Isle of Man – Postage due stamps – Mercury cover – 1973

First day cover details

FDC image	No image uploaded
FDC reverse image	No reverse image uploaded
Country	Isle of Man
Country code	IM
Issue title	Postage due stamps — printing (a)
Date of issue	5 July 1973
Withdrawal or invalidation date	Not specified
Stamp type	Special-purpose
Stamp subtype	Postage due
Theme or subject	First Isle of Man postage due stamps
Text credit
Designer or artist	Questa
Printer	Questa
Printing process	Lithography
Colours	Red and black, with a denomination-specific third colour
Paper and gum
Perforation	14½ × 13½
Stamp dimensions
Issue format	Eight stamps; sheets of 100 (10 × 10)
Number of stamps	8
Cover type	First day cover
Cover producer	Mercury
Cover reference
Limited edition	No
Edition limit	N/A
Copy number	N/A
Cachet or cover design
Addressed
Postmark type
Postmark location
Postmark date	5 July 1973
Postmark inscription
Postmark notes	Mercury cover dated 5 July 1973, identified from online examples. No specimen is held in the collection; the cancellation wording and location have not been documented here.
Postmark image	No postmark image uploaded
Signed	No
Signed by	N/A
Signature details	N/A
Information sheet included	Yes
Information materials
Information sheet title
Information sheet image	No image uploaded
Information sheet reverse image	No reverse image uploaded
Information sheet notes
Certificate of authenticity included	No
Certificate of authenticity image	N/A
Certificate of authenticity reverse image	N/A
FDC owned	No
Condition
Collection Comment	Wanted. Mercury cover with all eight denominations, dated 5 July 1973. No specimen or scan is held in the collection.

Image notice: Images on these pages may depict copyrighted stamp designs, cover artwork, text or photographs. Unless otherwise stated, they are scans of physical items in the collection of PhantomSteve. Rights in the depicted material remain with their respective rightsholders. See Copyrights.

This wanted record is for the Mercury first day cover dated 5 July 1973 bearing all eight denominations of the first Isle of Man postage due issue, SG D1 to SG D8. The producer, cover date and complete set were identified from online examples; no specimen is held in the collection.

Stanley Gibbons dates printing (a) of the eight stamps to 5 July 1973. Its cited entry does not list a first day cover. The catalogue is therefore used here as the source for the stamps and their production details, rather than for the identification of the Mercury cover.

Stamp production and printings

Questa designed and printed the stamps using lithography. Perforation is 14½ × 13½. Each denomination was issued in sheets of 100 (10 × 10), with plate numbers 1A and 1B, each ×3. Imprints appear in the right-hand corner of the bottom margin and the left-hand corner of the top margin.

Printing (a) has no letter A added after 1973 at the foot of the stamp. Printing (b), catalogued as 1 September 1973, adds that letter. Examples of printing (b) are recorded used from mid-August onwards.

This record is for the original July printing. The separately listed 2p offset variety, IM-SG-D3a, is not recorded as present on this cover.

Stamps on this cover

Image	Identifier	Face value	Subject	Format	Other catalogues	Notes
No image	IM-SG-D1	½p		Stamp		Red, black and bistre-yellow; printing (a), without the added A.
No image	IM-SG-D2	1p		Stamp		Red, black and cinnamon; printing (a), without the added A.
No image	IM-SG-D3	2p		Stamp		Red, black and light apple-green; printing (a), without the added A.
No image	IM-SG-D4	3p		Stamp		Red, black and grey; printing (a), without the added A.
No image	IM-SG-D5	4p		Stamp		Red, black and carmine-rose; printing (a), without the added A.
No image	IM-SG-D6	5p		Stamp		Red, black and cobalt; printing (a), without the added A.
No image	IM-SG-D7	10p		Stamp		Red, black and light lavender; printing (a), without the added A.
No image	IM-SG-D8	20p		Stamp		Red, black and pale turquoise-green; printing (a), without the added A.

Related first day covers

• Isle of Man – Postage due stamps – Official cover – 1973 — all eight denominations; dated 5 July 1973
• Isle of Man – Postage due stamps – Cotswold cover – 1973 — all eight denominations of printing (b); dated 10 September 1973