Canadian Stamp Auctions

Stamp Market Commentary

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Commentary No. 73 - 17 July, 2005

Canada's Small Queens
The Dream Collection - Part I

Almost any collection of Canadian stamps will include at least one Small Queen. There are literally millions of these stamps still in existence. Issued from 1870 until the Jubilees appeared in 1897, the Small Queen set has always been popular. Varieties abound. These include numerous colour variations, different papers, perforations, imprints, re-entries, bisects, gutter pairs and imperforates. One can imagine being a collector in the 1890s whose Canadian collection consisted of early Canada, plus the Large and Small Queens and that’s all. They must have known all aspects of these stamps very well. But then, as now, our printers lacked the ability to produce well centered stamps. Young collectors put aside everything with little regard to the quality of the stamp. All collectors, both amateur and specialist, attached their stamps to the album pages with hinges. The government policies at the time were evolving. The Small Queens were initially printed in Ottawa. Then, following a fire, production was transferred to Montreal. Eventually, at government insistence, production was moved back to Ottawa. These days, only a few experts can knowledgeably identify the different plates, paper and gums of the issue. Fortunately there are numerous publications available in Canada describing the set and some very helpful web sites including one of our favorites on the Small Queen set, that of the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada: http://www.rpsc.org/Library/SmallQueen/Small_Queens.htm To give our postal authorities credit, they did manage on occasion to produce some extraordinarily nice copies of each of the stamps. When one combines the beauty of the engraved image of Queen Victoria with the vivid colours that were used, together with well balanced borders and even perforations, some very special copies did result. We show a number of these in Part I of this special presentation of our dream collection of the Small Queens. ½¢ black (34) Maresch - Lot 1915 March 2, 2004 $220 ½¢ grey black (34i) Maresch - Lot 1729 June 3, 2003 $280 1¢ yellow (35) Firby - Lot 144 Jan. 12, 2002 $797 1¢ orange (Ottawa) (35ii) Maresch - Lot 850 Oct. 12, 2004 $450 1¢ yellow - 11½x12 (35vii) Montreal Stamp - Lot 99 Dec. 12, 2004 $340 1¢ orange (Montreal) (35a) Firby - Lot 370 June 22, 2002 $722 1¢ lemon yellow (35iii) Maresch - Lot 1166 Jan. 18, 2000 $1750 1¢ red orange (35iv) Maresch - Lot 36 March 19, 1996 $270 2¢ green (36) Maresch - Lot 1235 June 30, 1999 $475 2¢ greenish blue (36i) Bow City - Lot 1352 April 16, 2005 $230 2¢ blue green (36d) Brigham - Lot 469 March 21, 2001 $230 3¢ dull red (37) Maresch - Lot 1449 Oct. 8, 1996 $475 3¢ rose (37a) Kimmerly - Lot 1527 April 19, 1993 $1250 3¢ copper red (37b) Maresch - Lot 104 May 14, 1996 $750 3¢ orange red (37c) Eastern - Lot 515 March 16, 2002 $450 3¢ India red 12½x12 (37d) Maresch - Lot 107 March 19, 1996 $5750 3¢ dark rose (37i) Maresch - Lot 1457 Oct. 8, 1996 $775 3¢ rose, double printed (37iv) Vance - Lot 3922 Sept. 25, 2002 $4020 5¢ slate green(38) Firby - Lot 235 Jan. 24, 2004 $3602 5¢ 11½x12 (38a) Maresch - Lot 1278 Jan. 18, 2000 $4500 5¢ deep olive green (38i) Brigham - Lot 442 Sept. 10, 2003 $442 6¢ yellow brown (39) Maresch - Lot 1280 Jan. 18, 2000 $1850 6¢ 11½x12 (39b) Maresch - Lot 1779 Sept. 28, 1999 $3250 6¢ brown (39d) Montreal Stamps - Lot 101 Dec. 12, 2004 $1700 Some of the prices realized at auction are truly amazing. To fully understand their significance, we provide below a schedule comparing the prices paid for the above stamps v.s. their catalogue values. Unitrade   Catalogue value Price realized 34 ½¢ black NH 50 220 34i ½¢ grey black NH 50 280 35 1¢ yellow NH 180 797 35ii 1¢ orange NH 375 450 35vii 1¢ yellow NH 900 340 35a 1¢ orange NH 450 722 35iii 1¢ lemon LH 900 1750 35iv 1¢ red orange LH 200 270 36 2¢ green NH 225 475 36i 2¢ greenish blue NH 225 230 36d 2¢ blue green NH 375 230 37 3¢ dull red NH 450 475 37a 3¢ rose NH 2250 1250 37b 3¢ copper red NH 4500 750 37c 3¢ orange red NH 375 450 37d 3¢ Indian red NH 6250 5750 37i 3¢ dark rose H 100 775 37iv 3¢ double print USED 4000 4020 38 5¢ slate green NH 2100 3602 38a 5¢ 11½ x 12 NH 2700 4500 38i 5¢ dp. ol. green NH 2100 925 39 6¢ yellow brown NH 1800 1850 39b 6¢ 11½ x 12 NH 3000 3250 39d 6¢ brown NH 1800 1700 The above catalogue values are taken from the 2005 Unitrade catalogue. These values are generally higher than the Scott values and are then stepped up to reflect the premium for unhinged stamps which often range from 150% – 200%. If we only used the Scott values, there would be little relevance between them and the prices realized for stamps of this quality and rarity. As well, viewers should note that we are using the 2005 catalogue values which isn’t totally fair for comparison purposes since some of the prices referred to above were realized many years ago. All this proves, as Bill Maresch says, is that for some of the rare early Canadian stamps that have exceptional quality such as the above, catalogue values are irrelevant!

©2005, Canadian Stamp Auctions Ltd., Montréal, Québec, Canada