Tag Archives: Officials

January 5, 2022 · 8:44 pm

November 2021 Ebay Report

Accidentally missed out my November report…

This could well be the bargain of the month or possibly the biggest mistake of the month. This Board of Education 1s green & carmine came with a 1932 RPS certificate. But given the quality of some of the forgeries of this overprint (forgeries that may well have occurred even before 1932), it’s not a stamp I would risk spending £1’000 on from eBay with such an old certificate. But if it is right, it’s probably worth double what the person paid.

Although not brilliant strikes, these Manchester Station Late Box hooded circular datestamps are rare. This cover sold for £41.20, but I think a dealer would be easily asking £100 plus.

In terms of quantity, the ½d vermilion features on the largest proportion of covers in my collection. Because it was so ubiquitous there is such a large range and variety of usages which I enjoy finding. This example is an incoming postcard from India that has been redirected with a ½d three weeks later to elsewhere in the UK. It realised a strong price of £85.50.

This British Bechuanaland Protectorate ½d vermilion has an unusual dry print of the “Protectorate” overprint resulting in “rate” being omitted. Although it has a horrible crease, it sold for $40.07 on eBay.com.

Unfortunately I missed this one. Most of the time the uprated stationery cards are philatelic usages sent to the UK or Germany. However this example, with a 1½d on 1d card uprated with a ½d vermilion to pay the 2d rate to the UK, was sent from Palla which is one of the more scarce cancellations (this being only the fourth example I’ve found). Not only that but the message on the reverse makes reference to the “Jameson Raid”, which was a botched raid against the South African Republic carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil Rhodes. It only sold for £101.10.

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August 14, 2021 · 2:10 pm

April 2021 Ebay Report

Now it’s the summer and I’m on holiday, instead of laying by the pool in the sun all day I’m going to be catching up on my Ebay posts as well as some content for the rest of the site. So expect some more updates in the coming weeks.

The first item is an important block for the marginal settings enthusiasts. Even if I had spotted this at the time, I think its importance would have passed me by; and it’s all because of the dot in the margin! This interpane perforation dot under the 6th stamp in the 10th row means it is from setting 1B, which wasn’t known to exist at the time Wiseman published his seminal “The De La Rue Years”, in which he only postulated its existence based on examples seen of the 3d. The lucky buyer, who bought it for a snip at £84.46, I believe is going to publish an article about this find in the GB Philatelic Society’s GB Journal soon. Looking in my files, I have recorded one other example which was featured in “The Overprinter” (2019, vol.3, p.76), which was an Army Official lower right corner marginal strip of six.

Sticking on the theme of marginal settings, this pair of 5d from the top right corner of the sheet is from setting 2, showing the continuous Jubilee lines of both colours and sold cheaply to the only bidder for £29.20.

This Specimen overprint on the Inland Revenue 1/2d vermilion is type 15 which is the scarcer type which can be found on this stamp out of the two (the other being type 9). SG currently don’t price the different Specimen types separately in the Specialised catalogue but it’s something they should definitely do. This example sold for £58.78.

And finally a plate proof of the 1/2d green on buff paper that sold for £38.10, which is the right price. I remember very early on in my Jubilee collecting paying £95 from a dealer for one.

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December 14, 2020 · 7:30 pm

August 2020 Ebay Report

There is a bit of a theme of Officials (or Departmentals as I believe they should be more correctly known as) for this month’s report. As I write this in December, Stanley Gibbons have already brought to the market the magnificent collection of Michael Astley, which includes many of the major items of these Official issues and indeed some of the most valuable of the Jubilee issue.

Starting with my favourite, the ½d vermilion; this is a rare control marginal strip of three from the first setting (without Jubilee lines) and control letter “B” with the I.R. Official overprint of the Inland Revenue, of which 4’949 sheets of 480-set were printed (i.e. 9’898 control Bs were printed). Although there’s some toning and minor perforation separation, it sold for £94.40. But this strip is the only example of the “B” control I’ve recorded on my computer, and there wasn’t even an example in the brochure of Astley’s collection (although I don’t have my library at hand to check the other major sales of Officials).

