The full story detailing the background to this issue was in my article February 9th.

These "Health" semi-postal stamps were not widely issued showing the teddy bear in the design, due to a curious last moment decision that the design would contravene New Zealand child safety rules.

The regular issued stamps without teddy bears in design carry the Scott numbers #B151 and #B152, denoting the normal gummed and self adhesive versions. Scott lists the "Teddy Bear" errors as #B154 and #B155, but they are both unpriced.

Only a few hundred copies of the incorrect deign were sold over two post office counters in error, and a few commercial covers one canceled on first day issue are known to have survived.

Stanley Gibbons auctions in Australia offered three lots of these stamps in their Sydney auction on February 25th. These lots were a corner block of 6, and two single stamps. All were never hinged regular gum issue.

The block of 6 sold to a telephone bidder in Japan for $A10,450 ($US7,100). The two single stamps sold for $A2,640 ($US1,800) and $A2,210. The $US1,800 price for a single stamp is a new record price anywhere in the world for this catchily named error. The self adhesive is known to be many times scarcer than the regular gum version. Only 12 months ago, this stamp was selling for around one quarter these levels.

These high prices for stamps with a face value of only a few cents has resulted in much mainstream media comment in Australia and New Zealand. The mass circulation national business daily "The Australian Financial Review" is the aussie equivalent to The Wall Street Journal.

The March 2nd edition states in an article about the record auction prices that "the stamp went to an American collector who had read about the item in Linn's Stamp Weekly, a detailed philatelic blatt". I understand the buyer lives in Woodland Hills, California, and had no knowledge of this error until reading the article in Feb 9th Linn's.

Stanley Gibbons London will auction a right hand margin block of 6 on March 26th, with an estimate of £2,500-2,750 and it will be interesting to compare the price realised to that achieved in Sydney. Stanley Gibbons catalogue number of the "teddy bear" error stamp is SG #2000a.

Mr. Duncan Manins is Managing Director of Stanley Gibbons Australia. Manins told me today: "bidding for these 'Teddy Bear' stamps was way beyond our expectations, and we now have two very happy vendors. This sale realised $374,000 and was our eleventh straight to realise these sort of figures - each one is bigger than the last" he said.

Manins continued: "the market for stamps of all kinds in Australia is improving strongly, and we are getting prices here higher than in the US for many items, as witnessed by our strong results for post-war China material. A 1968 Directives Of Chairman Mao strip of 5 sold for around $US2,250 (Scott #996a) despite being folded thru the perforations. This is a nice multiple of the current Scott value, and I doubt any auction in the USA would bring anything like that figure at present" he said.