Australia 1½d KGV SG59a Cracked Electro?

A potential new find

I recently purchased a large holding of Australia King George V used heads (and they look wonderful in a stock book!). 

The varieties on the KGV heads can be a life-long obsession for collectors, and it becomes second nature to put every stamp under the glass for a closer look.

Whilst sorting, I came across this stamp. It's SG59a 1½d chocolate, large single watermark, perf 14. 

Obviously, the top left corner caught my eye. This looks for all the world like a cracked, if not broken, electro. A closer scan reveals that the top left corner of the stamp is slanted downwards. 

The stamp is intact, with no hidden or repaired tears.

I can find no reference to anything this dramatic in the Australian Commonwealth Specialists Catalogue (ACSC - King George V 2007).

If anyone has a significant number of this stamp, please check them. I would appreciate any information about the status of this flaw

A 1938 Cover With A Story to Tell

What do New Zealand, Hollywood, an actor and model aircraft have in common?

Some fascinating things come across my desk.

This 1938 cover, from New Zealand to the USA, doesn't seem like much. However, I recognised the recipient's name. Reginald Denny was a successful Hollywood actor.

It was sent from Model Aircraft Supplies in Christchurch, which begs the question why they would be writing to an actor at an address other than "c/- MGM" etc.

The reason is that Denny was a mad aircraft hobbyist, who opened a hobby store on Hollywood Boulevard in 1935. It makes perfect sense for the shop in Christchurch to write to him. Denny also established "Radioplane", a maker of military target drones.

The cover is franked with SG91 and SG92, both have which are scarce with inverted and reversed watermarks. I'm going to play around and see if I can extract a watermark.

The two red marks across the airmail label makes this a jusqu'a cover. Jusqu'a means "up to", or in philatelic terms "as far as". The cover is marked "via Air Mail to England". The jusqu'a markings were applied when the cover arrived in England, and the cover would then have continued it's journey to the US by sea. Unfortunately, there are no other markings on the cover.

A fascinating little piece of postal history.