Canadian stamp snafu on block

`Seaway invert' is expected to fetch at least $60,000 at Sotheby's in London

BY RANDY BOSWELL

  The most embarrassing stamp sna­fu in Canadian history is set to go under the spotlight at a landmark auction in Britain, where an extremely rare, unused quartet of the famous "Seaway invert" — a five-cent issue featur­ing an upside-down image celebrating U.S.-Canada friendship — is expected to fetch more than $60,000.

  That's a whopping 300,000 times the stamp's original face value. Hailed by collectors as one of the world's classic postal errors, and described by the auc­tion house Sotheby's as "an icon of Canadian philately," the botched print­ing of the stamp — intended to com­memorate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 — caused a sensation at the time.

  It even prompted Time magazine to profile a 20-year-old Winnipeg stenog­rapher, Mildred Mason, whose discov­ery of the mistake "touched off a trea­sure hunt" in Canada as collectors raced to snap up the misprints, while the fed­eral government scrambled to destroy the inverted lot.

Red lettering

  First noticed in August 1959 after the stamp went on sale by the millions across Canada, the erroneous batch of a few thousand featured red lettering on either side of an inverted central image — an American bald eagle and Canadi­an maple leaf entwined in rings and superimposed on a map of the shared Great Lakes. The blunder was particu­larly mortifying for Canadian officials because the Seaway inverts overshad­owed a special bi-national collaboration in which the U.S. Postal Service printed its own version of the stamp — the first-ever joint Canada-U.S. issue.

  About 250 misprinted specimens escaped the federal shredder. Dozens of those were acquired by the quick-think­ing Winnipeg stamp dealer Kasimir Bileski, who paid Mason more than $5,000 for her one-buck block of 20 and earned an appearance on TV's Front Page Challenge for his relentless bid to corner the market in Seaway misprints. Most of the stamps have ended up in public collections around the world, including the Smithsonian's U.S. National Postal Museum, but about 60 are still believed to be in private hands.

  The block of four being sold by Sothe­by's in May belonged to the late Sir Gawaine Baillie, an eccentric British aristocrat and 1960s motorsports celebrity who amassed one of the world's most valuable stamp collections before his death in 2003.

  Another unused pair of the Seaway inverts, originally purchased in Ottawa, is also being offered at the London sale. That couplet is expected to go for about $25,000. Baillie's collection is being liquidated in a record-smashing series of 10 sales that began in 2004, including one New York auction last year that saw a single, ultra-rare example of Canada's most famous stamp — the "Twelve-Penny Black" of 1851— bought for near­ly $250,000, double the predicted price.

Pushing final price

  The significance attached to the Sea-way stamps by collectors could similar­ly push their final price well beyond the pre-sale estimate.

  The 1959 invert has been described by Charles Verge, president of the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada, as "the most spectacular stamp error in Cana­dian philately."

  The mistake occurred because in Canada the two colours were printed separately and the stamp's blue plate was initially placed upside-down.

--CanWest News Service

50,000 flawed U.S. dollar coins believed to be in circulation

George Washington dollar coins struck without their edge

inscriptions are selling for between $40 and $60 US on eBay.

   PHILADELPHIA — An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust," and made it past inspectors and into cir­culation, the U.S. Mint said Wednesday. They went into circulation Feb. 15. The mint struck 300 million of the coins, which are golden in colour and slightly larger and thicker than a quarter. Ron Guth, president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world's largest coin authentication companies, said he believes at least 50,000 error coins were put in circulation. "The first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they actually were," he said. `"They're going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and they'll probably set­tle in the $50 range."

$200,000 stamp stuck in ballot box

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The 1918 `Inverted Jenny' is perhaps the 

world's most famous stamp error.

$200,000 stamp stuck in ballot box

  FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A rare stamp that could be worth at least $200,000 may be on an absentee-ballot envelope sealed in a box with other bal­lots from Tuesday's election.

  Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom discovered the stamp, which may be the famous Inverted Jenny, while reviewing absentee ballots. There was no name on the envelope so the vote didn't count. Rodstrom discussed the stamp with the other members of the canvassing board — Broward Coun­ty Court Judge Eric Beller and the supervisor of elections. A stamp-col­lecting deputy overheard them and said the stamp would be very valuable if it was real.