 

These two Postal Stores Department parcel labels with Government Parcel stamps, one with a 1s green and the other with a 6d and 9d, were the bargains of the month, selling for only £29.88 and £38.99 respectively.

 

The Specimen overprint (type 15) on the 1/2d blue-green is very scarce if not rare (I thought I had one in my collection but just looking at it now I realised it’s a forgery unfortunately). So a block of four is very unusual, although Specimen multiples don’t float my boat. Looking at the Astley collection however, Stanley Gibbons also had a block of four in very fine condition priced at £1’950 (which has since sold). This example which has two heavy creases, sold for…£78.60. So I think this trumps the two parcel labels above for bargain the month!

 

It would have been perfect to have another Official as my fifth item, but this 1s green & carmine with a nice strike Field Post Office “17” cancel from the British Army in South Africa during the Boer War deserves the mention, as it sold for £76.60.

And I always forget to mention this, but apologies for the adverts below which get attached to my blog posts by the website provider. Unfortunately I can’t choose which ones they show and I’ve noticed some have been a bit bizarre…

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May 11, 2019 · 3:04 pm

April 2019 Ebay Report

April not only brought us Easter, but also some interesting items and some strange results on Ebay along with it.

My favourite item was this cover from the Cardiff stamp dealer H. G. Hanson. I have seen many unusual and attractive covers sent by him with Jubilee frankings, with this being one of them. Not just because it has four different values including the 1s green, but because it has a corner marginal pair of the 4d from setting 4B (with the head duty rule cut away in the corner) and it’s rare to find marginal stamps on cover. It sold for the opening bid of £89.99.

This mint Mafeking 1d on ½d sold surprisingly well at £103 considering how poor the image is. It looks to be genuine but I’m not confident…

Bargain of the month was this Army Telegraphs ½d blue-green with SPECIMEN overprint. I think mostly because it finished on Easter weekend (and partly because of a few short perfs), it sold for a paltry £32.76. I’ve seen a mint nh example retail at £675 which the dealer presumably sold because he doesn’t have it any more!

This next item made my heart skip a beat! After calming down for a moment and requesting a higher resolution scan of the O. W. Official overprint on the stamp, it was quite clearly a forgery. Enough people obviously suspected the same and it sold for £140 (not that I would pay that much for a reference item). The only Victorian O. W. Official stamps on cover I have seen are the ½d vermilion, ½d green and 1d lilac, so this would have been unique if it was right.

And we finish with another stamp dealer’s cover. As attractive as it is, I was very surprised to see this sell for as much as £94 as there are plenty of them around.

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March 8, 2017 · 8:42 pm

February 2017 Ebay Report

We start this ebay report with what is I think the most valuable Jubilee item I’ve seen sell at auction on ebay. I would have been gutted to have missed it but I would never have thought of paying as much as $2’850 for the cover below. Sent to the Portuguese colony of Macao with a 5d Jubilee, it was then re-directed to Japan with a Macao 40r. It’s an extraordinary mixed country franking and Macao collectors have the hunger and the cash for such unusual items.

This is a rare used block of four of the Army Telegraphs overprint on the ½d vermilion. I’ve seen very few used examples (less than a dozen of the vermilion and I don’t think any of the ½d blue-green). So I might regret not trying to beat the final realisation of £129.25.

129-25-army-telegraphs-used-block

This unmounted mint example of the 1 ½d with inverted watermark variety sold for £460, which is just a little under half the Stanley Gibbons catalogue price of £950.

This slightly ugly cover is an unusual usage of the 4 ½d. It is paying the 2d registration rate and 2 ½d to send the cover from York to Plymouth. It is only the third single franking of the 4 ½d I’ve seen on an internal letter.

