Tuesday, August 4, 2009
MAILED CATALOGUES
By the time you read this, new higher postal tarrifs will apply here in the UK and as I write petrol & diesel went up today. What happened to deflation? Could it be that postal costs are still a bargain? You can send a 950 gram package by first class mail from Truro in Cornwall to Troon in Ayrshire for under £4 and an airmail letter to Vladivostok for less than 60p. Mention of names should be avoided at this stage but to some indulgent members of the stamp trade 5am is a late night, but to your postman it's when he starts sorting the day's mail for delivery later on; a pleasant enough task in the Cotswolds at springtime but in February in the sleet on some bleak housing estate a very different matter. Hopefully some of the new money flowing in to Royal Mail will finds its way to the person on the front line without whom there would be no Richard Allan Mail Bid Sale.
COLLECTION STORAGE
Anyone familiar with our operation will realise that your describers handle and evaluate a huge volume of stamps ranging from beautifully written-up collections complete with little illustrations, photographs and cuttings to messy untidy accumulations containing who knows what? Much of this material appears in auction having come from executors or collectors themselves who have changed their interests or simply feel the need to sell. Which type of lot sells better? Usually the type where the buyer has a pretty good idea what he is buying and the messy boxes can go for good money but more often that not it's the buyer of these who finds the hidden gems. And the moral - you don't have to write up your collection to exhibition standard but a simple pencil note under that ordinary-looking stamp will indicate to the potential buyer that this is the scarce watermark or the rare die 2 and it could just be that you or yours will get that little bit more for your collection at the end of the day.
RHODESIA
It seems that the reason the Rhodesian TPO down cancellation is scarcer that the TPO up is that the TPO up mail mainly carried letters from women to their men 'up country' in the mines. Anectdotally is seems it was the women who wrote more to the men that vice-versa hence the relative scarcity of the TPO down. To this day, by the way, we still use the 1977 Rhodesia Stamp Catalgoue produced in Africa to evaluate relative values of this cancels.
ST HELENA
Some years ago we had a visit from a Yorkshireman residing in St Helena whose shrewd investment holding Tristan Relief sets had been eaten by a plague of termites on the island.
SEYCHELLES - Just Handled
1935 Silver Jubilee IR. with a double flagstaff variety. Although this variety is listed on the three lower values it is not yet listed on the 1 rupee.
SEYCHELLES - Just Handled
1935 Silver Jubilee IR. with a double flagstaff variety. Although this variety is listed on the three lower values it is not yet listed on the 1 rupee.
ZANZIBAR
French Post Offices. Picture postcards of the impossibly name Bububu Railway, believed to be the world's smallest, which operated betwen 1906 and 1927. This was opened by an enterprising American who gained the concession by offering to fit electric light and fans to the Sultan's Palace.
NAUGHTY STAMP DEALERS - we recently found
A most unusual and interesting item being a letter dated 1896 from a stamp dealer to his customer regarding a couple of German States forgeries and a Ceylon Wyon head item which states "I have handed to Benhjamin, it will cost you 20/- as there is considerable work putting on the corners etc but he says it will be well worth a fiver when done".
So, who was this Benjamin character? In 1888 Alfred Benjamin and Julian Hippolite Sarpy opened a stamp shop in Cullum Street, London. The shop specialised in forgeries which they sold as genuine, these creations mainly being produced by G K Jeffreys and it would come as no surprise if the Benjamin of Cullum Street also added corners to rare early Ceylon stamps and we would speculate that the stamp in question may well have been the rare 4d of 1859, now catalogued at £4,500. That they were a bad lot named the "London Gang" is a matter of public record as Benjamin and Sarpy were convicted at Thames Police Court in 1892 on charges of forging stamps and conspiracy. Benjamin was sentenced to 6 months hard labour and Sarpy to four. Undeterred, they were still operating out of Cullum Street until the 1920's and whether the stamps they sold were genuine or forged, we don't know but as our letter is dated four years after the convictions, it would appear the Benjamin was still up to no good.
So, who was this Benjamin character? In 1888 Alfred Benjamin and Julian Hippolite Sarpy opened a stamp shop in Cullum Street, London. The shop specialised in forgeries which they sold as genuine, these creations mainly being produced by G K Jeffreys and it would come as no surprise if the Benjamin of Cullum Street also added corners to rare early Ceylon stamps and we would speculate that the stamp in question may well have been the rare 4d of 1859, now catalogued at £4,500. That they were a bad lot named the "London Gang" is a matter of public record as Benjamin and Sarpy were convicted at Thames Police Court in 1892 on charges of forging stamps and conspiracy. Benjamin was sentenced to 6 months hard labour and Sarpy to four. Undeterred, they were still operating out of Cullum Street until the 1920's and whether the stamps they sold were genuine or forged, we don't know but as our letter is dated four years after the convictions, it would appear the Benjamin was still up to no good.
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