Canadian Stamp Auctions

16 December, 2007 - Matthew Bennett International

In mid-December Matthew Bennett held its Harbour Auction in New York. Tucked in amongst the many lots from around the world was a small but significant Canadian section. The quality of the Canadian material was what we have come to expect from this U.S. auction house.

Here are the most interesting Canadian lots we spotted:

Lot 2894 Scott 15b on piece Estimate $200 Realized $858

Lot 2901 Scott 41 NH Catalogue $50 Realized $263

Lot 2902 Unitrade 42i LH Catalogue $3,000 Realized $6,060

Lot 2903 Scott 44d LH/NH Catalogue $1,300 Realized $2,424

Lot 2905 Scott 45c LH Catalogue $1,000 Realized $1,363

Lot 2913 Scott 60 NH Catalogue $550 Realized $1,010

Lot 2923 Scott 82a LH/NH Catalogue $2,350 Realized $3,535

Admiral Imperforate blocks
(Lot 2953)

Scott 110a – 122a Catalogue $37,100 Realized $53,025

The full set of imperforate blocks of the Admiral set was offered in Lot 2953. We show 3 of the blocks above. The lot was lightly hinged in the top pairs only, the bottom pairs were NH. The group sold for 43% above catalogue.

The prices we have shown above for all the Canadian stamps were converted at the rate of $1 U.S.= $1.01 Canadian.

U.S. Inverted Stamp

Lot 2334 Scott C3a Catalogue $400,000 Realized $285,000

Matthew Bennett described this as “One of the best centered and most handsome examples of this renowned U.S. error extant”. They also noted, however, that it had disturbed gum, a small thin spot and a light crease at the bottom left.

Concluding Comments on the Auction

This firm has impressed us greatly with the quality of the Canadian stamps they have offered in their sales from time to time. We should acknowledge something else they do. For many of the Canadian stamps, they gave not only the Scott catalogue number, but also the numbers from the Unitrade and Stanley Gibbons catalogues. This takes a lot of trouble and expertise on their part, but it broadens the number of potential bidders.

We saw them doing this for other countries as well. Taking Germany, for example, the Scott and Michel catalogue numbers were given, together with the Michel values in Euros and U.S. dollars. For Hong Kong, both the Scott and Stanley Gibbons numbers were given, with the Stanley Gibbons values given in £s and $US.

Having this information saves prospective bidders a lot of time and gives them added certainty about the identity of the stamps they may wish to bid on. We give a tip of the hat to Matthew Bennett for this.