Top 5 Items of the Month
We kick off this month with something of a rarity, that I’m not too ashamed to say, that I missed it completely… Starting at 29p and 32 bids later, the final price was £1’800!!! Thanks to the very rare “LEYTON CRICKET GROUND” cds, which was the HQ of Essex County Cricket Club from 1886-1933. So keep an eye out in those bargain bins!
Coming down a peg or two in terms of price, but certainly not in terms of beauty, this superbly cancelled 5d purple and blue die I. For those that struggle with the difference between die I and die II, a cds like this with the year date 1887 clearly visible guarantees it as a die I, as the die II didn’t come out until 1888. Not only is this a very crisp cds, but it also has a Travelling Post Office (TPO) cds of the Edinburgh and Carstairs Sorting Tender. Why I was the only bidder for £31.20 is beyond me!
This stamp is one of the very few and certainly best example of an offset that I have seen on the 1/2d green. This is caused when a sheet of stamps is placed on top of another sheet that still has wet ink, leaving a mirrored impression on the gum. It sold for a very reasonable £75.50.
This item is not an imperforate example of the 3d purple on yellow, but in fact printer’s waste. It’s the same with the 1/2d green on buff, this 3d purple on green paper was struck just as a test to check the quality of the printing. It sold for £93.
And finally my best purchase in quite a while. Not only are Army Official overprints on cover scarce (except for on the 1d lilac), this 1/2d is paying the postcard rate, which you can imagine for official correspondence was used rarely. The usage of the 1/2d for the open-letter rate is marginally less rare. A bargain at £47.88.
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.
The 1887 Jubilee Issue 