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William H.
Gross, the founder of PIMCO, and a
well known stamp collector, has
donated $US8 million to the National
Postal Museum in Washington, to
create a new 12,000-square-foot
gallery that will be named in his
honour.
The new
gallery, which will give the museum
public space at the street level, is
expected to open in 2012, according
to Allen Kane, director of the
museum.
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The $A4 million
‘swappsie’ on
show
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In addition to the financial
donation, Gross will loan a selection of extraordinary
philatelic objects from his collection including his
unique plate block 4 of the 24c 1918 “Inverted Jenny”
Airmail he got in a $A4 million piece for piece ‘swap’
in 2005 that I wrote about at the time.
The new “William H. Gross
Stamp Gallery” will house these rarities from Gross,
and other great items from the National Stamp
Collection. In addition, there will be space for
educational exhibits, temporary exhibitions and public
programs.
Gross has a history of serious
philanthropy. On June 11 2007 in New York, he auctioned
off his early Great Britain Stamps.
The stamps were invoiced to
buyers at $US10,506,400. The auction had been
anticipated to raise "only" $US4 million.
Gross and his wife Sue attended
the sale, and were delighted with the result - and then
presented their entire proceeds from the sale to a
charity after the auction!
The entire hammer price of the
GB collection went as an unrestricted gift to “Doctors
Without Borders.”
This donation is the largest
ever received by Doctors Without Borders, better known
internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières.
The photo nearby shows Bill and
Sue Gross (on left) handing over a symbolic cheque for
the hammer price of $US9,136,000 to a delighted Dr.
Portnoy from MSF at right.
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Gross sells stamps - donates $US9 million
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The museum’s National Stamp
Collection - more than 5,000 stamps and objects highlighting the first
100 years of postage stamps, will be on permanent view for the first
time in the new gallery.
“We are honoured that Mr.
Gross donated funds to create this unique stamp gallery in the National
Postal Museum” said Kane.
“This expansion allows us to
showcase more of the nearly 6 million objects in the collection - like
the National Stamp Collection and other rarities, which have never
before been on display.”
Bill Gross commented - “Stamp
collecting has been such a rewarding and educational hobby for me that I
wanted to share the joys of philately in a way that would benefit future
generations of students, citizens and scholars.”
The museum created a small,
temporary exhibition with the philatelic rarities called “Treasures from
the William H. Gross Collection” which was be on display in the museum’s
atrium during October in recognition of “National Stamp Collecting
Month” in the USA.
Gross is bond company PIMCO’s
founder and co-chief investment officer. He has been associated with
PIMCO since its inception in 1971 and even after the market downturn,
currently oversees the management of more than $US850 billion (yes
that’s a B not an M!) in assets.
Bill Gross is the author of
numerous articles on the bond market, as well as the book “Everything
You’ve Heard About Investing Is Wrong!” He appears frequently in
national publications and worldwide media.
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Another $US3 million donation
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On November 16-18 Spink/Shreves
in New York will it appears, auction more Gross
collection stamps – the proceeds of which will also
raise money for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum –
on top of the original donation above.
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Another donation
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About half will
be raised from 133 British North American issues, and
81 U.S. Civil War-era Confederate stamps, and are
expected to sell for about $US3 million.
At the time of writing this
article – less than a month from the sale – not a word
of the auction was found anywhere on the Spink/Shreve
website!
From Canadian media reports I
have gleaned that there are two copies of the famous
1851 “12 Pence black” in the sale. Courtesy ‘Canadian
Press’ the mint copy shown nearby that appears to be for
sale, is stated to have original gum.
Gibbons list this as SG 4 under
“Colony Of Canada” - with a mint value of £150,000. It
appears to be one of the finest known mint examples.
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Pre-Decimal Australia FDC's “hot”
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The
collecting area that is hotting up here noticeably are
the pre war FDC’s …. right up to the start of the
Decimal currency era in 1966. The first “cacheted” or
inscribed FDC’s appeared in 1927 with the 1½d Parliament
House Canberra issue
Decimal era FDC are quite competently catalogued, and
most dealers and collectors are very aware of accurate
prices.
As
the Australian Post Office commenced producing its own
covers in 1970 in large numbers, they effectively killed
off all the other cover makers.
Most
collectors of Decimal era FDC want official "Post
Office" covers. The Seven Seas Stamps “ASC” colour
catalogue lists and prices only Post Office covers from
1970, and that has set the trend, and largely killed off
“non-official” brands like Wesley.
Other than the rare 1970 'small' sized Captain Cook Post
Office cover, which even today is worth several $100, an
entire run of decimal era FDC will not cost a great
deal.
The
PRE-DECIMAL field is an entirely different matter. The
1950’s in particular saw a myriad of cover makers
emerge, as the Post Office was effectively not selling
serviced FDC.
You
could buy boring blank PO produced PO “generic”
envelopes and create your own, but these were not
promoted - or popular with collectors.
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Frank Pauer and Paul Walker have been allegedly
producing a CD Rom catalogue of all Australian FDC, for
it seems like a decade or so now.
A
terrible shame it does not get released in SOME form
(and be updated later, as all catalogues must be anyway)
as it will give this area a nice boost and many new
adherents.
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Special "$20 off" reader offer
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Whilst that happy event is awaited, thankfully
the "Australia Cover Society" has produced (with
their assistance!) a great new handbook work -
"Australian First Day Covers".
This is a thick 200+ page, large A4 format work,
thankfully in full colour - and is an essential
buy for all dealers and collectors of Australian
FDC and closely related areas.
