The September 19th-24th auction series of David Feldman saw some astonishing prices throughout the sale, none more so than in their section of GB. The star of the show undoubtedly being the cover with the block of four 1d red with “Treasury Roulette” experimental perforation selling for €50’000+20%. However I was more interested in these humble Jubilee pieces.
Tag Archives: Officials
Official Overprints Sell Well At David Feldman
Filed under Auction News
Corbitts Sell Rare Office of Works Block
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.
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
January 2012 Ebay Report
Top 3 Items of the Month
Kicking off 2012, we have this interesting advertisement from Bovril in the style of a cigarette card, showing the 1/2d vermilion (inscribed “Bovril / For Health and Strength”) and the 1881 1d lilac (inscribed “Bovril is the Product of Prime Ox Beef”) both “cancelled” by a Bovril cds. Unfortunately the card has been cut in half. It sold for £12.01.
This Army Telegraphs stamps often appear on Ebay, mostly on the 1/2d vermilion. However this 1/2d green has the much scarcer 8mm overprint, where the “A” is half over “L” and the “Y” is almost over “P”. In mounted mint condition, it sold for £79.84.
This scarce 1s green with inverted watermark in mounted mint condition sold for £266.00 plus postage. Catalogued in the Stanley Gibbons Specialised Volume 1 at £900, this was a very good result considering the image is quite poor and it is quite difficult to tell the condition.
Filed under Ebay Reports
November 2011 Ebay Report
Top 3 Items of the Month
This insured registered cover fetched a handsome £216.03! Sent from West Kensington in London to Berlin in Germany, the cover has a very unusual franking paying 2s 8 1/2d, with the manuscript “insured for twenty pounds” at the top. For letters going abroad, the insurance fee was 5d for the first 12 pounds. This included the registration fee of 2d. Each further insured amount of 12 pounds cost 2 1/2d extra. Therefore paying 7 1/2d in insurance and registration (manuscript as such at lower left), and 25d in postage (10 times the UPU letter rate). Despite the slightly soiled appearance, it is a wonderful franking.
Officials are, not only in my opinion, very underrated. The Inland Revenue overprints are certainly the most common, however it is hard to find a pair of halfpennys paying the 1d letter rate. This pair on an attractive printed OHMS envelope fetched £41.30.
Complete Telegrams like this are rare, and I’m still kicking myself for letting this one go for only £41.00. They are rare because they were supposed to have been destroyed after use. This was the more attractive of two examples that came up on eBay this month, and is franked with a 6d, 4d and a 1 1/2d.
Filed under Ebay Reports
August 2011 Ebay Report
Top 3 Items of the Month
This newspaper wrapper to La Spezia in Italy sold for £39.49…which surprsied me a little bit. It was something I would have bid on, but it was actually over £30 within a couple of days of being listed. Obviously I’ve slightly underestimated the scarcity of uprated newspaper wrappers with anything other than a 1/2d or 1d.
Control letters are very collectable and rare ones, like this Inland Revenue 1/2d green with control R, fetch good prices. In unmounted mint condition, this block realised £71.82.
This registered envelope from Ryde to Southampton was of interest to collectors of the different rates, and fetched £29.56, much more than a normal single franking with a 3d purple on yellow. As can be seen at the lower left of the envelope, there is “FEE PAID” with a manuscript “4” inserted, indicating that the sender had paid for extra compensation incase of loss.
Filed under Ebay Reports
“Wellington” collection goes by mostly unnoticed
One of the largest collections of Great Britain ever to be sold in one auction went by largely unnoticed in the city of Basel in Switzerland on June 7th and 8th. Although the repercussions of this auction are still being felt throughout the GB philatelic world for all the wrong reasons. Hosted by Galerie Dreyfus, several significant items (and unfortunately several significantly dodgy items) in British philately went up for sale as only 10 or so people filled the room to bid on an estimated €4’000’000 worth of material. This of course made me very optimistic about snapping up some bargains when the few Jubilee issue items came up for sale.
Filed under Auction News
The 1887 Jubilee Issue 