Month: August 2014

Another intact collection that showed very well, likely helped by Ian Kimmerly’s detailed and anecdotal description.

Lot 1 – The Cyril Currier Collection – */O #1/400 1851-1962, a Canada collection in Three Small Ledger-Style Albums.

In 1976 when I was a stamp columnist for the Ottawa Citizen, I received a phone call from Cyril Currier to correct an omission in an article about early Ottawa Postmasters. The record of his grandfather’s tenure as Postmaster was nowhere to be found. He invited me over to his flat—a rather bleak small unit over a building housing a number of retail stores on Bank Street. Cyril was 95 years old and at the time I hoped that if I lived to his age I could do so in more comfortable surroundings. This would not have been part of the story except I recently found out that Cyril owned the whole building.

We had a very pleasant talk and I was told many details of his early childhood which spanned the time of his grandfather’s (Joseph Merrill Currier) tenure as Postmaster of Ottawa from 1882-84. Cyril was born and raised on the south side of Wellington Street between what is now Bank and O’Connor streets. Next door to the Currier house was a small building housing Ashbury College which he attended. This area was later demolished for the construction of the massive Sun Life building which is now the South Block of Parliament Hill. Some of Cyril’s early memories were of playing at his grandfather’s house—24 Sussex Drive, now the home of the Prime Minister of Canada.

The next day, a Monday, I boldly walked into the Ottawa Post Office, talked with the receptionist who suggested someone who could help and within a few minutes had complete access to the payroll ledgers of the 1880s. Needless to say Cyril was correct. When his grandfather was appointed Postmaster, the salary doubled, only to be substantially reduced when the next Postmaster took over.

The pence issues in this collection include a decent four margin number one, five of the three penny beavers on wove paper, two half-pennys, one unused no gum, both with faults and a faulty six penny no. 10. The 1859 issue contains a number of nice stamps: One cent has seven used and two mint with o.g.; five cent has two covers, two unused no gum, and 13 used; the ten cent has five; twelve and a half three; seventeen has two stamps; and there are four of the two cent value.

The Large Queens are represented by more than thirty stamps which include six unused no gum: a two cent, two of the scarce three cent value and a six cent. The used Large Queens include a scarcer variety of the six cent with a 4-ring #20 postmark. The Small Queens are fairly numerous and include two well-centered very early printings of the three cent unused no gum. The 1897 Jubilees have a mint set from the half cent to the one dollar as well as a number of used including a smudged cancelled five dollar with small faults.

The later Victoria issues are well represented in used along with a few mint items, the best being a pair of the 1898 eight cent. The Edward issue is found primarily in used but the 1908 includes a mint set as well as complete used. Both the Jubilee set to the dollar and the Quebec set were very likely purchased by Cyril at the Post Office. The Quebec set is the last issue which is well represented by mint stamps. The collection is reasonably complete to 1962 with many stamps duplicated (for example the 1893 Widow Weeds with about fifteen of the twenty cent and twenty-five of the fifty cent, another twenty-five of the 1898 twenty cent etc.- these particular ones often heavily cancelled).

The collection also includes revenues with several pages, one of which is the first Bill issue as well as some BNA including New Brunswick #1 times two and a few nice Newfoundland including a used #3. A few dozen Commonwealth including early India are included.

This is an old-time collection and faulty stamps are included as was the practice of the time. A careful inspection of all three albums is necessary to find all the value. Except as noted generally fine.

Estimate $3,000, sold for $4000 plus buyer’s premium.