June 13, 2016 · 8:04 pm

Jubilees in New York 2016!

NY 2016 World Stamp Show LogoI was fortunate enough to travel to the New York World Stamp Show earlier this month, as I was working on the David Feldman stand for the whole eight days. I was kept extremely busy for the first four or five days, but eventually found the time to take a look around some of the amazing exhibits. There were no collections of Jubilees sadly, but I did manage to find some items of interest amongst the maze of collections.

Ascension registered hooded ds, ex Vivien SussexThe first one I spotted was the sister cover to the Ascension registered hooded cds that recently sold at Spink, one of only two known examples of this cancellation. It belonged to the fabulous collection of GB Used Abroad of Hugh Wood that was on display in the Court of Honor.

2016-06-02 17.04.02In a collection of Indonesia were two covers going to Java and one to Sumatra. Surprisingly perhaps, Indonesia isn’t such a scarce destination. I have recorded 15 Jubilee frankings to Indonesia so far, with most going to the island of Java and only two going to Sumatra and three to Celebes.

2016-06-01 13.33.53In a collection of New South Wales was this attractive mixed franking on a cover sent from the UK with a 2 1/2d and redirected to the USA. The additional New South Wales franking was needed as it was before they joined the UPU. I also recognise this cover because the company I work for, David Feldman SA, sold this cover in the Baron von Uexkull collection in 1997.

Cover missent to CubaAlso of note was a cover featured in a collection of Cuba. The owner described it as the only recorded usage of the “MISSENT / Military Sta. No. 20 Sancti Spiritus Cuba” handstamp.

And finally on display in Alan Huggins’ collection of British Postal Stationery were five covers from a correspondence to Jamaica with stamped-to-order postal stationery, three of which were uprated with Jubilees (bringing my census of Jubilee frankings to Jamaica up to 5 known).2016-06-03 17.21.01

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June 6, 2016 · 8:11 pm

May 2016 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

Taunton Cricket Ground cds 392.45Best buy in the month of May certainly goes to this unassuming 6d. With a Royal Philatelic Society saying that this stamp has a “Taunton / Cricket Ground” cds, I was expecting this to fetch around the £1’000 mark, so I was surprised to see it only fetch £392.45. You can view my attempted census of these cancellations here.

22.75Also a 6d of note was this example of a Board of Trade official perfin tied to a small piece. These stamps are scarce, and until they are listed by Stanley Gibbons, will remain relatively inexpensive. I picked this one up for £22.75 (as well as a 9d for a little less). Forgeries abound so I tend to pick them up only on cover (which is not inexpensive!), put the piece of paper and the hooded London cancellation are very typical of the genuine item, as are missing puncture holes, inverted perfins and reversed perfins.

$267This philatelic cover with the complete Oil Rivers Jubilee set isn’t particularly scarce, but it is an attractive addition to a collection and it fetched a strong price of $269 on ebay.com

90.88This slightly tatty cover (some would say well travelled) was sent at the 2 1/2d rate from London to Melbourne. However when it was redirected to Sydney, the 2 1/2d was no longer valid and the charge of a 2d postage due stamp was added (1d for the postage and 1d for the fine). I have seen very few and wasn’t surprised to see it sell for £90.88.

1897 Cover to Sark 44.00And finally, my “if only I had spotted it” cover of the month. Incoming mail to the island of Sark in the Channel Islands is rare, and if I, or perhaps a more fervent Channel Islands collector had seen it, it would have sold for much more than £44.00!

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May 24, 2016 · 6:33 pm

April 2016 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

81.76April seemed to be a quiet month and didn’t bring any particularly interesting items but I’ve managed to find a few to write about.

First up is an attractive parcel post label sent registered from Ilfracombe with a reasonably high franking of 1s7d, which sold for £81.76.

27.25This Niger Coast Oil Rivers 1s green has a neat Benin River cds in red, but what is of more interest is the break in the first “R” of “RIVERS”. Whether it is constant or not I’m not sure. I’m currently a member of the GB Overprint Society, but have a backlog of journals to go through to glean more information on the overprints on Jubilee stamps. It sold for £27.25.

