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Victoria Only two days after New South Wales and Spain, delayed by a public holiday, on 3rd January, Victoria issued its first stamp featuring a quaint ‘half length’ representation of Queen Victoria by local artist E. Wilson and printed in Melbourne. The stamp shown is a later SG5 red-brown variant as the orange-vermilion SG1 sells for £15,000 mint. Continuing the Australian innovations, Victoria issued the world's first Registration stamp (SG34 Sc-F1 below) and Late Fee stamp (SG33 Sc-I1) in 1854 and 1855.
The colony continued to issue attractive stamps until the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The Victoria and New South Wales first issues were commemorated in a 1950 se-tenant pair.
Switzerland As has been noted, three Swiss Cantons were early movers in issuing stamps in the 1840s. On 7th April 1850 the federal administration made its first issue. The stamp sells at £2,000, but a centenary charity stamp illustrates the design. Its first airmail stamp was an excessively expensive 1918 definitive overprint: the first purpose-designed issue, shown, was in 1923. Gibbons and Scott differ on the first official.
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