Ghan stamp gutter strip

Even more surprising was discovering the $2.10 stamp has a gutter strip too! Since the 1990s all 50 mm x 30 mm sized stamps were printed in sheets of 50 with no gutter. The gutter has been printed between the second and third row of the stamps - a rather odd position given gutters usually split the sheet into two equal panes.

$2.10 sheet
$2.10 Kuranda Scenic Railway sheet

Issue Date: 23 March 2010 (more information)
Printer: McKellar Renown (more information)
Printing Process: Lithography (more information)
Gum: Ordinary gum
Paper: Tullis Russell (incorporating phosphor) (more information)
Issued In: 55c Individual sheets of 50 (2 panes of 25 (5 x 5) with traffic lights in gutter) (more information)
$2.10 Individual sheets of 25 (top pane contains 10 stamps (5 x 2), bottom pane contains 15 stamps (5 x 3) with traffic light gutter inbetwen) (more information)
$2.10 in Miniature sheet of 1 (2 x 2) (more information)
Stamp Size: 55c 37.5 mm x 26 mm
$2.10 50 mm x 30 mm
Perforations: 55c Comb perforated 14½ x 13¾ (more information)
$2.10 Comb perforated 13½ x 14 (more information)

Gummed Miniature Sheets
The $2.10 stamp also appears in a miniature sheet, with the margin continuing the design of the stamp. Miniature sheets used for first day covers have been trimmed to 85 mm in height. These are not listed as they can be manufactured.

Great Rail Journeys Miniature Sheet
Miniature sheet

Issue Date: 23 March 2010 (more information)
Printer: McKellar Renown (more information)
Printing Process: Lithography (more information)
Gum: Ordinary gum
Paper: Tullis Russell (incorporating phosphor) (more information)
Mini. Sheet Size: 140 mm x 90 mm
Perforations: Comb perforated 13½ x 14 (more information)

Gummed Prestige Booklet Panes (Normal Version - 7 May 2010)
A prestige booklet was also released with this issue. Three panes contain unique blocks of four with the other pane including an enlarged version of the miniature sheet.

First pane Second pane

Third pane Fourth pane
Prestige booklet panes (click on each pane for an enlargement)

Issue Date: 7 May 2010 (more information)
Booklet Pane Size: 156 mm x 104 mm
Perforations: Comb perforated 13¾ x 14½ (55c stamps), 13½ x 14 ($2.10 stamp) (more information)

Gummed Prestige Booklet Panes (Imperforated Version - 8 May 2010)
A limited edition imperforate prestige booklet is being released in support of Australia 2013 (see www.australia2013.com.au). These were available for sale for $50 each.

Stamp pane Miniature sheet pane
Two of the prestige booklet panes (click on each pane for an enlargement)

Issue Date: 8 May 2010 (at London Stamp Show), Australian orders sent out mid-June (more information)
Booklet Pane Size: 156 mm x 104 mm
Perforations: Imperforate (more information)

Gummed Prestige Booklets (Regular Version - 7 May 2010)
The prestige booklet contains the above four panes, and four postcards showing the trains.

Railways prestige booklet
Booklet cover

Indian Pacific Card Second pane
Front and back of the postcards (click on each pane for an enlargement)

Surprisingly the price on the back of the booklet is $12.95, whereas the booklet sells for $10.95. This is the second time a pricing error has occurred on a prestige booklet this year.

Railways prestige price on back

Railways prestige price on website
Price on the back of the booklet, and correct price on Australia Post's website

Issue Date: 7 May 2010 (more information)
Booklet Size: 156 mm x 104 mm
Contents: Three panes of 4 x 55c, one pane with $2.10 miniature sheet
Selling Price: $10.95

Gummed Prestige Booklets (Imperforate Version - 8 May 2010)
The imperforate prestige booklet contains four imperforate panes, along with four postcards showing the trains. The booklet was limited to 500, and were individually numbered. Each booklet was overprinted with the Australia 2013 logo.

Railways prestige booklet
Imperforate booklet cover

In all other ways these booklets are the same as the regular booklets - same pages, same barcode and same pricing error.

Issue Date: 8 May 2010 (at London Stamp Show), Australian orders sent out mid-June (more information)
Booklet Size: 156 mm x 104 mm
Contents: Three panes of 4 x 55c, one pane with $2.10 miniature sheet
Selling Price: $50.00

Self-adhesive Coil Stamps
This issue included self-adhesive coil and booklet stamps.

