Canadian Stamp Auctions

5 December, 2007 - Schuyler Rumsey Philatelic Auctions

This sale, held in San Francisco in early December, had a small Canadian section, but one that was definitely well worth looking at. We found four items of interest.

½¢ Jubilee

Lot 1060 Scott 50 Catalogue $250 Realized $328

This was a lovely corner copy of the ½¢ Jubilee. Although not perfectly centered, it had the appearance of such with the huge selvage on its borders. To its credit, it was NH and its perforations were perfect.

When the stamp was issued in 1897 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, only 150,000 copies were printed. This compares to 20 million of the 3 ¢ stamp. Interestingly, the highest price we have recorded for a ½¢ stamp is $1,200, while that for a 3¢ is $425.With this huge disparity in the numbers issued, the relative values of the 2 stamps just don’t make sense, but that’s the way it is in the stamp world.

8¢ Jubilee

Lot 1061 Scott 56 Catalogue $160 Realized $263

This 8¢ jubilee had better centering. There were 200,000 originally issued. The best price that we have ever recorded was $840 at a Schuyler Rumsey sale in the early 2007. The above stamp is a lovely copy, well worth admiring.

50¢ Grand Pré

Lot 1073 Scott 176 Catalogue $375 Realized $530

This stamp has many admirers. For at least three decades it has attracted strong bidding. This is unusual for a relatively modern definitive. Believe it or not, as far back as 1999, a copy sold for $475 and again for the same price in 2002. Only in 2005 did the price exceed $500 for the first time. So it seems to us that, although the bidding for the stamp is consistently strong, it has not, over the years, resulted in what one could call an upward trend.

Yet despite this, the above price of $530 represents a new record price. Could it be that a new trend has begun?

Grand Pré is a well known historic site in Canada, located in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast. It was the center of a Canadian settlement from 1682 to 1755 and the deportation by the British of the Acadians to France and Louisiana, amongst other places, from 1755 to 1762 is an important part of the history of both Canada and the United States. Click here for a short history of Grand Pré.

10¢ Special Delivery

Lot 1077 Scott E7a Catalogue $800 Realized $580

This was a nice copy of the 1939 imperforate Special Delivery stamp. It was NH with a guideline in the margin which is quite rare. On the negative side, it had a few small natural paper wrinkles. The price is about average. Only once in the past ten years have we recorded a price exceeding the catalogue value and this is unusual.

All the prices realized in this sale were converted at the rate of $1.00 U.S.=$1.01 Cdn.

Although the Canadian section was small, it contained some lovely stamps, ones a collectivor would be proud to have in his or her collection.