The cream of the crop from recent acquisitions
I’ve recently added some new acquisitions to our website.
I must say I am particularly pleased with them.
It isn’t easy to find the attractive rarities I endlessly pursue.
And that is because the market for the best is so competitive.
I’ve picked out for you the cream of the crop from the recent items listed.
These are 10 stunning rarities, all for under a grand.
Make sure you get them before someone else does…
Top Quality Australian Queen Victoria Error
Australia New South Wales 1899 ½d blue-green, chalk-surfaced paper, watermark 40, IMPERFORATE horizontal pair, SG298a.
A fine unmounted mint example with full original gum. Minor gum wrinkle mentioned purely for accuracy as very rare unmounted.
A lovely Queen Victorian rarity.
Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £250.
Price: £225 (10% discount)
Beautiful commemorative set including the scarce colour shade
Barbados 1907 Nelson Centenary set of 4, watermark MCA, including scarce 2½d in black and indigo (SG162a), SG158/162a.
A fine mint set with large part original gum. Some minor toning as often seen, which does not detract from overall fine quality, with the rare printing shade catalogued at £700 being most attractive.
An attractive commemorative stamp issue on the 100th anniversary of the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Accompanied with an independent Behr certificate of authenticity (1973).
Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £748.50.
Price: £495 (34% discount)
The most sought-after Chinese modern commemorative stamp issues
China 1966 People's Republic General Issues Cultural Revolution Games, SG2325/28.A pristine unmounted mint set of 4, with full original gum.
In 1966 Chairman Mao's regular use of stamps as a form of propaganda reached a new level.
The 1966 Cultural Revolution Games commemorative issue depicts athletes reading Mao’s “Little Red Book”, or, to give its full title, “Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong”. It contains 267 aphorisms from the Communist Chinese leader, teaching his Communist ideals.
It was widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution, and with more than a billion copies published it is one of the most widely produced books of all time.
Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £275.
Price: £250 (9% discount)
Rare stamps used for propaganda
Germany 1944 (October) Danish Legion Feltpost +25 Ore to +1 Krone, left marginal set of three propaganda labels.
A very fine and fresh unmounted mint positional set of three with full original gum.
Very rare, only known issued in a booklet and seldom offered.
The stamps feature famous landmark views as follows:
Green +25 øre Roskilde Domkirke (cathedral)
Blue +50 øre Koldingshus (Kolding Castle)
Red +1 mk Kronborg castle (which also served as a lighthouse)
On 12 July 1942 Germany formed the ‘Frikorps Danmark’, a legion of Danish volunteers. Their purpose was to aid the fight against Russia on the Eastern Front. They saw combat there until 20th May 1943 when they were disbanded.
These propaganda labels were issued in Denmark by Nazi German authorities and were intended to act like semi-postal stamps.
Their purpose was to benefit Danish Legion soldiers fighting on behalf of the Germans on the Eastern Front on free military mail; thus, there was no base denomination, only supplementary value.
Michel I-III Catalogue Value: €1,200.
Price: £895 (15% discount)
Classic Queen Victorian issue notoriously difficult to find so fine
Great Britain 1854 1s green (Die W.W.2), SG55.
A very fine used example with four large margins, neatly cancelled by a crisp London City "22" numeral.
Most attractive, particularly with such large margins.
The embossed postage stamps from Great Britain were issued during the reign of Queen Victoria between 1847 and 1854. They were a very important part of the communications revolution taking place at the time.
They included three stamp values - 6d, 10d and 1 shilling. The 1-shilling rate was for postage to the USA, the 10d to Europe, including France and Italy and the 6d covered the rate to Belgium.
These higher value embossed stamp issues opened up postal communication worldwide. It brought about staggering growth in international trade as the perfect partner to the steamship and railways of that time.
Embossed British stamps are particularly interesting as they include three features that are unique to British philately – the method of die production, the method of printing and the use of silk thread paper.
Britain’s experimentation with embossed stamps only lasted seven years when they were replaced by new surface printed definitive postage stamps.