  But it was too late. "By that time we had already sealed the box. And once you seal the box, under the election law you can't unseal it," Beller said.

  The 24-cent Jenny stamps were print­ed in 1918, said Maynard Guss, president of the Sunrise Stamp Club. Stamp sheets were run through presses twice to process all the colours, and on one pass, four Jenny sheets went through back-ward. Inspectors caught the errors on three of the sheets and destroyed them, but somehow, a sheet of 100 stamps got through. Stamp collectors have spent the past 88 years trying to find them all.

Associated Press

New coin for breast cancer wears pink

Next time a cashier hands you change, you may notice two-bits worth of colour in your  --palm. The newest quarter, a collaboration between the Royal Canadian Mint and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, is adorned with the image of a pink ribbon, and goes into circulation Saturday. Last year more than 5,000 Canadian women died from breast cancer.

--Vancouver Sun 1 April 2006

Smiling, forward-facing Jefferson on new U.S. nickel

   WASHINGTON — After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in sombre profiles on its coins, the U.S. Mint is trying something different: the new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile.

   "It isn't a silly smile or a smirk but a sense of optimism that I was trying to convey with the expression," said Jamie Franki, an associate professor of art at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. His drawing was chosen out of 147 entries.

   In unveiling the design Tuesday, mint officials said they believed the new image of Jefferson was an appropriate way to commemorate his support for expanding the country through the Louisiana Purchase and sending Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the territory in 804-05.

   "The image of a forward-looking Jefferson is a fitting tribute to that vision,” said David Lebryk, acting director of the mint.

   For the last two years, the mint has changed the design of the nickel every six months to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, both f which occurred during Jefferson's administration.

   The new five-cent coin, which will go into circulation early next year, is the last scheduled change in the nickel's appearance. It will feature Jefferson's Monticello home on the reverse side of the coin but in an updated image from the Monticello that first began appearing on the nickel in 1938.

--- Associated Press

An artist rendering provided by the U.S. Mint shows the front and back of the new nickel that will go into production in 2006. After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in somber profiles on the coins, the mint is trying something different: The new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile.

Value of a nickel hits $3 million in sale

Value of a nickel hits $3 million in sale

 

Photograph of a 1913 Liberty
Head V nickel released by Blanchard
& Co. in New Orleans on Thursday.

  NEW ORLEANS -- A 1913 Liberty Head nick-el minted under myste­rious circumstances, owned by royalty and celebrated in an episode of TV's Hawaii Five-O sold Thursday for $3 million US.

  "Many argue this is the most important coin in our history," said Bruce Smith of Blanchard and Co., which brokered the sale.

  Neither buyer nor seller was identified.

  At least two other coins have sold for more, both at auction. In 1999, an 1804 silver dollar sold for $4.14 mil-lion. Two years ago, a 1933 $20 gold piece went for $7.59 million.

  The $3-million coin is one of only five Liberty Head nickels minted in 1913. The design had been discontinued in 1912 and the mint was switching over to the Indian Head nickel.

  The mint sometimes ran off coins as tests and the coins may have been struck that way, Smith said. They sur­faced in 1920 in the pos­session of Samuel Brown, a former mint employee, and have soared in value ever since.

  The coin sold by Blanchard is consid­ered the second-best in quality and the one with the most colourful history.

  Called the Olsen Specimen for a previ­ous owner, it once belonged to King Farouk of Egypt, an avid coin collector.

  It was also owned by Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, and was the subject of a 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-O, titled The $100,000 Nickel.

Associated Press

B.C. stamps should fetch $1 million US

COLLECTIBLES--Collection of pre-Confederation stamps set to be auctioned in New York

BY JOHN MACKIE

VANCOUVER SUN

            THE PROVINCE--A legendary collection of pre-Confederation stamps from British Columbia and Vancouver Island is going to be auctioned off Tuesday in New York, and sales are expected to top $1 million US.

  The 370 lots include exceptionally rare stamps, proofs and "covers" (envelopes) bearing both stamps and express company marks, which are collectible in their own right.

  The sale offers a fascinating glimpse into a little-known era between the Fraser and Cariboo gold rush and Confederation.

