17 January 2020
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Stamp auction highlights for January, including an extremely rare 6d I.R. Official which had previously been held in the Royal Philatelic Collection.
Spink recently sold an extremely rare 6d I.R. Official which had previously been held in the Royal Philatelic Collection. The lot description explained: ‘The 6d. I.R. Official was issued on 14 March 1904 and was officially withdrawn on 13 May 1904. This value was barely used and only six are known, virtually all of them are of very poor quality having been very heavily cancelled as per the Inland Revenue Department instructions.’ In addition to the used examples, a sheet of 234 stamps are held by the Post Office, and eight other examples are known to exist. The example on offer was described as ‘unused with part to large part original gum, lovely rich colour and appearance, very fine. One of only two mint examples in private hands and considered Great Britain’s rarest postage stamp.’
SOLD FOR: £240,000
The recent sale at Christoph Gaertner saw a 1923 Straits Settlement, King George V $500 purple and orange-brown, sell for €37,000. The stamp featured Mult Script CA watermark, and was from the top left corner of the sheet with the plate number ‘1’ at left. It was described as being: ‘a most attractive and very rare example of this scarce stamp.’
SOLD FOR: £31,226
The sale of the ‘Davies Collection of Great Britain and selected other Countries’ at Spink also featured a ‘Board of Education’ official stamp, which is described as being ‘second only in rarity to the Inland Revenue 6d’ (detailed above). The 1902-04 1/- dull green and carmine, boasted ‘remarkably fresh colours on brilliant white paper’ and was said to be ‘a superb example of this exceptionally rare stamp.’
SOLD FOR: £100,000
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