Top 5 Items of the Month
Ebay was jam packed full of great and interesting Jubilee material this month. Starting off with not just one, but two(!!!) covers with 1s green & carmine frankings. The first was a the latest known usage of the 1s green and carmine, and sold for a fantastic £638.29, far surpassing what I had bid! This KEVII postal stationery envelope was sent in 1907 and uprated with the 1s as well as a QV 2d green and carmine.
The other 1s green and carmine franking was a QV postal stationery envelope uprated with the 1s and two 2 1/2d purple on blue, with 2d paying a late fee. This one fetched a more understandable £430.95.
This cover is the first that I have seen sell on ebay. The cover bears a strip of four 1881 1d lialc and a 1887 2 1/2d all tied by the “CONTINENTAL NIGHT MAIL” duplex with “CS / 2” (denoting that it was posted at Cannon St. Post Office). The “Continental Night Mail” cancel was used a TPO or Travelling Post Office on the railway line from London to Dover, for mail that was destined overseas. An extra fee was required for this service. This fine example of this scarce TPO cover fetched £102.08.
The final realisation of this 1d letter card was a slight shock. Sold for £68.15, I can’t quite see how two people would want this so badly. With the 1881 1d lilac and 1/2d vermilion paying a late fee, both are cancelled by the Threadneedle St. late fee duplex, which in itself is pretty common. However Romania as a destination is slightly more unusual.
And finally this very attractive cover features three different 1/2d issues! If it had featured 1/2d vermilion I would have certainly pushed it above the £190.95 realised. Although this cover isn’t one isn’t of massive interest to a Jubilee collector, it still bears a 3d purple on yellow and Riga (now modern day Latvia) as a destination is not very common.
The 1887 Jubilee Issue 