Canadian Stamp Auctions

What a strong auction this was. We looked forward to the results with great interest. The outstanding feature, of course, was the 12p black, but we also noted a very strong offering of Admirals, plus the specialized collection of Mr. Roger Boisclair’s Map Stamps and a group of U.S. stamps of exceptional quality. Let’s get started with this well known and rare early Canadian stamp

Eastern noted a number of features about this stamp. First, its large borders, second the face free cancellation and finally, the fact there was a re-entry at the right, most noticeably in the frame lines.

By way of provenance, this stamp had previously been sold for $6,700 in the sale of the E. Carey Fox collection in 1968. It appeared again in 1988, when it went for $30,000 as part of the Sam Nickle collection. It seems the stamp has been changing hands every 20 years or so.

While the price realized in this sale was less than catalogue, it is the 3rd highest price paid at auction in the past 10 years for a used copy of the 12p black.

Scott 4 - Mint copy

What a lovely copy of this 1982 three pence beaver, printed on wove paper. It came with part original gum. In recent years a number of mint copies of this stamp have sold for prices ranging from $900 to $4,750, with no particular trend. So, it would have been difficult to guess what price it would have attracted in this sale beforehand.

20¢ Small Queen - Exceptional Copy

We have seen many of these 20¢ Small Queens offered at auction over the years, but few as nice as this. It was described as XF NH. When we first received the Eastern catalogue and glanced through it, we found ourselves looking at this stamp for some time in total admiration. The price realized was clearly a strong one, but to our surprise, it had been exceeded once before. In 2006 a copy sold for $3,024.

A Spectacular 10¢ Admiral Block

The 10¢ plum is by far the most valuable stamp in the Admiral set. This exceptional block of the 10¢ with the accompanying lathework couldn’t be more desirable. Eastern explained how rare it was:

“In our research for a comparable multiple of the Ten cent plum with Type A lathework, the famous Harry Lussey collection only had a mint block of four and a corner pair; the George C. Marler collection only showed a hinged mint strip of three and a block of eight with incomplete lathework with faults.”

The above block was never hinged and contained an unlisted clear “double lathework” variety.

According to Boggs, lathwork was added to the bottom of the Admiral sheets to aid in the detection of the wear of the plate. The practice began in 1917 and was discontinued in 1924.

Pyramid Guidelines

We find these blocks with pyramid guidelines so attractive. The upper pair in the block was LH and the lower pair NH. Eastern called this the scarcest of all the pyramid guideline blocks.

A single copy of Scott 117 in NH condition has a Scott value of $120 and in LH condition $47.50. So the combined Scott value for the above block would be $335.

Unitrade puts a value of $3,000 on it because of the guidelines, or about 10 times the Scott value.

But the competition to acquire the block pushed the price up to 50% above even the Unitrade value to $4,750. Pretty impressive!

Admiral Coil – Large Borders

We get such a kick when the price for a low denomination stamp soars into the stratosphere like this. Of course, for this to happen, the stamp must be pretty special.

Here is a perfect example. This is one of the least valuable coils. Yet look at the centering, and even better, look at the large borders. It’s as good as it gets.

The other interesting thing about a 1¢ stamp with a $24 catalogue value is that everybody can bid on it, from the well healed collector to one of modest means.

We wish we’d been there to see the competition!

U.S. STAMPS

This Eastern sale contained some of the best U.S. stamps we’ve seen in some time at a Canadian auction. Here are some that illustrate this well:

“Graded XF – Superb 95”	“Graded XF - Superb 98”
Lot 29 Scott 286 Catalogue $110 Realized $240	Lot 42 Scott 337 Catalogue $115 Realized $900

“Graded XF – Superb 95”	“Graded XF - Superb 95”
Lot 62 Scott 440 Catalogue $1,300 Realized $2,000	Lot 69 Scott 472 Catalogue $250 Realized $625

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

This sale had 3 new record prices.