Thrupenny bit on sale for £30,000 at auction

Thrupenny bit on sale for £30,000
  An incredibly rare coin bearing the  head of King Edward VIII goes on sale for £30,000.
  The 12-sided coin was an experimental piece produced by the Royal Mint after the death of King George V.
  Edward succeeded his father but abdicated before his coronation to marry US divorcee Wallis Simpson.
  Vast quantities of commemorative china had already been produced, but hardly any coins were created.
  The coin, which has been in a private collection for more than 20 years, is one of no more than 10 brass pattern thrupences.
  The reverse bears an emblem of a thrift plant and the date 1937.
  Edward abdicated in December 1936 and was succeeded by his brother King George VI.
  Nigel Kirk, of auctioneers Mellors and Kirk said: "Very few of these coins were made, possibly five or 10.  It would be the jewel in the crown to many coin collections."

International Express Wednesday 25 September 2013

U.S. collector uncovers third example of rare Canadian stamp

COLLECTIBLES
U.S. collector uncovers third example of rare Canadian stamp

RANDY BOSWELL

POSTMEDIA NEWS
  For nearly 80 years, there have been only two known examples of Canada's rarest stamp: the two-cent, 1868 "large queen" on laid paper, a postal treasure so scarce it's absent from the Canadian government's own collection — and estimated to be worth as much as $1 million.
  Now, an unidentified American stamp hobbyist has revealed his discovery of a third copy of every Canadian collector's wildest dream, creating a serious stir among postage specialists across North America and shedding new light on how a production anomaly 145 years ago — followed by the apparent distribution of this one-of-a-kind sheet of stamps from a Hamilton, Ont., postal station in 1870 — produced this country's greatest philatelic rarity.
  The idea that a new "large-queen¬on-laid" had been found was so startling to the Canadian stamp-collecting community it prompted a Toronto-based postal history research organization to conduct an exhaustive probe of the claim before issuing a 10-page report last month verifying the artifact's authenticity. The investigators concluded: "The purpose of the expertization of the submitted copy was
to determine if it was genuinely printed on laid paper. This has been successfully accomplished in our opinion."
  The two other documented specimens of the large-queen-on-laid were certified by the Royal Philatelic Society in London in 1935.
  The U.S. collector's coup is all the more remarkable because the stamp apparently cost him $5 after he spotted it in a local collector club's "circuit book" or catalogue. Instead of just pictures and prices of products available for order, a circuit book contains actual stamps and other postal, items and is passed between collectors, who can example and purchase any of the artifacts. In a sub-plot, the existence of the third large-queen-on-laid was first reported by the St. Catharines, Ont.  based Canadian Stamp News after rumours about the certification tests
began circulating in June.
  "The first story I wrote — strange enough for a stamp magazine — was one where I used anonymous sources," Canadian Stamp News editor Bret Evans told Postmedia News. "It's very rare that you sleuth out a stamp story," he added, describing his scoop as the philatelic journalism world's version of "Woodward and Bernstein stuff."
  The two-cent large queen from 1868 was part of the first series of Canadian stamps after Confederation in 1867, lending it special significance in the country's postal heritage. The green-hued stamp features a pro-file of Queen Victoria, and the' rare, ultra-valuable versions were printed — almost certainly by mistake — on a heavier, rougher sheet of "laid" paper in contrast to the run-of-the-mill large queens that were reproduced on more common "wove" paper, examples of which are worth $20 today.
  The value of the new-found large queen is difficult to determine. One major catalogue pegs the theoretical price at $250,000. But earlier this year, when it was announced Canadian stamp collector Ron Brigham would begin selling his set this fall, the value of the large-queen-on-laid in his possession — thought to be one of two in existence — was estimated at $1 million.

Vancouver Sun Saturday, 10 August 2013

Rare penny worth a lot of coin

RANDY BOSWELL

POSTMEDIA NEWS

This Canadian 1936 coin is expected to

 sell at an auction next month in the U.S. '

 - HERITAGE AUCTION GALLERIES

  OTTAWA — Just weeks after the Cana­dian penny was pulled out of circula­tion, the single most famous one-cent coin ever produced in this country — an "exceedingly rare" and valuable 1936 "dot cent" stolen from a U.S. collector in 1964, then mysteriously returned to him — is set to be sold at an American auc­tion next month for at least $250,000.

  The penny was one of just three known to have been created by the Royal Canadian Mint at a time when the nation's coin-makers were scram­bling to prevent a shortage of proper­ly stamped coppers.

  The crisis loomed at the end of a tumultuous year for coin engravers, during which George V died and his son, Edward VIII, became king for only a brief reign before abdicating in favour of his younger brother, George VI.

  Between the time Edward VIII gave up the throne in December 1936 (to mar­ry American divorcee Wallis Simpson) and George VI was formally crowned in May 1937, nervous Canadian offi­cials — lacking a profile portrait of the unexpected new king to stamp on the country's coinage — prepared for a stopgap re-minting of the old George V design.

  To distinguish any new batch of coins that might have been required from the earlier production runs of 1936 George V pennies, a tiny dot was added by mint technicians in the space beneath the "1936" date of the posthumous proto­types, believed to have been made in early 1937.