The Ireland King George VI era set of stamps were printed from 1940 until about 1952. The sets were initially printed on paper watermarked with a Gaelic SE, and then later changed to a Gaelic E. If you are strictly collecting the King George VI era stamps, then you can ignore the set watermarked SE. It was issued originally in 1922. In addition to the basic set of stamps, there are also coils and booklet panes if you are interested in them.

Assuming you are collecting both sets, start by identifying the watermark. I like to place the stamps against black paper under a strong light. The watermark usually shows up fairly easily. You can always use watermark fluid if that doesn't work for you.

Once you have isolated the watermarks, look for some of the various color shades as listed in the Commonwealth Catalogue. You might also want to look for the various inverted watermarks that exist on the definitive and some of the commemorative stamps.

The pages are from my collection, and are identified by the Commonwealth, Gibbons, and Scott numbers in that order. The page images were scanned in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in viewing them. Feel free to select the page and let it download to your screen and save it to your hard drive for viewing. If you are using a PC, selecting the page will typically open it in Microsoft Photo Viewer (or whatever you are using as your default). From there you can enlarge the size for more close-up viewing. If you are using a phone - go find a PC or a Mac. The images are 1200 pixels wide and you will go mad trying to view them on your phone.

Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for each page to load.

This article was written to help you identify your stamps.
Please feel free to ask a question, or suggest a correction.