  Eighteen separate stamps were issued between 1860 and 1871, when B.C. joined Canada. The earliest stamps bear the legend "British Columbia and Vancouver's Island," because they were separate colonies until 1866. The early stamps also bear a profile of a relatively youthful Queen Victoria, who was 41 in 1860.

  The cover letters have all sorts of historical quirks. Lot no. 273, for example, bears stamps and addresses on both sides of the cover — one for getting out of Canada, one for getting to its destination in the U.S.

Shown above is Lot 1 of 370 lots
that are to be auctioned off in New
York. These 'five-cent rose' stamps
were issue by B.C. and
Vancouver Island.

Collection assembled by two legends in the field

  This is because in the 1860s, there was no cross-Canada mail service — because there was no postal delivery through the mountains. Most mail was taken by express companies from the gold fields to New Westminster or Victoria, then by ship to San Francisco.

  The cover was sent by someone who couldn't spell (it's addressed to "Pioner City, Idiho Teritory") from Richfield, B.C., a gold-mining town near Barkerville that no longer exists.

  It features a pair of British Columbia stamps and a pair of American stamps, and bears the marks of three express companies, two Canadian (Barnard's Cariboo Express, and Dietz & Nelson's B.C. and V. Express) and one American (Wells Fargo and Co.).

  "The Cariboo Express [and Dietz] got it out of inland, the British Columbia stamps got it out of the country, then it got to the United States," explains Keith Harmer of H.R. Harmer Philatelic Auctioneers, which is conducting the sale.

  "Because it had to get to Idaho territory, which wasn't even a state at that time, now it had to go by Wells Fargo. So you have three express companies and two different countries involved.

  "You know something? That could bring $45,000 [US, about $60,000 Cdn], that cover."

  Another interesting cover is Lot 199, which has 10 blue Vancouver Island stamps and is addressed to The Bank of

Lot 1 includes an 1860 die proof of a
stamp from B.C. and Vancouver Island. 

British Columbia, 5 East India Avenue, Leadenhall Street, London (estimated value, $2,700 to $4,100). Lot 181 is addressed to Aylmer, Canada West — pre-Confederation Ontario (estimate $2,000 to $2,700).

  Lot 24 is a pair of rose-coloured five-cent British Columbia and Vancouver's Island stamps, arranged vertically. The catalogue states that it is the only known unused multiple of "this most famous of British North America rarities," and notes it is listed in stamp catalogues at $60,000, although it will probably go higher. Lot 51 is an uncut sheet of 24 blue 10 cent Vancouver Island stamps, which has a catalogue value of about $47,000.

  The collection was assembled by two of the most legendary names in American stamp collecting, the father/daughter team of Alfred F. Lichtenstein and Louise Boyd Dale.

  Lichtenstein was the founder of the Philatelic Foundation in the U.S., and is the namesake of the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Award, which Harmers calls "the most prestigious award in philately." His daughter carried on his collection after he died in 1947.

  After Dale died in 1967, their British North America stamp collection (featuring rare Canadian and colonial stamps) brought $3 million U.S. at a Harmers auction.

Lot 273 features a Barnard's Cariboo
Express stamp from British Columbia
and Vancouver Island.

  Harmer said the 1969 auction was so big — there were 5,000 lots — that at first, most collectors didn't realize there was. no B.C. material. Later on, the missing B.C. collection became the stuff of legend, a near-mythic collection that many thought had been donated to an institution and would never hit the market.

  It turns out Louise Boyd Dale had given the collection to her son John, who has now decided to auction it off. There has only been one collection to come on the market to rival it — the 373-lot Gerald E. Wellburn collection, which was auctioned for $800,000 Cdn in 1988.

  The Wellburn Collection was so famous, the auctioneer, Eaton & Sons, issued a limited edition coffee table book featuring it. Brian Grant Duff has it for sale for $150 at the Bay Coins and Stamps in the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver.

  Grant Duff said the Dale/Lichtenstein collection is just as famous, and will

attract the elite of the stamp world.       

  "It's one of the great events of a lifetime for many collectors," he said.

  "Much of this material is held privately or in institutional collections, and trades hands once a generation, if that."           

  Catalogues for the auction are $15 US, and can be obtained by e-mailing the auctioneers at hrharmer@hrharmer.com. If you want to bid, call Harmers at 212-532-3700.