NEW ZEALAND STAMPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 286, 14 September 1933, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND STAMPS

SPECIMEN WORTH £3OOO. AN EARLY AUCKLAND PRINT. In one of the biggest auction sales of its kind for years, oil October 4, in London, small pieces of printed and coloured paper will probably be bought at many times their weight in gold. Harmer, Rooke and Company, Limited, one of the leading British philatelic auctioneering firms, will sell the Mann collection of New Zealand postage .stamps, the catalogue value of which is £BOOO. The stamps in the collection range in catalogue price from £2 to £3OOO, and there are several individual stamps ranging in value from £loo,to £750. All of the earlier varieties of New Zealand stamps are represented and it is understood that an effort will be made by some of the leading collectors in New Zealand to secure at least some of the prizes of the collection. The collection is the property of Mr E. W. Mann, of Mann, Nightingale and Company, Limited, a London merchant firm. The nucleus was formed in the early days by Mr Mann's father, who had extensive trading communications with New Zealand and took the opportunity of acquiring quantities of the earlier New Zealand issues.

The gem of the collection is a copy of what is known among collectors as the threepenny on pelure paper—a stamp ever rarer than the celebrated blue Mauritius." It is catalogued at £3OOO. Its history is very interesting, with considerable historical ramifications. From 1855 to 1862 the New Zealand stamps had been printed in Auckland by Mr J. Richardson. His contract was due to expire on April 15, 1862, and the po,stal authorities of the day considered it advisable to have direct control of the work. With this object in view, the Government obtained the services of Mr John Davies, who had previously been employed by the. famous printing and engraving firm of Perkins, Bacon and Company, in London'. Mr Davies brought from Home with him various supplies, including four reams of the paper specially made by Perkins, Bacon and Company for New Zealand stamps.

Paper Stocks Exhausted. Mr Davies began printing in February, 1862, and, although under ordinary circumstances the supply of paper on hand would have proved adequate, the gold rushes in Otago at the time called for unexpected quantities of stamps, and Mr Davies found it necessary to supplement his stock of paper by purchasing some locally, so that it could be used until supplies came from England. The only paper procurable in Auckland that was '-considered satisfactory was pelure paper —of such, thin texture that' it closely resembles tissue paper. The penny, twopenny, sixpenny and shilling values made from this are scarce, but are. not considered rarities. Of the threepenny value however, two copies only have ever been found. These were discovered in Wellington .some years ago. When they were first brought to light there was some doubt as to their authenticity. However, a Wellington collector, imbued with vision and a flair for speculation offered the sum of £lO for the two and purchased them. The stamps were sent to England and changed hands at a considerable iigure. For some years the location of the two copies was not known but the variety has appeared regularly in the standard catalogues although till comparatively recently no effort has been made to assess their value. The Famous Threepenny. When the celebrated Ferrary collection which had been left to the Australian nation, but which had "been sequestrated by the French authorities in connection with war reparations was sold in Paris one of two known copies of the threepenny pelure was bought by M. Theodore Champion, the leading French stamp dealer. With the value based on the price he paid, Champion has catalogued the stamp at 250,000 francs, or £3OOO. As tho catalogue of the Mann collection does not refer to the copy therein as being from the Ferrary collection, it. is safe to assume that it represents the second of tho two known copies. So a piece of printed tissue paper, fin. by lin., is worth £3OOO. Millions of times its weight in gold!