Victoria - Colonial period: 1854-1900.
Transmission form: VC-TO-6.
General characteristics:

Heading and notes: No form number but one of two dates
(8/73 or 12/73).
Post Office Telegraphs, Victoria.
Number of form (in a book) handstamped in black.
Message area: 30 boxes in six lines.
Reverse side: Blank.
Colours (text & form): Red on cream with blue indicium.
Size of form overall: 209 × 335 mm.
Distinctive characteristics of the form:
 

In August 1873, the Victorian Post Office Telegraphs Department printed 5,000 specially designed transmission forms with another 5,000 printed in December. An unaccepted essay is known for the embossed image.

The announcement in the Report on the Post Office and Telegraph Department for the year 1873 stated (p. 9):

"Telegraph forms, with a one shilling postage stamp embossed upon each, and paged, perforated and bound into books of 20 and 40 forms each, and valued £1 and £2 respectively, were issued on the 10th October".

Features of these forms were:

No used form is recorded.

The embossed image was added after the printing. It varied in its position as is shown on this and the related page. It also appears as if two papers were used - one being slightly rougher than the other.

The following list partly summarises the numbers of forms sold by year as recorded in the various Annual Reports (included in each Report in the Table for Postage Stamps, etc):

It is an interesting possibility that, after writing a message on one of these forms, a potential sender decided against sending the message for whatever reason. The 1874 Regulations anticipated this possibility very early - in Regulation 58:

"Where postage stamps have been affixed to or impressed on the telegraph form or envelope, they are to be cut-off but not obliterated, the name of the telegraph office must be written in the back and the stamps transmitted as part of the telegraph collections to the General Post Office where credit will be given for them as cash in payment of the telegram".

August printing.CV_TO_6
Printed August 1873.

Note that the embossed image for the above form is:

  • at the left: above the full-stop after VICTORIA.
  • at the base: about level with the tops of the letters in the heading.

The only numbers recorded to date for the August printing for complete forms (and not overprinted SPECIMEN) in good condition are:

  • 1 (Prestige Auctions 2006, lot 473; Sept 2007 Lot 758;
    Oct 2008, Lot 544 - ex Gundersen)    ;
  • 3 (Rainey 2012);
  • 4 (Status December 2006 Lot 1685 and February 2007 Lot 1719); Ebay June 2011.
  • 7 (overprinted SPECIMEN - see below);
  • 9 (Ebay Aug. 2012);
  • 12 (Ebay June 2017). Overprinted Specimen in black (see below).
  • 14;
  • 16 (Pat SA);
  • 17 (Phoenix Auctions, June 2014, Lot 676);
  • 18;

Numbers recorded to date for the August printing for damaged or incomplete forms are:

  • 6 (Abacus Auctions, March 2023, Lot 709 - bulk lot of forms - missing the tab);
  • 8 (Spink, April 2017 (17015 Lot 2142) and Status Oct 2021 (Lot 3253))missing the tab);
  • 11 (Ebay March 2013 (no tab and damage to RHS);
  • 12 (Spink, May 2015 (15023) Lot 2177);
  • 13 (missing the tab);
  • 15 (missing the tab and is covered in discoloration spots of mould). Ebay May 2023 and June 2024.

December printing.

There are possibly four recorded forms for the December printing (to date).

The forms which are complete with tabs are:

A third form, whose number was not recorded, is also claimed to be complete. It was offered by Status Auctions in December 2006 Lot 1685 and again in February 2007 as Lot 1720.

There is one known form with a missing the tab:

Dec form 20
Printed in December 1873.
It is highly likely that this # 20 form was that offered at the Robson Lowe Sale of the Henry Harvey Collection in Melbourne in September 1976 (Lot 261). 		Note that for this embossed image:
  • the left edge is nearly above the last I of VICTORIA.
  • the base is below the level of the top of the letters in the heading.

