Monday 24 October 2016

Pages 86-87 iii

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11 Canada, 1868, on laid paper (on wove paper same stamp worth only $2) ; K. Bileski, Winnipeg, Canada.
12 New Zealand, 1855; Maurice Burrus, Strasbourg, France.
13 Newfoundland, 1919; Arcticus.
14 Mauritius, 1848, with "pence" misspelled "penoe," earliest impression; Burrus.
15 Baden, 1851, color error, should be rose instead of blue-green; Champion.
16 Transvaal, 1869, dark-green tete-beche pair; British Museum.
17 Great Britain, 1902; Robert J. Gill, Baltimore.
18 France, 1849, vermilion block, with tete-beche pair; Champion.




11. Canada 2c
Wikipedia states that there are three known examples of this stamp, discovered in 1915, 1935 and 2013.
Wiki values the stamp at $125-250,000, Scott (2007) at $175,000.
"This [the third] example realized $215,000. plus 15% buyers premium, ($247,250) in the October 18, 2014 Eastern Auction held by Gary Lyon." (Wiki).
12. New Zealand 1d
"1d. dull carmine on white paper, a magnificent horizontal pair with large part original gum, clear to very large margins and showing trace of adjoining stamp at right, rich vivid color and of superb appearance. One of the greatest rarities of New Zealand philately which is considered to be unique. Holcombe Certificate (1988). SC. 1; S.G. 1, £140,000+. provenance: Maurice Burrus, July 1963 General Robert J. Gill "Samos", June 1991" Sold by Spink for $160,000, 19th February 2009.
from Stamp Auction Network


13. Newfoundland's first airmail
This featured on a Twinings tea card in 1959. On the back, "Early in 1919 a prize of £10,000 was offered for the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. Hawker and Grieve made the first attempt, but came down in the sea and were rescued. Letters they carried bore these stamps. Only 200 were printed: examples are now worth about £500 each." Catalogue value now $25,000.

14. Mauritius Penoe error
The image shown is an "intermediate impression". The catalogue value for "earliest impression" examples is $70,000.
The stamps were printed from a plate of 12, each individually engraved and thus all slightly different. The 7th stamp on the sheet was the PENOE error. The engraver was J. Barnard, who also gave us the Mauritius POST OFFICE first issues.
15. Baden 9 Kreuzer Green colour error 
Information from Wikipedia again, there are four known and the  example in $1M seems to be Wiki's #3, "In 1908 it was auctioned by Gilbert & Koch; in 1919 it was sold to Theodore Champion, a Parisian stamp dealer".
Wiki says of its #4, "The only unused copy, with nearly full original gum, appeared in 1919 for the first time, when it was sold in Berlin to Carl Julius Trübsbach from Chemnitz.[2] It is believed ... that the colour was lightened as the result of heat damage during World War II. After the war Trübsbach sold it to a German dealer. In 1991 it was first auctioned by David Feldman and in 1997 it was auctioned again and was sold for 603,750 US$. On April 3, 2008 it was again auctioned by David Feldman for €1,314,500."

16. Transvaal 1869 1/- tête-bêche pair
The image is from the the Williams bros' Rare Stamps (1967). The example in $1M appears to be mint but this one has a postmark. The book does not discuss the stamps, other than to say it "exemplifies numerous rare tête-bêche varieties in the early stamps of Transvaal"
As for the catalogue value, Scott (2007) and Gibbons (2004) lists the stamps as Sc3a SG3a but neither gives a value. Yvert & Tellier Classiques du Monde (2010) puts it at €16,500.

17. GB Inland Revenue Official 
This featured on an Ardath cigarette card in 1939, "Commencing in 1882, ordinary British stamps were specially overprinted for certain Government Departments and the Royal Household, enabling a check to be kept of the use made of the postal service by these Departments. Rarest of these “Officials” or “Departmentals” is the 10/- King Edward VII overprinted “I.R. OFFICIAL” for the Inland Revenue Department. Few specimens are known and the collector who buys a genuine one for less than £1,000 is lucky." The catalogue value is now $50k / $40k mint and used (Scott, 2007).


18. France 1849
From Rare Stamps, "The printing plates were put together by Anatole Hulot, an eccentric who concealed his work under a cloak of secrecy and mystery. In some plates he inserted one or more cliches upside-down in relation to the others, and so created tête-bêche varieties. The reason why he did this has never been discovered... Rarest of them all are the 1849 15 centimes and 1 franc orange-brown, of which only individual examples are known. After Hulot died, a part-sheet of 1 franc stamps was found in an orange-vermilion shade without gum. The sheet was bought by Ernest Vervelle, a Parisian dealer, and ever since then stamps in this particular shade have been known by his name. He cut up the sheet and the solitary tête-bêche variety which it contained was cut into a bloc of four, which was acquired by Ferrary. At the eleventh Ferrary sale this remarkable piece was sold for £2,700. The purchaser was Arthur Hind, and when his collection was sold in the depression days of 1934 the price slumped to £ 1,250. Since then it has not only regained, but far surpassed its former height."

Spink sold the block of 4 in 2003 for €820,000, quoting Dr Norman Hubbard in the sales catalogue, "there is no doubt whatsoever that the 1 Franc vermilion tête-bêche block of four is the most important philatelic item of France. I place it between number 8 and 10 in my listing of Aristocrats of Philately. A major world rarity”

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