18 July 2014
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The 1966 stamps missing the Queen's head
We all dream of finding a valuable stamp or two amongst a packet of stamps, in an old album, or on a sheet purchased from the Post Office, writes Ed Fletcher, in the first part of his online series on stamp discoveries that made stamp collecting history… ...
We all dream of finding a valuable stamp or two amongst a packet of stamps, in an old album, or on a sheet purchased from the Post Office, writes Ed Fletcher, in the first part of his online series on stamp discoveries that made stamp collecting history…
Off with her head
After completing her Christmas shopping in York in December, 1966 a lady stepped into the city’s Gillygate sub-post office and purchased fourteen Christmas stamps of the 1s.6d denomination.
The clerk sold her a block of eight and a block of six.
The lady was about to slip them into her purse when she spotted that on none of her stamps had the Queen’s head printed correctly.
Some had no monarch’s head at all; on others only a ghostly outline of the head appeared.
The purchaser later told a local newspaper she intended to share any unexpected cash the stamps might bring with her fellow employees in a York office.
If the lady is still alive she may be interested to learn that a block of six of the same stamp, with only one of the stamps missing the Queen’s head (the head has in fact printed in the margin of the block) sold at a Grosvenor auction in November, 2010 for £4,500.
Read more about stamp discoveries, auction prices and stamp collecting news in every issue of Stamp & Coin Mart magazine, available to download as a digital edition or order in print.