The embossed image for the incomplete form 6 is in the same position as for the August printing.
CV_TO_6b Detail of the heading of one of the two recorded forms
with printing date 12/73.


Specimen overprints.

There are at least six examples of SPECIMEN overprints recorded on this transmission form. The variations are:

See further details on the Overprint and the Proposed essay.

No 6 complete form with SPECIMEN
A 1/- embossed transmission form numbred 6 and overprinted SPECIMEN at an angle across the Queen's head on the right of the indicium.
Image kindly provided by Mark Diserio.

VC-TO-6 Spec
Part of the 1/- embossed transmission form overprinted SPECIMEN vertically on the right of the indicium.


Part of the 1/- embossed transmission form overprinted SPECIMEN (type 9) in red and rotated about 45°
across the neck and back of the head of the indicium.
classicphil GMBH Auction 31, August 2025, Lot 1333.

Details of the various colours and fonts of the Specimen overprints.

Form No 6 with red specimen
Detail from a Departmental Album page
with the Specimen handstamp in black
(Kellow Turner & McCredie
Type PS2 15.5 x 1.5mm.)

Part of a Departmental sheet
Part of the Departmental sheet showing three images. The green image is marked PROOF and the lower two are marked SPECIMEN in black. The blue image has pencil annotations of DEC/75 and Jackson.

Black
Detail of the only recorded black SPECIMEN overprint.
On Form # 12 of the August printing.

Upper and lower case font 1.2 mm high.

The "A." can be seen on the lower left corner.



Blue spec
Detail of the only recorded blue SPECIMEN overprint.
On Form # 15 of the August printing.

Upper and lower case font 1.2 mm high.

Provenance: Dave Elsmore who kindly provided the scan.

Detail of a red S overprint
Detail of a red SPECIMEN overprint.
It is a detail of the image on the August printing stamped No. 6 form shown above.
The overprint is classified as Kellow Turner & McCredie "Type 6a".

The edge of the full stop can just be seen on the lower left corner.

VC-TO-6 Spec on form
Detail of the SPECIMEN overprint in red.
On form # 7 of the August printing (see above).

Upper case font 2.0 mm high with all letters of the same height.

The type 6 SPECIMEN overprint was used between 1871 and 1873 which would imply the above overprint was the first to be applied and was applied at the time of printing.

Embossed cutout
SPECIMEN overprint in red.
Cut-out (possibly a proof).

Upper case font 1.6 mm high with
leading S at 2.5 mm high.

The type 9 SPECIMEN overprint was used in 1878 which
implies it would have been overprinted about
half-way during the 10 year sale of the issue
for reasons now unknown.

Provenance: McCredie.
Millenium Philatelic Auctions.
June 2011 Lot 507.



SPECIMEN overprint in red.
Detail of form 15 from the August printing shown above. An important observation was made by Mark Deserio in personal correspondence about the printing of these forms. Mark notes:

It is almost certain that extant examples are due to sales of the forms to collectors by J-B Moens and possibly by Stanley Gibbons. The Rundell Notes, for example, indicate that the Department sold 60 1/- forms to Moens on 11 May 1875. As we know from David Hill, the forms were bound into books of £1 (20 forms) and £2 (40 forms). One can speculate that the 60 forms sold to Moens equals one £1 book and one £2 book but given that the known forms are all numbered 20 or less, it appears that only £1 books were sold to dealers. I’m assuming a book would only contain one set of numbers, ie 1-20 for the £1 book and 1-40 for the £2 book. Though it's intriguing to consider that the forms sold to Moens in May 1875 were embossed on the forms printed in December 1873, given the December examples are much rarer than those embossed on the forms printed in August 1873, it is more likely the dealer forms (or most of them) were the August forms.

 

Details of use and rarity.

Form
sub-number		 Schedule number Earliest recorded date Rarity rating
TO-6a 5000 - 8/73 Not known. RRRR (complete)
TO-6b 5000 - 12/73 Not known. RRRR