 

123.00This stamp was a bit of a surprise at how much it realised. Obviously the “TATI / BECHUANALAND” cancel is scarcer than I realised. It realised £123.

Another item of cancellation interest is the cover below with a machine cancellation. Not the scarcest type by any means, but it sold for a solid £35.65.

And finally only 1 bidder was interested in the cover at the bottom at£25.74. Sent underpaid by 1 1/2d, it was sent to Munich then redirected to Paris before being sent to Glasgow. The colours in the 1/2d vermilion are slightly faded which put me off, but a collectable item nonetheless.

35.6525.74 (1 bid)

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May 3, 2016 · 10:09 am

Spink Sell an Ascension Rarity

Ascension Registered hooded cdsSpink sold an array of Ascension in their Philatelic Collector’s Series auction on 26th-28th April 2016, with items from the Stanley Cole collection. The highlight of which was this cover with a 1887 2 1/2d Jubilee tied by a registered hooded circle datestamp, which is one of only two known covers with this cancellation. It was knocked down for £7’000 plus the 20% buyers premium. The other known example was last sold as part of the Vivien Sussex collection for £6’500, although I have been unable to locate an image of the item as of yet (if anyone can help me that would be great!).

Ascension 4 1-2d Jubilee Posted out of CourseAlso of interest to Jubilee collectors was this usage of the 4 1/2d value, marked as registered by the sender but obviously just dropped in the post box and not officially registered by the Post Office until it reached London where it was handstamped with “POSTED OUT OF COURSE”. Funnily enough I own a sister cover to this with a 5d Jubilee. I got mine considerably cheaper than the £800+20% paid for this example though!

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March 30, 2016 · 1:34 pm

March 2016 Ebay Report

1561.95 Halifax Cricket Ground cds on 1s green and carmineHappy Easter to those who celebrate it. Hope you’re enjoying your chocolate eggs!

I’m starting this month’s eBay report with probably one of the top items that will turn up on eBay this year. This 1s green & carmine has a very rare Halifax Cricket Ground cancellation. These cancels were used by reporters to submit their match reports to their office by telegraph and are highly sought after by cricket thematic collectors. As there are so few, I have started a database of known examples as an aside. This example sold for £1’561.95.

14.05Bargain of the week goes to this cover sent registered within Cornwall with a massive 1s3d franking plus the 2d for the registration envelope. Sent to a bank, this was obviously covering the insurance on cash being sent in the post. Not something very advisable to do these days. Obviously because it finished during the Bank Holiday weekend, it sold for a paltry 14.05.

143.01 mnhShowing how collectable marginal multiples are, this mint never hinged block of four of the 3d, showing “date cut” in the marginal line, sold for £143.01.

GB Used Abroad 1887 6d block used in SalonicaThis block of six of the 6d purple on rose was probably used to pay for a parcel and is cancelled by the British Post Office cancellation of Salonica, at the time, an office in British Levant and now Thessaloniki in Greece. Items from Salonica are more difficult to find than the other offices in the British Levant, so I wasn’t surprised that this sold for £130.99 plus postage.

And finally the only item I bought for my collection this month was this attractive cover sent to New Zealand and redirected to Australia with three different instruction handstamps including “UNCLAIMED AT MELBOURNE” and “NOT KNOWN BY LETTER CARRIERS MELBOURNE”. I was the only bidder at £19.99. The second best bargain of the month!

20.74

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February 29, 2016 · 1:34 pm

February 2016 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

30.35After a lazy start to 2016 I’m going to try get back in to the rhythm of doing my monthly eBay reports. We’ll see how long it lasts…

First up is a scarce Qua-Iboe River cancel from Niger Coast on an overprinted 1/2d vermilion which sold for £30.35.

52.10 mnhNext up are two blocks featuring constant varieties listed in the Stanley Gibbons Specialised Volume 1, although neither were highlighted by the vendor. The 4 1/2d block shows the variety “broken bar to fraction” (SG K34h) which affects the fraction bar on the right “1/2” on the lower left stamp in this block. Catalogued at £90, it sold for a respectable £52.10 so a couple of people must have spotted it.

