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February
27, 2006. (Front page feature story)
by Glen Stephens
Ugly used 6d Blue Kangaroo sells for $48,500
Record Price Down Under
An otherwise common, and rather unattractive looking Australian stamp has
just been sold for $A48,500 - or approximately $US35,825.
The stamp is a 1915 6d blue Kangaroo and Map issue, Scott 40. In normal
used condition this stamp is cataloged at $24.
This new discovery has an inverted watermark. This record price is the
highest ever obtained for an Australian watermark error, on any stamp issue
from any era.
Scott Publishing Company does not list or price inverted watermarks on
Australian stamps.
US readers should carefully check their early Australian issues as prices
for these watermark errors are booming "down under" however stateside
dealers often do not price them any higher than normals.
The record price stamp has an unattractive vertical parcel post machine
cancellation.
The "Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalogue" (ACSC) states
that 3 copies are reported to have existed of this error.
One of those three stamps is in the Royal Collection in London. It is
therefore not available to collectors.
The other two examples were noted in philatelic literature in the 1930s and
1940s but they have not been recorded or sighted since.
It is understood this example may be one of those two stamps. After this
time span, the survival of the third copy is doubted by specialists.
No example of this watermark error is recorded as being offered for sale in
Australia or elsewhere for at least 60 years.
The stamp was sold February 9 by Melbourne Australian dealer Michael Eastick
via his website.
Eastick is President of the Australasian Philatelic Trader's Association,
and is a member of the ASDA in New York. He has a booth at "Washington
2006".
Eastick told me today: "I was given the stamp to
sell by a long term customer. He was very concerned by the high level
of fees currently charged by Australian auction houses.
"I found him on overseas buyer who specialises in this era. It is a
shame this rare stamp needs to be exported, but the demand for top end
Australian stamps is truly global" he concluded.
Although Scott do not list or price Australian watermark errors, some other
foreign catalogs such as Stanley Gibbons certainly do. This stamp is Stanley
Gibbons 26w with a catalog value of £7,000.
The just released and updated ACSC "Kangaroos" volume lists it as BW 18a at
$A25,000. As recently as 1992 it was cataloged at just $A85.
The recent sale price is 580 times the full ACSC catalog value in 1992.
Many Australian Kangaroos and King George V head watermark errors are
selling for multiples of even the current high catalog prices.
In my "Stamp News" monthly column in January 2006 I reported
offering a client $A12,000 for an inverted watermark average used copy of
the King George V 2d orange (Scott 27) despite a current ACSC value of only
$A3,500.
The collector changed his mind at the last moment, consigned it to auction
and eventually received some $3,000 less than my firm cash offer.
That article illustration reminded a reader he had one or two copies with
the same small town goldfields cancel, and when he checked one of them also
had an inverted watermark - never before noticed until reading the magazine.
That example is easily the finest of the 6 reported copies, and I sold it on
his behalf last week for a 5 figure sum.
Several other Australian Kangaroo and King George V head inverted watermark
stamps are also recorded with just one or two copies known, and have high
Stanley Gibbons catalog valuations in the £7,000 and higher region.
Most are stamps otherwise worth only a few cents in normal upright
watermark. The 2d orange mentioned above is valued at just 25¢ in used
condition by Scott.
Some stamps such as the 1923 6d brown Kangaroo (Scott 49) are unique with
inverted watermark. That stamp was sold recently for a price much less than
$A48,500.
A leading dealer told me that same stamp could well bring 6 figures if
offered in the present market.
An even more desirable watermark error is the 1918 5/- Kangaroo (Scott 54)
with sideways watermark. Only one copy is recorded.
Many experienced dealers except this stamp would sell for over $100,000 if
offered in today's market. In 1992 the ACSC catalog price was just $A1,500.
Glen Stephens is a philatelic journalist and stamp dealer based in Sydney,
Australia.
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1915 9d Second Watermark Kangaroo
Watermark
Inverted:
One of the great rarities of the
pre-war inverts, and most
importantly, always has been
recognised as such. Way back in
pre-decimal 1965 when inverts were
not of interest to anyone really,
this stamp in ACSC was still
cat THREE times a normal
used £1 Brown and Blue Kangaroo.
(Today those are $2,000 each!) With
the incredible boom in INVERT
prices, relative to everything else
pre-war, this should now be a
$20,000 stamp.
In fact for decades this 9d second
watermark was always regarded much
more highly and priced far more
highly, than the inverted 6d blue of
the same watermark - that has just
sold for $48.500! The same 1965
ACSC I looked at (issued 50 years
after these stamps were off sale)
has the 9d second watermark prices
used at 50% MORE
than it's 6d cousin. Even my dog
eared of 1979 ACSC has the 6d at
$175 and the 9d at $550 - priced
over 3 times higher.
Logically, using historical
relativity this stamp should be
worth
$48,500 plus 300% + 50% = $150,000!
My asking price is 2% of that.
This stamp can only move in price in
one direction - UP.
Only a few used are known and ACSC
says half of those are non
postal cancelled. The
known postal used copies have
Queensland postmarks of April or May
1917. (The solid black round dot to
right of '9d' is a circle stop used
on the cancels, either side of town
name, and is not an ink blob!)
Nearly every copy I have seen
offered of this invert has a fault
of some kind. Many are plain UGLY!
One of the nicest looking copies
existing. This one has a lovely
crisp Clermont Qld postal cds of May
1917. Clean and fresh and
attractive looking, with a
professionally added perf tip top
right.
ACSC 25a $4,000.
The scarcer Roo and KGV inverted
watermarks have gone
insane
in recent months. Many
already get MULTIPLES of the recent
catalogue price. A fairly ugly 6d
blue 2nd watermark of this same set
just sold for
$48,500
- double the NEW catalogue price!
See my recent front page "Linn's
Stamp News" and "Stamp News"
articles on that sale here:
Well under ACSC Catalogue,
which in turn is WAY under the
prevailing retail.
You'll never see this stamp again at
this low a price. In fact it is a
very long time since I saw a copy of
this error on the market at ANY
price! $A3,000
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Linn's Stamp News, of Sidney, Ohio, USA and by the author Glen Stephens.
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