Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

How can I tell if this is the real deal or one of the reprints?

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Collecting predecimal Australian Used Blocks.

105% genuine .. the reprints are very crude.

I sold this 5/- above of the set of 3 recently.

It is not a Cinderella really but a genuine Local Post and covers are known of all designs.

When photobucket comes back up again, I will also show corner pairs of the other design I have in stock.

Without doubt the most attractive and superbly produced Cinderella issue in Australian history. In 1895 when this was printed, it even pre-dated the ground breaking bi-colour charity stamps from NSW. Mint very lightly hinged with original gum. Near all on the market are no gum as the original "sandy' gum granulates into sandy particles more or less in our hot climate.

This has been in the UK most of its life, hence still having original gum. And centering on most is APPALLING! In 1895 James Healy used camels on some of his more distant private local post mail runs, previously covered by cyclists. (I have matched original corner pairs of the 1894 1/- and 2/6d Healy Cycle Post stamps for sale - photo posted soon!)

The "Australian Philatelist" records 1,000 of these 5/- Camels were printed. (The same number as the Lake Lefroy Cycle mail - retail of those is about $1,500-$2,000 each. The Tete-Beche pair of those I once owned recently sold for $A21,275 - http://www.glenstephens.com/snmarch05.html

Love the idea of a Cycle Express Company using camels

Not in the best condition but one of my favorite local posts

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Philatelists are not boring old F A R T S that smell of mothballs

Well that makes the set of 3 above - in 3 different hands.

Here is the other set I mention above -

Hello Glen et al: I also find this set very impressive. After the depression..eh..er recession...I hope to find a nice set of the camels. Very Aussie! And I remember just how hot and cold it can get out there in WA, what a job they must have had!
Are there any statistics on the printings of the blue bike stamps?
Love these!
Dave

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david b. potts

Glen,

Have you seen or had examples of the covers?

Tim

Folks,

Martin posted a very nice set of the three in the Favourite Australian Stamps thread.

Tim

It is a little known fact that Australia exports camels to Saudi Arabia. The Australian camels are disease free, having been brought to this country in the 1800s. They are a pest in Australia, like so many other imported animals.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Peter,

Having not long ago gone through central Australia in a four wheel drive I can attest to your comments. There are thousands of camels roaming around. I think there is talk of a program to reduce their numbers as they are pests.

Tim

Some background on these issues from my column:

http://www.glenstephens.com/snmarch05.html

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None of the stamps below are listed in Stanley Gibbons, Scott or ASC type catalogues and are thus often overlooked by local and most especially, overseas collectors.

I smiled to see a Charles Leski Auction catalogue late 2004 feature the unique 1897 6d Lake Lefroy Goldfields Cycle Mail tete-beche pair for his next auction.

I had bought and sold this item less than 20 years back - at about 10% of the current price.

The Leski Auction sold this pair illustrated nearby for $A21,275.



The buyer? Leading auctioneer Gary Watson from Prestige Philately in Melbourne. Watson purchased it on behalf of a European collector client and added a modest profit margin on top of the price he paid, when he passed it on to his buyer.

I have no idea what he was invoiced, but if we guess at around $A25,000 I am sure we are pretty close to the mark.

"My client had authorised me to bid a lot higher than $21,275" Watson told me today.

"In fact, had I not been acting on instructions for that client I would have gladly paid that or more myself, and included it along with the superb Dr. Cecil Walkley 'Western Australia' we are offering later this year at Auction" he concluded.

Ten fold increase

I purchased this same pair in the mid 1980s, and paid around 10% of what Watson's client just paid. I sold it then to a Napa Valley (California) USA collector who specialised in 'Bicycles On Stamps'.

The local magazines at the time recorded this sale as being the highest price ever obtained by a 'Local' stamp issued by either Australia or any of the Australian States.

The pair was not in terrific condition, being slightly toned, and way off centre, but was unique. It may even have had some paper thinning, I really do not recall now, but the paper quality was atrocious.