Trains self-adhesive coil stamps
Coil stamps

Issue Date: 7 May 2010 (more information)
Printer: Pemara (more information)
Printing Process: Lithography (more information)
Gum: Self-adhesive
Paper: 40080 WLK1 KV75 ('L' shaped phosphor tagging) (more information)
Issued In: Coils of 200 (more information)
Perforations: Die-cut 11¼ x 11½ (interrupted) (more information)

Self-adhesive Booklet Stamps
Four booklet stamps were released with this issue. The 55c booklet stamps differ by printer and phosphor tagging. The $2.10 self-adhesive, the first of this size, was only issued in booklets.

Come to the Show Strip

Come to the Show Strip
Self-adhesive booklet stamps

55c phosphor $2.10 phosphor
Phosphor layout on 55c and $2.10 stamps

Pemara phosphor

McKellar phosphor
Phosphor on Pemara (coil) stamps (top), and McKellar Renown (booklet) stamps (bottom)

Issue Date: 7 May 2010 (more information)
Printer: McKellar Renown (more information)
Gum: Self-adhesive
Paper: B100 ('L' shaped phosphor tagging, see above) (more information)
Issued In: 55c Booklets of 20 (more information)
$2.10 Booklets of 5 (more information)
Perforations: 55c Die-cut 11¼ x 11½ (more information)
$2.10 Die-cut 11¼ (more information)

Self-adhesive Booklets
Two self-adhesive booklets were issued. The booklet containing 20 x 55c was rouletted and could be folded up. The 5 x $2.10 booklet features a unique layout and was not rouletted, but the booklets could be folded in half without damage to the stamps. Each booklet was distributed to post offices in chequebooks of 20 booklets. These are not listed on this website.

55c booklet

$2.10 booklet
Booklet layout

55c philatelic booklet

$2.10 philatelic booklet
Booklet cover (Philatelic covers)

55c general booklet
Booklet cover (General cover)

Issue Date: 7 May 2010 (more information)
Booklet size: 20 x 55c 82 mm x 59 mm (folded)
5 x $2.10 122 mm x 85 mm (unfolded)
Barcodes: 9312650381202 (55c x 20 philatelic booklet)
9312650382438 ($2.10 x 5 philatelic booklet)
9312650224240 (55c x 20 general booklet)
TBA ($2.10 x 5 general booklet)

Postal Stationery
Maximum cards showing photographs of the four trains accompanied this issue. The four postcards in the prestige booklet were not postage paid.

Maximum cards
Maximum cards

Maximum Cards
Size: 146 mm x 104 mm
Selling Price: $6.75 (set of 4)
Stamp Imprint: Three bars (picture)

Issue Summary
The table below summarises the above information. The cost of each item is given, along with a total for each section. In some cases the stamps are only available from self-adhesive booklets (sold at face value), or from prestige booklets, souvenir sheets or folders (sold above face value).

Item and Description Cost
For the General Collector
Gummed sheet stamps
4 values from sheets (55c x 3, $2.10)

Miniature sheets
Miniature sheet

Self-adhesive stamps
3 values from coil (55c x 3)
Single stamp from booklet ($2.10)

 
$3.75

 
$2.10

 
$1.65
$10.50

Total $18.00
For the Specialised Collector
Self-adhesive stamps
Booklet stamps with different phosphor

Stamps from Imperforate booklet
4 imperforate stamps from imperforate booklet panes

Blocks, pairs and strips
Blocks of 4 from prestige booklet panes
Imperforate blocks of 4 from prestige booklets

Booklet panes
4 panes from prestige booklet
4 imperforate panes from prestige booklet

Booklets
2 booklets with philatelic barcode
2 booklets with general barcode
Perforated prestige booklet
Imperforate prestige booklet

Postal stationery
Maximum cards

 
$11.00

 
$50.00

 
$10.95
$50.00

 
$10.95
$50.00

 
$21.50
$21.50
$10.95
$50.00

 
$6.75

Total $293.60
Grand Total $311.60

References
Australia Post, Australian Stamp Bulletin, No. 304, May-June 2010

If you have more information, or spot an error, please e-mail me.

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