The 13c Avocet became the first decimal stamp to be reported with a missing colour when two sheets, each showing one row with the grey colour largely omitted, were reported in the Australian Stamp Monthly, May 1966, page 19.

The discovery was made in a Sydney suburban post office, but the local postmaster who conveyed the news to the A.S.M. reported that the two sheets had been returned for destruction! However, two subsequent instances of missing colours on this stamp have provided two spectacular errors.

Red Omitted
The discovery of a sheet of the 13c Avocet with this missing colour was announced in the Australian Stamp Monthly, March 1967, page 7.

The sheet was discovered by a Melbourne collector and acquired by Melbourne dealer Tom Grimshaw, but no details of the post office at which the sheet was bought were announced.

It shows the red colour omitted from the bird’s head and neck on the top two horizontal rows, giving 20 examples of the error.

The sheet was initially offered intact (see Stamp News, April 1967, page 91, but subsequently broken into vertical strips of five containing two errors (see Australian Stamp Monthly, April 1967, page 14). One block of ten with four errors exists.

An earlier report of a stamp used on piece with missing red was given in Stamp News, February 1967, page 5. Nothing further seems to have been heard of this stamp.

Grey Omitted
This is another instance where the first report of the error comes from the dealer handling the sheet, and we now have no knowledge of where or when the sheet was purchased.

The sheet with missing grey was first announced in the “The Commonwealth Review” incorporated in the English Philatelic Magazine of 5 July 1968, the sheet having been acquired by Bridger & Kay.

The announcement of the discovery was repeated in Stamp News, November 1968, page 16.

The sheet involved bore serial number 020041, and shows the grey completely omitted on the first, third and fourth horizontal rows, and weak on the second row.

This results in the omission of the bird’s legs and outline to the body.

The sheet was divided into vertical strips of five, and the majority were immediately placed by Bridger & Kay, an advertisement in Philatelic Magazine of 30 August 1968 advising that only three strips were then available, at £65 ach.

At least one strip has been broken up subsequently.