Nigeria Independence Stamp Sheets

I love the regularity of stamp sheets and these Nigeria Independence stamp sheets came into my possession recently for a very reasonable price – perhaps because no-one else thinks they are worth collecting! I figured out how to take two scans of a sheet and stitch them together (almost) perfectly so I can show the whole sheets on this page. The 1s 3d sheet is bigger than the others I’ve had it to scan it in four parts and put them together, leading to a slightly less good image.

This is the first issue after Nigerian Independence on the 1st October 1960 and it will be some time before the Nigerians get their own design ideas in production and start to produce the really interesting issues in later years that define Nigeria for us stamp collectors. Post-independence Nigeria has a lot of interest for stamp collectors and philatelists and seems to be neglected which is good for me as I can pick up interesting items for good prices.

SG85 1d Nigerian stamp – Federal Legislature building

The 1d issue of the Federal Legislature building is black and scarlet, designed by LJ Whittington, and was to pay a local rate. None of the stamps in this issue are particularly interesting in design and all were designed by British designers. Perhaps they were hanging on to the process of developing stamps or Nigerian designers were not ready or not given the opportunity….?

 

SG86 3d Nigerian stamp – Nigerian paddling a canoe

The 3d stamp of a Nigerian paddling a canoe was designed by R. Crawford. It’s mostly in blue, for surface mail to the UK, and is a bit more interesting in design but not hugely.

 

 

SG87 6d Nigerian stamp – Federal Supreme Court

The last one, until I fix the scanning problem, is the 6d green and red-brown of the Federal Supreme Court. I like this one more even though the image is a bit boring. It’s the combination of colours which is pleasing. This was designed by R.D. Baxter and would have been used for registered mail.

 

 

SG88 1s 3d Nigerian stamp – Dove, Torch & Map

This is a bit of a clumsy design too, designed by J. White. The scan is made up of four scans put together so doesn’t line up perfectly with my skills.

I’ve been fortunate to trip over a number of complete sheets for Nigeria and am always on the lookout for more! Luckily they are not that expensive and I’m going to find out how many of the post-independence stamp issues I can collect as whole sheets.