Auction #7

In this auction we feature nearly 200 three penny beavers. Fourteen of these are on laid paper and thus are Canada #1.  All are worthy of compliments but three of them have a special feature:

Lot 15 — Canada #1 Used 3d red on laid paper (plate position A12-1), used with four full to large margins, nice bright colour and 7-ring target cancel struck in red ink, very fine and a lovely example of Canada’s first stamp. Quite elusive with any cancel struck in a colour other than black with this red cancel being quite attractive. Unitrade CV$1600.	Lot 205  — Canada #1 Used 1851 3d red Beaver on laid paper, with full to large margins all around, cancelled by 7-ring target in red ink, there is a tiny corner crease at the lower right corner mentioned for the record, easily trimmed leaving a lovely stamp, very fine. Unitrade CV$1600.	Lot 206 — Canada #1 Used 1851 3d orange red Beaver on laid paper, with deep colour complemented by a red target cancel, one full margin and three very large margins each extending almost to the next stamp, clear laid lines, extremely fine. Unitrade CV$1600.

This likely the first time in many decades, if ever, that three laid papers with red postmarks have been offered in one auction.

There are many stamps of Canada which are quite elusive to find in top quality.  I remember searching through many hundreds of stamps to find the modest O41, the 1954 two cent Official, which now catalogues $1.50 well up from the $.60 of ten years ago.  Our experience with hundreds, both mint and used, of the 1928 twenty cents Harvester is that nice centering is the exception with likely less than ten percent of all issued stamps achieving the grade of very fine.  For perfect or near perfect centering the ratio is likely below one percent.

Even scarcer than well-centered stamps of this issue are stamps with jumbo margins:

Lot 523 — Canada # 157 1929 20¢ dark carmine Harvesting Wheat marginal example with jumbo margins, immaculate, extremely fine, never hinged. An exceptional stamp in every respect. Unitrade CV$200.

So to combine an immaculate fresh never hinged stamp with extremely fine centering AND with jumbo margins is a magnificent condition rarity.

Often the best quality and centering were picked out by a collector shortly after the issue and then the stamp took pride of place by being carefully hinged onto an album page.  An interesting story will be told by the prices realized for Lots 378, 379, and 380.  All are the six cent Leaf issue of 1897 (Scott #71).  The first two lots offer very fine to extremely fine examples which are never hinged.  The third is a jumbo which is hinged.

Lot 380 — Canada #71 1897 6¢ brown Leaf, huge margins, fresh, lightly hinged, very fine. Unitrade CV$200.

In the same section of Canada we find an interesting sequence of Locals and fantasy issues. A close examination will be worthwhile for Lot 720 (52 items of the International Letter Express), Lot 721 (68 College stamp bogus issues), Lots 722 and 726 (two lots of Labrador USA labels), Lot 724 (eight items of Barnard’s Cariboo Express), and Lot 725 (modern postal strike labels on and off cover).

Lot 723 — Canada Local Delivery bogus issues The popularity of local delivery services, especially in the USA, which issued legitimate stamps to indicate pre-payment led to imitations to sell to collectors. Here is a collection of 30 stamps plus one damaged. Also the definitive 125-page study by David Sessions. Includes Baldwin’s Railroad black on pink laid paper and on wove paper (unlisted), Bancroft’s City Express dark blue, medium and ultramarine on white wove and blue on pale purple on horizontal laid paper, Le beau bistre brown, Bell’s Dispatch (nine examples of these, eight with partial to full original gum, never hinged), Grand Trunk newspaper black on yellow, Ker’s City post three examples, Whittely’s Express brown on white, brown on orange and black on red orange, Winslow Express – five examples, two cut to shape (30 items), generally fine.

Next week we will feature locals and propaganda labels from Europe.