Canadian Stamp Auctions

8 October, 2008 - Eastern Auctions Ltd.

It’s not often we see a stamp this close to perfection. We are great fans of the Large Queen set and when we see an example that is this good, we find ourselves coming back to admire it over and over again:

You should note that it comes with no gum. But because of its large margins and perfect centering, it succeeded in attracting a substantial premium. We think it deserved it.

Used Large Queens

There were so many nice Large Queens in the sale; we wanted to show a few more examples:

Lot 505 Scott 21a 11½x12 Catalogue $85 Realized $90

Lot 513 Scott 22a “watermarked” Catalogue $450 Realized $400

Lot 553 Scott 29 OG Catalogue $95 Realized $145

Lot 562 Scott 30b “blue gray” Catalogue $65 Realized $110

3¢ Jubilee - 1st Day of Use

This stamp was cancelled on June 19, 1897, the date of issue. It shows a Toronto barrel postmark. There can’t be many collectors who own a stamp like this. Not only was it cancelled on the first day of issue, but the cancel is clear and perfectly centered. What a gem!

Edward VII

Lot 671 Unitrade 89iv “blue green” LH Catalogue $80 Realized $90

Lot 672 Scott 89 NH Catalogue $75 Realized $110

Aren’t these two stamps lovely! They both have large margins and are well centered. It’s hard to believe that people today would pay $100 for a stamp that was once so common. From 1903, when it was issued, until 1912 when it was replaced, 1,470,000 copies were printed. That’s over a billion copies.Knowing this, we are surprised that so very few were perfectly centered.

On the other hand, just look at the stamps issued by Canada in the past decade and check out how few of them have been well centered. There may not be many of us today who have the patience to set aside a large quantity of well centered current stamps and then pass them down through the family for 100+ years.

Newfoundland

We find our eyes drawn to this lovely stamp, it is so beautifully designed. It was well centered and NH. Just check all the other Newfoundland stamps in the sale and you won’t find many with such solid attributes.

This stamp usually comes in a deep green shade. But the above one is the yellow green variety. It was issued in 1897 and shows a young Edward VII as the Prince of Wales.

Stamp Literature

One of the features we like about the Eastern mail sales is the philatelic literature section. Here are some interesting items from the sale and the prices realized:

The collectors who got them are lucky. We would like to have acquired all four! Sometimes we are able to persuade Eastern to sell some of their auction literature to us if it doesn’t sell in the auction, so we check with them from time to time when we think of it.

3¢ Small Queen Fancy Cancels

It’s not often we see such a large and attractive collection of fancy cancels as were offered in this sale. There were 38 lots in all, each featuring a single stamp. Such a large offering most have caught the attention of a number of cancel specialists, because some to the prices were pretty strong. Here are a few examples:

Not bad for a stamp that has a Scott catalogue of only $2.

For more details of the sale, please click on the highlights button