The embossed printing process was ridiculously laborious. Stamps were printed one at a time on silk thread paper. The design was raised and recessed to create a rough surface. The working die had to be used to apply each impression individually to the printed sheet by hand. As a result, the impressions were usually poorly spaced, either being too close together or too far apart. It was quite common for stamps to overlap.
Postal workers would then often cut around the octagonal design before they were sold. In short, the process was totally ineffective.
Few quality examples were produced from the printing process. Because of this, good quality examples are very desirable to collectors, but difficult to find. Finding a clean square-cut example with four clear margins is extremely difficult.
The Stanley Gibbons catalogue value is £1,000.
Price: £850 (15% discount)
Hottest area of the stamp market right now
Indian Feudatory States Bundi 1941 4r yellow-green and vermilion, inscription type H, sheet of four, SG71.
A fine mint sheet, without gum as issued. Very fine and fresh other than one small foxed spot and inclusion, which is well away from the stamps.
Provenance: Ex. Uttama Indian States Collection.
Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £760.
Price: £675 (11% discount)
Ridiculously undervalued for such a difficult rarity
Malaya Japanese Occupation 1942 (3 Apr) Pahang 30c dull purple and orange (on thin striated paper), chop 'E' in red, SGJ185a.
A fine quality mint example with original gum.
Scarce, particularly with the red overprint.
Provenance: Certified by Milo D Rowell (signed Rowell on reverse).
Milo D Rowell started collecting Japanese occupation stamps, when he was with the US armed forces in Tokyo immediately after World War II. Through a wide range of connections in the Japanese philately world and elsewhere in the next 40 years he became arguably the world's leading expert on Japanese occupation issues.
Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £160.
Price: £150 (6% discount)
Early Canadian Philatelic Showpiece
Newfoundland 1939-49 10c violet Postage Due, perforations 11, watermark 106, complete sheet of 100 (10x10), showing variety 'LUE' for 'DUE' (R 3/3 and 3/8), SGD6a/ac.
A very fine and fresh unmounted mint complete sheet with full original gum. Some horizontal gum creasing (minor on rows 1-4 and 8-10), and marginal imperfections, but a remarkable and fascinating item showing repetition of the original stone of 50 (5x10).
Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £2064++.
Price: £800 (61% discount)
Simply stunning quality
Southern Nigeria 1907-11 £1 purple and black/red, SG44.
A very fine lower marginal mint example with original gum.
A very handsome King Edward VII stamp and most attractive in this form and quality.
Price: £250
Extreme rarity for under a grand
Tanganyika 1917-21 50r carmine and green, type 2 'G.E.A.' overprint, variety 'very large stop after E' from R5/3 in the setting of 60, SG62var.
A fine and fresh mint example with large part original gum, perfect in all respects other than one shortish perforation, not material to overall quality or value.
A real rarity in this condition of the top value stamp from the issue.
After the Allied invasion of German East Africa in World War I, civilian mail was accepted by the Indian Army postal service using Indian stamps overprinted 'I.E.F.' Some offices, however, reverted to civilian control on 1 June 1917. They used these stamps from East Africa and Uganda, which then included the "G.E.A." overprints once they were ready.
Provenance: Ex celebrated collection of Dr K Pennycuick.
The value of the variety is not listed in the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, although the basic stamp is catalogued at £750 and this is much rarer.
Price: £850
The cream of the crop
These 10 rarities are my favourites from our recent acquisitions.
All stamps are sold with:
- A lifetime moneyback guarantee of authenticity
- Free international shipping
- 28-day no quibble returns
The recent additions to our website have been selling fast in recent weeks.
These 10 stunning rarities for under £1,000 may not be available for long.
Contact me now at info@paulfrasercollectibles.com.
Or call me directly on +44 (0)1534 639998.
Thanks for reading.
Kind regards
Mike Hall, CEO
PS. For the record, my personal favourite is the Tanganyika stamp. This is the first (and probably only) time I have ever handled this stamp with the printing variety. It is much, much rarer than its current price ticket suggests.
