“Error” stamps for sale

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 12

“Error” stamps for sale

(From Our Own Reporter) New Zealand stamps from the celebrated “errors” collection of the banker Edmund De Rothschild are expected to be keenly sought at an auction this month. Most are worth astronomically more than their weight in gold because of printing mistakes and it is anticipated that wallets will have to be opened to the tune of §5OOO for them to change hands. The albums of this member of the stamp-collecting

De Rothschild family took 20 years to fill and they are acknowledged as the finest accumulation of modern stamp errors in the world — even though they are of British and Commonwealth issues only of the reigns of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth 11. The top New Zealand attraction is a strip of three 1959 Red Cross 3d plus Id stamps, with the cross missing from the dominating flag. The strip is in perfect mint condition and is likelv to bring a’ least $l3OO. Not too far behind should be a comer block of 10 1962 Telegraph 8d stamps virtual-

ly . devoid of perforations. This find, from the top right of a sheet, has a pre-sale price tag of more than $lOOO. The other outstanding item from New Zealand, again because of its lack of perforations, is a block of 16 1953 2d plus Id health stamps. Only six similar multiples exist. That raritv makes this little handful worth at least $650. The world-famed dealers Stanley Gibbons, who are conducting the sale on February 14, have been handling De Rothschild collections for nearly 100 years. This one they see as having an auction value of around $50,000. Treasures pushing the bidders to that figure will include a 1966 British birds stamp featuring a bird with no legs, a 1963 Pacific cable stamp with no cable, a 1964 Shakespeare Festival scene with only half of Puck and Bottom appearing, and a Canadian 1959 St Lawrence Seaway stamp with the centre inverted.

History of tiki Mrs M. Nihoniho, elaborating on the history of the 400-year-old tiki, a photograph of which appeared in “The Press” yesterday, said the tiki was given to the Ngati Porou people by the Ngaitahu people to'commemorate the death of Chief Mahutaiterangi, a chief of the East Coast tribe.