Canadian Stamp Auctions

12 December, 2007 - Eastern Auctions Ltd.

This was one of the last auctions of 2007 and, as usual in an Eastern sale, there was much to attract our attention. It has been our custom to always review the Canadian material first and then some non-Canadian stamps if they really stood out. But this time we will reverse order, look at a couple of unusual US varieties, some outstanding Newfoundland stamps and then focus on Canada.

U.S. 1979 Rush Lamp and Candle Holder

Brown inscriptions omitted	Tan, orange and yellow omitted
Lot 349 Scott 1610a Catalogue $1,000 Realized $475	Lot 350 Scott 1610b Catalogue $1,100 Realized $550

If the U.S. printers can forget their inscriptions, it makes us feel better about the fact our Canadian printers occasionally do this as well. At Christmas time we can all be forgiving. After all, if our stamp printers never made a mistake, there wouldn’t be any varieties. If there weren’t any varieties, there wouldn’t be any specialized stamp catalogues and collecting stamps wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

Exceptional Newfoundland Beauties

It is not often we see such outstanding stamps like this from Newfoundland that are all VF NH and well centered. Here is a group well worth looking at:

Lot 1397 Scott 41 Catalogue $37 Realized $165

Lot 1403 Scott 45 Catalogue $16 Realized $85

Lot 1441 Scott 98 Catalogue $25 Realized $105

Lot 1457 Scott 123 Catalogue $60 Realized $135

Lot 1460 Scott 124 Catalogue $37 Realized $155

Lot 1462 Scott 126 Catalogue $37 Realized $115

Canada

6¢ Small Queen – A Real Keeper!

Lot 584 Scott 39 Catalogue $550 Realized $1,400

What a remarkable example this is of the 6¢ Small Queen yellow brown, perf. 12. It was well centered, had enormous margins, full NH pristine gum and showed a large portion of the imprint. It had all the hallmarks of an exhibition stamp. What a beauty!

This is one of the stamps whose price jumped noticeably in the 2008 Scott catalogue. It increased from $400 to $550, a rise of 37%. We envy the collector who bought it. What a lucky person!

More Imperforate Numerals

Lot 616 Scott 74iv Catalogue $500 Realized $300

Lot 617 Scott 75vi Catalogue $900 Realized $450

Lot 618 Scott 79ii Catalogue $900 Realized $500

Lot 619 Scott 82ii Catalogue $900 Realized $475

As we have noted in recent commentaries, there seems to be a regular supply of these ungummed imperforates of the Maple Leafs and Numeral sets offered at auction these days. At the same time, there is no noticeable trend in the prices realized. This probably means that the demand and supply are pretty much in balance. While not in great demand, these imperforate pairs are beautiful examples of the engraved stamps of the day.

Imperforates or printers waste?

Lot 771 Scott 1194ii Catalogue $150 Realized $100

This imperforate coil strip of 6 shows the postal inspector’s red pen marks. It’s not clear what the marks signify; they just seem to be random curves. It almost looks as though there may have been other stamps joined to this coil strip at one time that were subsequently separated from it.

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