Collectors do this for fun. Dealers in most cases do it for a living. And some of the finds are quite impressive. Regular “ Australasian Stamps ” advertiser Glen Stephens from Sydney had one such dazzling find during December 1999.

Glen tells the rest of the story. “I was clearing up the house for my relatives who were moving in to mind the place whilst I was away overseas in Antarctica and South America. (See detailed report of this exciting visit and the unique covers created HERE.)

“I buy a vast amount of material from the general public. Not only from my ads in this magazine, but also the ads in Yellow Pages, and suburban and country sources, as well as the buying section on my internet website.

“Much of it is posted in, Registered mail. My method is simple. Sell the key pieces fast, and the medium pieces soon afterwards. What is left then usually “owes” me ZIP. Whatever I get for the left over carton or two is then profit. Often material is bought or posted over by relatives clearing an Estate. This is always a real magical mystery tour, as you know NOTHING about any unusual items. The owner often leaves no notation as to WHY he had the stamp saved.

“Often one finds inverted and sideways watermark Kangaroos and similar items, known as errors to their owner, but are not noted in any way to any other observer. The owner dies, and the actual reason the stamp is mounted there is lost as well, unless annotated.

“I was in a frantic panic to clean up my messy offices before flying out this December. Material purchased during this year, indeed often in previous years was tossed into vaguely sensible lots, and typed into ads. One item caught my eye, that was mixed in among a fairly basic collection of Pacific islands stamps.

“The item in question is the Solomon Islands 1987 “Americas Cup” $5 souvenir sheet. There was nothing really unusual in that. It is Stanley Gibbons #575 and catalogues only £3.75 in mint. The thing that caught my eye was that here were TWO $5 mini sheets on the page, and both of them depicted different yachts!

“The answer did not take too long to find. Again looking at the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, the footnote after #575 says “similar miniature sheets showing the yacht ‘Kookaburra III’ were prepared, but destroyed once the results of the cup races were known. It is believed that at least one example of the unissued miniature sheet has survived.“

“So, here we are 13 years after the issue date and Gibbons notes only a single example existing. There are precious few Commonwealth items post war that are unique. I was the finder of another such unique item in 1990.

“The issue is the 1977 "70 FNH" overprint on the 2 Franc Palm Lorikeet Bird, issued by the French New Hebrides. The stamp has a very pronounced double overprint. The new value "70 FNH" is entirely doubled, as are the four obliterating bars at the top left.

“The stamp was first discovered by me in 1991 in another “junk” type collection. It had not been recorded in the 15 years since issue. It was sent to the Royal Philatelic Society in London for an opinion. After extensive and lengthy consultation with other bodies, the RPSL issued a Certificate of Genuineness for this stamp. It simply says: "variety - surcharge doubled - unused, is genuine".

“Despite this international publicity, no other copy was reported as existing. I sold the stamp sold for $A5,000 in 1992 to a doctor in Western Australia who collects specialised New Hebrides.

“This owner offered the stamp for sale by Stanley Gibbons Sydney, about 2 years ago, and as I recall the estimate was a hefty $7,000.

“I do not have any real idea what this new “America’s Cup” discovery is worth, as these items are hard to value. Being a “Ship” topical, one of the most popular, will help it, and being an America’s Cup stamp will clearly have some appeal to our friends across the Pacific Ocean. I’m sure I will have someone asking after it, and if they have a few 1000 millennium bucks to spare, it is all theirs.

“With Dennis Connor and the same yacht “Stars and Stripes” being in the news in January in the sail-off for the right to challenge for the next America’s Cup in New Zealand, this discovery could not have appeared at a more opportune time.

“The moral of the story seems to be…NEVER assume modern stamps are common and valueless. There may well be other copies of this error lurking out there, although the history of this one I guess passed on with its previous owner. I’d be interested to hear if anyone knows more about this issue.

“A colleague who was in Western Australia for the sail-off in 1987 recalls the Solomon Island Post Office took an “each way” bet and prepared full print runs on BOTH the Yachts involved in the final sail-off, and then destroyed the stamp design of the losing yacht under strict security.

“This sounds plausible, as it allowed the “Winner” $5 stamp sheet to go on sale at Fremantle, via the Solomon P.O. Bureau sales booth there. This would have obtained a lot of impulse tourist sales, being on sale on the actual day of the winning race. Maybe one of the ‘error’ copies somehow got mixed up in that stock’, Glen concluded.

I am sure some readers out there know more of this saga...lets hear it!