Canadian Stamp Auctions

We have just received the prices realized for this sale at our office in Montreal. It was one of the last sales of the summer and we were glad to get them because the auction scene has been very slow lately. As we write this commentary, Eastern’s President, Gary Lyon will be returning from the BNAPX – SEAWAYPEX show held from September 11 to 13 in Kingston, Ontario.

We start off our review with this lovely 1¢ Edward VII which is VF NH:

This set had a relatively long life, being in use from 1903 to 1908. Very fine NH copies are in great demand. It’s surprising to think that there would be such a demand for this 1¢ stamp, knowing that over 1 billion were issued over the 5 year period of use. So where did they all go? The answer is that many of them that were not used for postage are still with us but only a very few of these are well centered and it’s with these stamps where the value lies.

Well Centered Admirals

Lot 470 Scott 105 Catalogue $45 Realized $75

Lot 486 Scott 109 Catalogue $40 Realized $85

The sale featured a number of lovely Admirals. We liked the look of these two in particular. While not quite perfectly centered, they are clearly in the VF category and attracted strong prices, well above catalogue. These two stamps were issued in the billions like the above Edward VII. Those were in the days before e-mail was invented, when communication by regular mail was the norm.

$1 Stamps

Lot 561 Unitrade 227i Catalogue $150 Realized $95

Lot 567 Scott 245 Catalogue $120 Realized $65

Can you remember back to the late 1970s when Canada’s dollar stamps were all the rage? We, like so many others, bought as many as we could. But what a disappointment it was when the bottom fell out of the market in the 1980s. That was all part of a learning process, but it was a hard lesson.

Modern Imperforates

Lot 631 Scott 953a Catalogue $300 Realized $260

Lot 635 Scott 1194Bf Catalogue $200 Realized $90

Prices for Canada’s modern imperforate coil pairs have been relatively soft in recent years, a pattern that continues. We checked the above results against other recent sales and they are in the normal range which is encouraging.

5 Hole “OHMS” Perfins

Lot 769 Scott OA 158 Catalogue $450 Realized $225

Lot 843 Scott OA E3(pos.E) Estimate $500 Realized $750

Eastern offered a large group of these rare perfins which they described as “the result of some fortunate purchases recently.”

We know little of this special area of collecting, but picked two examples to show. The second copy is exceptionally well centered and drew our admiration. A single used copy without the holes has a catalogue value of $17.50. Punch a bunch of holes in it and it sells for $750. Makes you wonder!

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

Eastern’s next sale will be another mail sale, to be held on October 14, 2009.