The tete-beche pair

It is roughly 'cancelled' in red pencil with the manuscript letters "H & M" ... denoting the owners of the service, Messers H. Lacy-Hillier and Frederic. E. Maskell.

The stamps were incredibly crudely printed, via a zinc block on almost coarse blotting paper by 'The Coolgardie Miner' newspaper office, and virtually all copies that I have sighted are horribly centred. It is estimated in the W.A. study group handbook that only about 20 examples exist worldwide, either mint or used.

They were in use for only about 3 months in early 1897 to carry mail by cycle to and from the new gold rush area of Lake Lefroy and Coolgardie. The Post Office had not yet commenced any service and the Cobb & Co coach was infrequent.

No covers are known although some used copies have the dated PO 'Coolgardie' CDS indicating they were once affixed to covers. Covers originating from the Lake to destinations outside Coolgardie needed to have applicable WA postage added, and doubtless some 6d 'Locals' got cancelled by Coolgardie PO in this process.

Post Office ban

An official letter dated June 1897 from Mr Scholl, the Chief Postmaster at Perth WA warned the owners these 'local' stamps were illegal by saying 'Postage 6d' and thus breached postal regulations. He threatened to prosecute the cycle mail service if they persisted. All goldfields area Post Offices prominently placed up posters warning the public of this new edict, and the usage ceased.

The unique tete-beche pair was discovered in 1972 laying hitherto unrecognised in an old collection in London, and was auctioned by Robson Lowe. It was purchased initially by one of Australia's most prominent philatelists, Mr John Gartner of Victoria.

John was well known to many on the Australian stamp scene, and published all the excellent Hawthorn Press series of detailed stamp monographs, as well as publishing the 'Australian Commonwealth Specialists' Catalogue' for a long time.

The Gartner's mansion in Mount Macedon was totally burnt to the ground in the horrific 1983 'Ash Wednesday' bushfires, and with it, his entire existing stamp collection. Some sections of which were International Gold Medal winners, most notable being his unsurpassed early Fiji collection. A tragic loss to philately.

To their credit John and Zelma rebuilt the house exactly as it had been, and as John once told me: 'we simply changed a few small features we never liked in the first house'.

And although a very elderly man at that time, John bravely ventured back into philately with a passion and started buying up Zanzibar and Zululand, as he argued he could then work BACKWARDS through the British Commonwealth alphabet if he lived long enough!

Gartner's mind boggling Western Australia collection was auctioned in April 1979 by Robson Lowe/Christies in Geneva, thankfully preceding the tragic bushfire, and contained one of the finest 4d 'Inverted Frames' to exist.

The Lake Lefroy tete-beche pair sold for 5,400 Swiss Francs plus 10% buyer premium on an estimate of 3,250 Swiss francs. At the time £1Stg was worth 3.52 Swiss francs, so this sold for about £1,687 at that time.

I do not recall exactly where I bought the pair, but do recall it cost me only about 10% of the recent sale price to Gary Watson's client. My client in California passed away and the tete-beche pair later ended up in the hands of well know British dealers Argyll Etkin Ltd.

The pair seems to have been in their stock for some time, and was finally consigned to the Leski Auction, where I believe it sold for a good deal more than their marked retail price!

A standing joke in the stamp world is that NO-ONE alive can afford to pay Eric's retail prices, and he has had the last laugh on this occasion.

So for those who eschew Locals and Cinderellas - think again. An AWFUL lot of glamour pieces from Australia have not increased in value 10 fold - or over $20,000 tax free, since 1985.

A challenge to someone might be to try and buy just 5 of the remaining single stamps - see how long THAT takes you. On average they sell for about $A1,000-A1,500 each, and in my view are an item with a LOT of upside potential. Used are scarcer than mint by my observation.

