On September 6th 2012, Corbitts sold rare Office of Works marginal block of four. Lot 2106 was a block of the 5d Jubilee estimated at £5’000-7’000. Hinged on only one stamp and certified RPS 1945, it sold for a fantastic £12’600 plus commission. Showing just how rare multiples are of the Office of Works official issues.
Corbitts Sell Rare Office of Works Block
Filed under Auction News
August 2012 Ebay Report
Top 3 Items of the Week
This month sees another Jubilee item slip through my fingers. Although only a large parcel piece, it has added interest in the fact that it was sent from the Houses of Parliament, and is printed “PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS / On Her Britannic Majesty’s Service”. Sent to Belgium, it is franked by nine 1881 1d lilacs, a 1887 1/2d and a 2 1/2d tied by London hooded cds. Hosted on ebay.com, it sold for £21.75.
Another lot hosted on ebay.com was this pair of American advertising covers from the Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta. I’ve had some success recently in buying advertising covers cheaply of ebay, however not these two. Obviously buoyed by the American interest, the two sold for £68.12.
Advertising-ring covers such as this one are keenly collected. Even though this one inscribed “PUBLISHERS OF THE PERMANENT STAMP ALBUM / BRIGHTON” is one of the most common, and there’s obviously some soiling at the top, it still fetched a respectable £75.59.
Filed under Ebay Reports
Dangerous Forgeries of Official Issues
As a special report, I would like to highlight two forgeries recently sold on eBay for three-figure sums. One is very crude and was sold by a general vendor with no expertise, and the other was a slightly crude forged overprint and was sold by a very experienced eBay stamp dealer who should know better.
Filed under Articles, Ebay Reports
July 2012 Ebay Report
Top 3 Items of the Month
Not necessarily one of the top 3 Jubilee items this month, but certainly bargain of the month. The 4 1/2d on parcel piece is pretty scarce, especially in such fine condition. In fact this stamp was issued primarily to pay this parcel post rate. It sold for only £15.90, and is worth £30-£40 of anybody’s money.
Controls of the 1/2d vermilion are still very popular. Even though the Q control is probably the most common, this unmounted mint block of six shows a dramatic break to the frame line which makes it a much more collectable item, and it sold for £43.56. I am currently in the process of recording the different settings of each control letter.
And finally this large multiple of the Army Official 1/2d green with control number is quite scarce, and was a snip at only £42.74. Controls on the official issues are particularly scarce, although are more common on the Army Official than the others.
Filed under Ebay Reports
June 2012 Ebay Report
Top 3 Items of the Month
This attractive, if slightly ragged, cover has two interesting points. Firstly, it is an advertising cover sent from Alfred Smith, the well-known stamp dealer, and prolific maker of advertising envelopes! This one has a 6d and 1d stamped-to-order dies which is much less common on advertising covers. And secondly, it’s going to Turks Island! Due to its condition, it sold for only £87.08. A fine one should fetch double.
This 1s green single franking is scarce, since at this time most countries were part of the UPU, and hence the standard letter rate of 2 1/2d applied. However, New Zealand was one of the few for which letters were still charged 6d, so this double rate cover is a nice example of this scarcer rate. If it were a little bit fresher, it would have sold for more than the £50.29 it realised.
This block of six 1/2d vermilion Army Officials looks pretty standard at first glance. However a closer look reveals that the fourth stamp has a broken L variety in OFFICIAL and the fifth stamp has a broken Y in ARMY. Unfortunately some creasing put me off pushing past £28.70.
Filed under Ebay Reports
Help Needed: 2c Overprint?
This peculiar little thing has been sent in to me by a reader, with what appears to be a “c” overprinting the value “d,” changing it from pence to cents! Unfortunately the cancel is too indistinguishable for me, but if anyone out there can help, then please contact me. The logical conclusion would be that it was a private overprint, since nothing has been discovered about it in the extensive records of De La Rue, however if it turns out to have been sent from a British territory and not from the UK, then it is a very interesting item indeed!
Filed under Appeals For Help
May 2012 Ebay Report
Top 3 Items of the Month
This cover may look like quite an ordinary, if not attractive franking, but what makes it that bit more special is that it has been sent by the Continental Night Mail and with seven 1/2d vermilions paying the 1d fee plus UPU letter rate. Early bidding pushed the price up to $104.50 (around £66).
This attractive mixed franking with New Zealand surprised me when it fetched £211.95. Sent to New Zealand, it was then redirected and further franked with New Zealand stamps. Two things are odd about this though; it was franked with 6d to New Zealand when the rate had been reduced to 2 1/2d just over two years previously on 1st October 1891 when Australia, its Colonies and New Zealand entered the UPU; and the second thing is that since it New Zealand was a member of the UPU, additionally franking the cover to be redirected was necessary as it was a free service for UPU members.
This interesting stamp only had one bidder and sold for £107.45. You may be questioning how such a spectacular error that the stamp is missing the purple can go for so little. Well that’s because I believe that it has been chemically treated to remove the purple. I have seen instances in the past of the 5d with the purple or the blue missing, however every example, as with this one, the remaining colour and the cancel appears faded. Still an interesting talking point in a collection.
Filed under Ebay Reports
Argyll Etkin Sell Strong Selection of Bechuanaland and Mafeking
Argyll Etkin’s recent sale on 4th May featured (again) a strong section of South Africa, and even had some rare Mafeking covers which very infrequently appear at auction.
The best Jubilee item was a pair of the Mafeking 1s on 4d green and brown on cover to Bulawayo. Estimated at £1’200-1’500, it sold for £2’200 plus 17% commission.
However the one that I had spotted for my collection was the 1d on 1/2d vermilion cover estimated the same. Sadly I was outbid at £1’700 plus 17% commission. Although I did pick up a nice Bechuanaland cover which helped to take the bitter taste of defeat away
.
Filed under Auction News
Grosvenor sell Mullett collection of British Islands
Grosvenor appeared to have a successful sale Jim Mullett collection of British Offshore Islands on 26th April 2012.
My highlight was a postcard sent by the infamous W. R. Bray, who was famous for testing the Post Office regulations to the limit for sending letters, cards, bicycles, etc. through the post. It was sent from London with the message that the card be forwarded around the British islands as fast as possible, and sent via Lundy, Beaumaris, Holy Island and Sandwich. Estimated at £100-150, the estimate was thrashed and fetched £550 plus commission!
Filed under Auction News
Corinphila Sell “Severin” UPU Collection
April proved to be a busy time for philatelic auction companies. One of the more interesting and unusual sales was at Corinphila in Zurich on April 24th-26th, where they sold the “Severin” collection of UPU. The highlight (for me at least) was this beautiful Reply Paid Letter hand-painted essay. Estimated at a meagre 1’000SFr, I bid it up to 4’200Sfr before dropping out (likely beaten by Stanley Gibbons but we’ll see…). At this price it was still below what it’s really worth.
Also of note in their main sale was a cover sent to Tunisia and franked with postage dues on arrival which fetched 240Sfr plus commission. Its irregular shape likely putting more bidders (like myself) off. As well as a 1s green and carmine on cover with sold for 400Sfr plus commision. This being the 59th that I have recorded.
Filed under Auction News
The 1887 Jubilee Issue 