67.09However the variety featured on this block of 1 1/2d was a much better buy. The lower right stamp in the block shows the variety “retouch left of tablet and around large figure 1” (SG K29f) which catalogues at £600 for a mounted mint example. So I was rather happy to pick it up for £67.09.  Stanley Gibbons are currently offering a mint nh interpanneu block of 8 with this variety for £1’200! In fact if I hadn’t had been studying the catalogue the day bidding finished I probably would have missed it.

29.70 FebThis block of 12 6d Jubilees is a scarce used multiple, but what it more interesting is the cancellation. Without my references in front of me, I think that the “FPO / 43” cancellation was used during the Boer War. So even with the faults (some splitting and creasing), I think the right person would pay more than the £29.70 it realised.

93.78This attractive franking is on a printed envelope from the stamp dealer H. G. Hanson in Cardiff. Funnily enough I recognised this cover as I described it for a David Feldman SA auction and it sold a couple of years ago for €180. I don’t know if the buyer then was the same as the seller now, but it only sold for £93.78 this time.

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February 21, 2016 · 8:32 pm

The “Aureum” Collection of Jubilees for sale by Stanley Gibbons

10d Jubilee colour trial with B01 cancellation

Stanley Gibbons are offering the “Aureum” collection of the Queen Victoria “Jubilee” issue, one of the most comprehensive ever formed on this issue with over 500 items for sale and a total retail price of over £1.5m. You can view the PDF catalogue or visit their website to see which items are still available.

The collection features many unique and key items such as essays and proofs, as well as the more mundane but collectable controls and marginal multiples.

After seeing the advertisements for this collection at the Stanley Gibbons stand at Stampex back in September 2015, I was lucky enough to be allowed to view the collection at their offices on the Strand before work began on breaking it down. I must admit that I was expecting to see more handpainted essays after the recent sales of the Lady Buiri and Chartwell collections, but I couldn’t fault the number of die proofs, striking book pieces and colour trials, a few of which did indeed come from these prestigious sales, but with many more that I hadn’t seen since the days of the Robson Lowe catalogues in the 1970s to 1980s.

6d Jubilee embossed essay

Two of the more striking items were lots 398 and 399, two essays for the proposed embossed 6d value, priced at £6’500 each. The digital images don’t do these items justice! The item featured at the top of this post is another favourite of mine, with a colour trial of the 1890 10d in the same colour as the 1887 9d alongside, with the same two stamps also struck with a experimental cancellation. This piece will set you back a cool £17’000.

I’m still learning to appreciate the scarcity of the different marginal settings of the Jubilee issue, and this collection is an important reference in this respect. In fact three of the scarcest were featured on the front cover of the catalogue; the 2d with continuous “Jubilee” lines, the 4d with thin horizontal lines and side and no block lines underneath; and the 10d with the a vertical dull purple block line down the left hand side. A collection of these marginal settings are of course more complicated by the 1/2d values with the range of control letters and the different ways of perforating the 240-set sheets.

40

I was told (unfortunately too late) that the item above was a potential sleeper; a much undervalued item. Although nothing special to look at, lot 40 was a 1/2d vermilion “C” control pair, but it was perforated by an experimental perforating machine which left no extension hole at the right hand side. Stated as being the first example of this that they had handled in over a decade, it was quickly sold for £650.

Although several items were sold before the catalogue was even printed, when it was released to the public at the Spring 2016 Stampex, I was happy enough to be able to add one item to my collection at a satisfactory price. Of course many of the items were far beyond my price range…

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January 31, 2016 · 5:57 pm

November 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

37.78Yikes. Doesn’t time fly over Christmas… Back in November there was a few items that I would like to have added to my collection but managed to miss out on all of them for various reasons. First up is a Penny Postage Jubilee insert sent with a 1/2d vermilion and cancelled by the special South Kensington cds. Not only is it uncommon for the insert to have been used as a postcard, but the added interest here is the manuscript “Nature of a letter / 1d to pay”. I think a collector of Exhibition items would have been willing to pay more than the £37.78 it realised.

