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Canadian Stamp Auctions |
Recent Auction Highlights
10 March, 2012 - Eastern Auctions Limited
GENERAL PUBLIC AUCTION
We start off with
two very rare stamps from the 1857 Pence set, both in excellent condition.
According to Eastern, this stamp, printed on soft horizontal ribbed paper, is without question, one of the finest examples they have seen. We were particularly impressed by the large margins. It’s been
6 years since we’ve recorded a copy of this stamp sold at auction.
Back in 2006, a copy sold at an Eastern sale for $2,700. The price for
the above stamp is the second best in the past 10 years.
Although the above stamp is the rarer of Scott 8a and 8b, we note that approximately the same number of each have appeared at auction during the past 10 years. In the case of Scott 8b, two copies sold in the past for prices exceeding the above. We find this a bit surprising in view of the scarceness of the above stamp and the excellence of its condition. Both of the above stamps had excellent provenance and came from Dr. Lewis Reford’s collection which appeared at action in 1950. Each stamp was certified by the Greene Foundation.
Scott
37a – An Impressive Block
It is very unusual to see such a large block of the rose coloured 3¢ Small Queen. This block was unhinged. Eastern commented that it was likely the largest remaining mint multiple of this shade. What a treasure. It originally came from the Michael Roberts Collection, which Eastern auctioned in 2006.
Scott
60 – Exceptional Used Copy
It is not unusual to see a 50¢ Jubilee at an auction these days, but very unusual to see one fairly well centered like this and with such a beautiful split ring date cancel. Collectors place a very high value on stamps like this as can be seen from the price realized. How high might the bidders go for a used 50¢ Jubilee? A year ago, a used copy sold at auction for $800. Pretty impressive!
Edward
VII – Exceptionally Fine Copies
What very fine copies these are. To our eyes, the 10¢ in particular is exceptionally well centered while the 20¢ is only fairly well centered. 10 years ago, Scott 93 had a catalogue value of $375. As usual, catalogue values mean little for copies of this calibre. The price realized for the 10¢ is a new record price, a jump up from the previous record of $2,420 set back in 2006.
44¢ Walrus – Corner Blocks at Record Prices
These are the first corner blocks to appear at auction since 2004 when a block sold for $725. In recent years, single copies have been selling for from $220 to $425, so it is clear that demand for these corner blocks is pushing collectors to bid strongly, much more strongly than for single copies.
This is a very rare corner block of the 48¢ Year of the Horse. The stamp was issued in 2002 to celebrate the Chinese lunar New Year. 5 years later, the “missing horse" variety first appeared at auction and single copies have since sold for a wide range of prices of from $630 to $1,900. Eastern notes that a single pane of 25 exists. Our records show that only one other corner block has been sold and it went for $1,500 in 2008. It was the lower left corner block and so is different from the above upper right block. Eastern also noted that the above block was missing its tagging, the embossed Horse design and all inscriptions.
Nicely centered mint 8¢ registered stamps don’t often appear at auction and so we were impressed by the looks of this one when we inspected the catalogue. It is the “bright blue” colour variety, as compared to the normal “blue”. Perhaps because it had a light hinge mark and wasn’t perfectly centered it only received a modest price. Nonetheless, compared to many other copies we have seen at auction, this is a real beauty. Now if you want something close to perfection, you have to go back to 2005 when a perfectly centered NH copy sold at an Eastern auction for $1,900! For further details on this sale, please click on the Highlights button.
This collection had 7 new record prices:
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