And finally quite an attractive uprated postal stationery cover to Belgium from Jersey. These types of covers from Jersey always sell well; this one realising £135.10.

135-10-postal-stationery-from-jersey

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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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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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September 6, 2015 · 3:03 pm

July 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month

Baltasound mailbag sealWell I hope you have been enjoying the summer as much as I have. Holidays and stamp exhibitions (and some work in between) have taken up a lot of my time and energy, so excuse this post for being over a month late.

I start with a 6d purple on rose with a cancel I have featured before on my blog; the Baltasound mail bag seal. As it was meant to stamp wax, the strike in ink on the stamp creates negative impression. As far as I know, no covers exist, so it is likely that stamps like this were created by favour. I’ve only ever seen it on the Jubilee issue, and even so, not on the values issued after 1887 such as the 4 1/2d, 10d, 1/d blue-green and 1s green & carmine. This example sold for £42.00.

72.18 julThis usage of the 1s green and carmine and 1/2d blue-green on a parcel address label sold for £72.18, despite the fact that it’s a bit grubby and not particularly nicely cancelled. A strong price in my opinion even in view of the scarcity of 1s usages.

British Bechuanaland postal stationery card VryburgVying for bargain of the month is this British Bechuanaland postal stationery card sent from Vryburg and uprated with a 1/2d vermilion. By no means scarce, it’s certainly more valuable than the £18.65 it sold for.

Office of Works with chamfered O varietyThis was another good buy. This Office of Works overprint on the 1/2d vermilion is showing the variety “chamfered O” on the O in OFFICIAL. Catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at £220 , it sold for only £10.51.

And finally we have one the only item I have bought off eBay in the last couple of months. Destination mail definitely seems to be a favourite of mine (as my tag cloud on the right hand side will prove). Sent to Grenada, I bought this stamped to order postal stationery envelope uprated with Jubilees for £18.65. Bargain!

Destination mail to Grenada

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June 1, 2015 · 11:37 am

Government Parcels inverted overprint “proving piece” up for auction

Government Parcels 1s Green and Carmine Inverted OverprintSpink will be offering part 5 of the “Lionheart” collection on June 17th, which contains the “proving piece” of the inverted overprint of the 1s green and carmine. Although several had been discovered and the variety was listed in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, opinions changed and in 1916 it was de-listed and all examples regarded as forgeries. That was until the discovery of this example in 1950, clearly tied to a Post Office parcel label, that the Royal Philatelic Society of London granted it a certificate and it was restored to the Stanley Gibbons catalogue. The full story can be read in this extract from the L. N. Williams Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps.

This example was last sold at Cherrystone in 2008 for $20’700. It is being offered in June with an estimate of £10’000-£12’000.

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February 8, 2015 · 5:52 pm

January 2015 Ebay Report

Top 5 Items of the Month
69.99So hopefully now that I have discovered this new web tool that removes the backgrounds rather easily from my images, you will all notice how professional my images look now! First up we have this unusual and attractive philatelic franking with a 4 1/2d red & green and a 10d purple & red in combination with German Empire Eagle issues all on a registered envelope to Germany and cancelled in England by a Cresham House London registered oval ds. It sold for £69.99.

42.98Next up is a genuine usage of the 10d which is one of the most scarce values on cover from the Jubilee issue. Sent on an official cover from the foreign office, it was sent to the British Consul General in Vienna. Although slightly toned, you would expect to pay a bit more than the £42.98 it fetched.

35.09This is a cover I missed out on for my own collection. This postcard was sent from the British Post Office in Constantinople via Alexandria and Singapore to Saigon in Cochinchine (modern day Vietnam). Although the condition isn’t great, it’s a rare destination and especially attractive with the transit markings. It sold for only £35.09.

350.89110.90And the final two items are the Office of Works overprint on the 10d. The first one, signed by known expert Koehler among others, sold for £350.89. The other is a blatant and ugly forgery that sold for £110.90. I don’t know what to say…

 

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