VALUABLE STAMPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 70, 4 January 1936, Page 8

VALUABLE STAMPS

MOSTLY CAUSED BY ERRORS. When President Roosevelt, checking up on the coming issue of transpacific air service stamps, discovered that a Yankee clipper ship was shown with two masts instead of three and had the error rectified, lie prevented the sale of a stamp that might, in time have had a great value. For most of the world’s most expensive stamps are those into which a mistake has been permitted to creep, says the “New York Times.” Such was the case with the rare British Guiana one-cent stamp, which should have been marked “four cents.” This, priced at about £7500, failed to bring a bidder at that figure at a recent London auction, but it is rated as the world’s most .valuable stamp. Second in monetary importance among the “classics” is the one-penny “post offico” Mauritius, which, unused, is catalogued at £4OOO. This is closely followed by the two-penny dark blue at £3400. These two stamps were printed in 1847, and through ji mistake were inscribed “post office” instead of “post paid.” This error was corrected in the following year. Several early United States provisionals—stamps issued by the various postmasters before regular stamps were issued to the post offices, in 1847—are catalogued at good prices. These include the provisional from Alexandria, Va., 1845, 5-cent bluish, on cover, £2400 j and the Bascawen, N.H., 1846, 5-cent, dull blue, on cover, £2OOO. Three other provisionals almost reach the same mark—the Alexandria, Va., 1845, 5-cent, buff, on cover, £1600; the Annapolis, Aid., 1846, 5-cent, red on white, envelope, £1400; the Alilbury, Alas., 1847, unused, 5-cent, bluish, £1500; and the New Haven, Conn., 1845, 5-cent, blue on buff, envelope, £I7OO. The “Alissionary” stamps of Hawaii printed in 1851, form another unique class. These stamps are type-set and printed on plenure paper. The twocent blue unused is catalogued at £3OOO and in used condition at £2400. The five-cent arid thirteen-cent (small type) of the same issue, unused, are catalogued at £I4OO each. Many stamps are catalogued at about £2OO, and a number of these are listed among the philatelic “classics.”