1954 Wildlife Definitives

After 27 years of using the same basic designs, I guess it had to be time for a change! These simple and attractive designs depict the wildlife native to South Africa. There is an array of cylinder blocks for you to find. These turn up and the low values are generally inexpensive. There are also many varieties to collect, though most are just small dots and scratches and not immediately apparent. Look out for the spectacular “Drakensburg Mountains” variety that occurs on the top margin of the first 1d printings. The chromium plating peeling off the printing plate caused this variety. The flaw grew with time; hence the “mountain range” gets longer!

For a real challenge, try to collect the arrow blocks from this issue. They are far more scarce than the cylinder blocks and would make an impressive display.

The popular subject of Wildlife depicted on these definitives was revisited in the 1993 6th Definitives of the Republic.