| |
Canadian Stamp Auctions |
| Stamp Market Commentary |
|
Commentary No. 104 - 17 February, 2008
Canada’s
Rarest Modern Stamps
In the past 20 years, a few astute collectors have discovered some unbelievably rare varieties amongst our Canadian stamps. We sometimes wonder how it is possible to spot these unusual items amongst the millions of stamps that are issued every year. It’s one thing to discover a constant variety in a sheet of stamps. It’s quite another to spot a single unusual feature in one stamp amongst hundreds of thousands of stamps. We have only been involved with the discovery of one rare variety and this took place in Montreal a number of years ago when one of our viewers advised us that he had bought five blocks of Unitrade 1679b at the local post office. He sold some of those blocks subsequently for over $1,000 each. If we think that the existence of modern varieties only takes place in Canada, then one only has to look at a specialized catalogue of US or UK stamps to see the same phenomenon in other countries. There are great numbers of them and the types are the same as here, with missing colours, imperforates, stamps printed on gum etc. One of the things that amazes us as we look at auction results over the years is the fact that there seems to be no direct relationship between the number of rare stamps in existence and their prices realized. This will be evident in the data shown in the schedule at the end of the commentary. What follows below is a summary of Canada’s rarest modern stamps issued in the past 20 years, based on data in the 2008 Unitrade catalogue. Number of known copies in existence
It is interesting to note where these stamps originated and what their present values are in the Unitrade Catalogue. We provide this information below:
|