Having a swan as a strong central design feature makes them a sought after piece for serious 'Bird' thematic collectors, and there are VERY few issued 'Bird' items anywhere in the world from the 19th Century.

We like to be different down here.

Tim,

A Rod Perry catalog from the 70s showed some used examples.

Adding this nice pair to my Rarity Page this week.

1896 Coolgardie Cycle Express Company local Post WA Goldfields: Prices for these are soaring in recent years, with the vast prosperity over in WA, and the large number of new collectors globally for top end Goldfield related material.

These were produced for use on the rich Kalgoorlie Goldfields, and were used thus until the WA PO closed the service down. Reports a few years after their issue state 500 sets were printed, and of those, only 130 sets were unsold.

A rough condition and foxed used pair (shown above) was invoiced for $A2,530 on August 27, 2011 at auction - http://tinyurl.com/CoolGar - lot 222 Phoenix. A decade ago it would not have got 10% of that level.

These were crudely printed by Lithography on essentially coarse blotting paper by "The Coolgardie Miner" newspaper office. Near all I've seen are thinned/creased/toned, and with horrible perfs and centering.

These are clean and flat and fresh with deep colour. 2/6d has a nice ink blob flaw next to value. They come complete with the also scarce 1964 Reprint pair on the special postcard - photos of that above.

Loking on the web saw this sold at a Leski auction for $10,000 plus 16.5% = $11,650

Local Issues circa 1895 cover addressed to "Neil Smith, Esq., Norsemanton, Norseman", endorsed "Per Healy's Cyclist" & franked by Coolgardie Cycle Express 1/- blue adhesive tied by two line 'Per COOLGARDIE CYCLE EXPRESS CO. / HUNT STREET" h/s in purple.

A similar one got a slightly lower figure in same sale, being invoiced for just short of $10,000.

http://www.leski.com.au/catalogues/a256/COLONY.php

Hi All,

Does anyone have scans of the fakes of the 1/- and 2/6 bicycle stamps for comparison to the originals for everyone to check out? I tried searching for them in Stampboards, but couldn't see any scans of them....I ask since there were two listings on ebay recently that someone raised the question about, but I stupidly deleted the listing after it was over before I 'photobucketed' them - maybe someone has also been watching them and can scan in the pics from that listing (it only finished a couple of days ago).

The "fakes" might be soaked off reprints from the card above perhaps?

My background to the set I have in stock in below.




1896 Coolgardie Cycle Express Company “Local Post” WA Goldfields: Prices for these have truly soared in recent years, due to the vast prosperity over in WA, combined with the large number of new collectors globally for top end 19th Century “Goldfield” related material. (Or CYCLE related from the same era.) These were produced for use on the rich Kalgoorlie Goldfields, and were used thus, until the WA PO closed the service down.

Stamp Magazine reports a few years after their issue state 500 sets were printed, and of those, only 130 sets were unsold. A rough condition and foxed used pair was invoiced for $A2,530 on August 27, 2011 at auction - http://tinyurl.com/CoolGar - lot 222 Phoenix. A decade ago it would not have got 10% of that level.

These were crudely printed by Lithography, on essentially coarse blotting paper by “The Coolgardie Miner” newspaper office. Near all I’ve seen over the decades are thinned/creased/toned, and/or with horrible perfs and centering. These are clean and flat and fresh with deep colour, and have NO faults of any kind. Impossible to improve on for these. 2/6d has a nice ink blob flaw next to value.

This pair also comes complete with the also scarce and accurate 1964 Reprint perforated pair of these used on the special Goldfields postcard – near 60 years old itself – photos of both sides of that here - http://tinyurl.com/CoolGar2 - value $50 alone. If a rough used pair is now over $2,500 - in this quality, these are a gift
(Order as stock number 583RT)

Hi
Are these the real McCoy, reprints or forgeries?



Sorry, this is the best image I can get.

If real, would retail be correct at about $100?

Thanks for your feedback.
Memphre