Readers of this column are able to obtain this
book for a special pre-publication price of $A75
plus shipping until November 18 and the
price will then revert to the standard $A95 plus
post – a $20 saving.
You can order these direct off the co-author -
Michael Moore c/- ACS - at PO Box 2066,
Bayswater, Victoria. 3153. Or email him -
mooremv2002@yahoo.com.au Or buy from leading
cover dealers, like “Stamp News”
advertiser A-One Stamps in NSW.
Both sources I understand can accept credit
cards for payment, or of course cash, cheques,
money orders or bank transfer - and also via
PayPal for overseas buyers. For $A75 plus
shipping it is a great buy.
It has a very useful index at back, and the
"Table Of Contents" in the front makes ready
identification a breeze.
It does NOT list any Australia Post
covers as they are generally well covered in
other publication
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From this new work, the 1938 cover shown nearby
might well be overlooked by many dealers and
collectors. There is nothing special about the
stamps and the cancellation is poor and is not a FDI.
The significance of this cover is that it was
prepared by, and personally typed by, John Gower.
John Gower founded many stamp and cover dealerships.
His ‘Wesley Cover Service’ founded in 1951, became
the best known publisher of Australian philatelic
covers.
That brand is clearly the most collected. They are
still produced to this day it is believed, but in a
tiny handful for each issue.
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A Gower-Grant early
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The June 1938 cover shown nearby relates to one of
Gower’s earlier philatelic enterprises, the “South
Australian Stamp Company”. It is one of very few
commercial envelopes that still exist from that
Company.
Better still, it contains a possibly unique letter -
typed and signed by Gower on SA Stamp Company
letterhead. For the many specialist Gower
collectors this is a true treasure, worth around
$500 I am advised. Would you have known that?
This cover has even more significance. It is
addressed to Leslie Grant of Ararat who later became
a significant producer of First Day Covers himself.
In the letter (shown in full in the new handbook)
Gower says he encloses a copy of the 1932 5/-
Harbour Bridge that Grant ordered - no mention of
cost - and why it was sent un-registered is a
mystery!
John Gower opened the Post Office at Largs North,
an Adelaide beach suburb on June 17, 1947.
Therefore a vast number of earlier WCS FDC are
cancelled at Largs North, starting with the
September 1947 “Newcastle” trio.
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On the front cover of the new handbook is a First
Day Cover of particular relevance to Australian
Commonwealth collectors - using the 1951
"Federation" issue.
The cover was hand drawn and hand painted by A J
("Jack") Peake, and is reproduced by permission of
Peake's daughters.
Jack Peake’s hand illustrated covers have been a
feature of many of Prestige Philately auctions since
December 2007. Individual covers have sold typically
in the $100-$500 region.
Readers armed with this handbook may find one or
several of these Peake covers in dealer stock, or
auctions overseas for small sums. Just ONE
find will pay for this handbook several times over.
Chapter 16 of the handbook details the covers of the
two most significant Australian producers of hand
illustrated FDCs, Jack Peake and Eric Ogden.
Twenty of Peake's covers are illustrated, in his
distinctive and beautiful handwriting.
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"A First First" FDC!
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They include the FDC shown nearby. Peake told one
of the authors, Michael Moore, that he began
producing First Day Covers initially as line
drawings, at Karoonda SA in 1948.
Peake produced typically no more than four covers
for any stamp issue, and even fewer for his earliest
covers. The FDC shown nearby is the earliest known
Peake.
There is a specialist branch of First Day Cover
collecting whose devotees seek to acquire "First
Firsts" – the very FIRST “First Day Cover”
produced by any maker of a series of FDCs.
The Peake FDC of the 2½d Farrer issue cover shown
nearby would well sell at auction for many hundreds
of dollars as a "First First".
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Other early FDC get strong prices too. “Arthur
Bergen” FDC’s have an avid following, and often
fetch heady prices. A 1956 Bergen Olympic Games FDC
cancelled Adelaide Airport sold for $500 at a Rod
Perry auction way back in 1998.
A “Wyatt Earp” ANARE cover of Bergen’s fetched
$US400 (then $A650) at an internet auction etc.
Arthur is of course also well known for his work in
the aerophilately field.
This new handbook is the fruition of many years work
by experienced members of the "Australian Cover
Society". As I have written before, their excellent
journal is a "must have" for all cover collectors.
Joining fee is $A10, and is then only $A25 p.a. for
Australian members, and $A35 for foreign. The
contact details above can assist with new member
enquiries.
Last time I wrote this up they had a flood of new
members, and good to see an active society with a
great journal getting such international support
from collectors and the trade.
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Chapter 8 of the new handbook describes in detail
the FDC’s published by R ("Bob") Haslem. Bob Haslem
has been recently shown to have been Victoria’s most
prolific producer of First Day Covers. This chapter
illustrates 31 of his covers.
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Earliest "Haslem" cover
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The ‘First Day Cover’ shown nearby is a first day -
not for the stamps, but for the commemorative
postmark for the “6th Australian Philatelic
Exhibition”, Melbourne, 1934. This is the earliest
known cover prepared by, and addressed to, Bob
Haslem.
The address, 239 Collins Street, Melbourne was the
offices and printing presses of "The Age"
newspaper. Haslem obviously had close ties with the
printing trade, and was able to print many of his
FDC designs with a great number of text and colour
varieties.
As a very early cover made by someone who became
such a significant FDC producer, this cover could
also attract bids of hundreds of dollars at auction.
But unless you owned this great new handbook, you
would not be aware of that!
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