18.93iNext up is a cover sent during the Boer War with a 2d green and carmine tied by the Field Post Office British Army South Africa cds. It was sent to forwarding agents Holt & Co showing their cachet and redirected within the UK. A good buy at 18.93.

30.50Uprated newspaper wrappers and postcards with the Bechuanaland 1/2d are reasonably common, but nevertheless this attractive example sent from Ramoutsa only sold for £30.50.

The cover below is a scarce usage of the Board of Trade departmental perfin. Strangely still not listed by Stanley Gibbons, these official stamps are particularly difficult to find on complete cover as they were often used for printed matter resulting in fronts being more easily available. I was hoping that no one would notice the perfin from the thumbnail image but alas, it sold for £128.80.

128.80

And finally we have a quite scarce single franking of the 4d green and brown paying 2d internal postage and 2d registration fee. They are much more often seen paying the foreign letter rate to South America. It sold for £11.59.

11.59

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November 21, 2015 · 2:02 pm

October 2015 Ebay Report

Crikey. For the first time in over 4 years I’ve missed my monthly blog post completely.I mostly blame my hectic work period over the last two or three months, meaning I haven’t had much free time to scour eBay like usual. But even so, there seems to have been a dearth of interesting Jubilee material. Even going through items that have already sold, I didn’t find one thing I was disappointed to have missed out on.

Top 5 Items of the Month

105.41First up is this very clean strike of the Royal Niger Company Akassa boxed datestamp tying a pair of 1/2d vermilions to a piece. It sold for £105.41 which is a strong price considering a cover is probably worth £400 to £500.

25.46This cover from the Boer war is more interesting as the envelope has split and has been resealed by the post office in Edinburgh, which is not uncommon. However the most interesting thing, which unfortunately I only spotted when it was too late, that it was sealed by the PO using the selvedge from a pane of the 4d green & brown! It sold for £25.46

1.34Just to make sure that it’s not a clean sweep of 1/2d vermilion items, I have a bit of destination mail for you. Sold for a miserly 1.34, this cover to the Canary Islands was returned to England, and the reverse shows a Plymouth Ship Letter cds, a redirection mark, and a Canary Islands arrival. A much scarce destination than the price achieved.

And lastly, three covers with 1/2d vermilion controls, which sold for £25, £27 and £29 each. All from the same correspondence, usages of controls on cover are very scarce. Even though the condition of the covers are a bit grubby, this is still a very good price as they tend to retail between £75 and £100 each.

Jubilee controls on cover

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September 6, 2015 · 3:30 pm

August 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

Bechuanaland 1-2d blue-green control blockI guess I wasn’t the only one being distracted by the sunshine as there didn’t seem to be as much of interest on offer in August, so I only have 3 items to show you this month.

Of course it wouldn’t have been a proper holiday for me if I hadn’t missed ANOTHER overprinted control block. This Bechuanaland Protectorate overprint on the 1/2d blue-green was in unmounted mint condition although you can see some gum creasing from the front, and sold for £88.50. One day I’ll get my hands on one…

7.00 sugThis plate proof of the 1/2d blue-green easily qualifies as bargain of the month. One lucky bidder picked this up for only £7!!! Often retailed at around £100, I think it’s real value is £40-50.

115.09 augThis cover, although marked in pencil by a dealer for £28, didn’t stop it selling for £115.09, which is about double what I thought it would have sold for even though it’s an attractive high franking.

1887 American Exhibition LondonThis cover is a rather unassuming one. Sent from Earl’s Court in May 1887, this cover was actually sent from the American Exhibition, the first ever exhibition at the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre! I’m sure the retail on such an item would be £300 plus, so this was a snip at £172!

Of The Nature of a Letter handstampThe last item is something that I would have liked to have added to my collection. It’s a postcard, but with a message on the reverse, it didn’t qualify for the 1/2d postcard rate and was charged an extra penny and struck with “Of the nature of a Letter” handstamp. Sold for £44.02.

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