FULL history of the unique 1856 1¢ British Guiana stamp

[Global Administrator]

I have no doubt this sharp pencil, used with cretin heavy pressure, has deeply indented the paper, so when a scan like the one above is taken in future, the egomanic "SW" initials will show through. Near certain.

EVERY member of this board, indeed EVERY stamp den on the planet, should have these 2 items shown above. No exceptions.

Cost - a few bucks the pair, anywhere on the planet.

A soft and dark 4B Staedtler. NOT the common supermarket HARD, and useless "HB" that your Grandchilden use for school projects, that indents covers forever and the backs of stamps. But a FOUR B as shown. Soft, dark, and readily eraseable. Writes perfectly and visibly on black Hagners and black stockbook pages and glassines etc.

**ONLY** buy Staedtler for BOTH. Do NOT do the usual short sighted stamp collector mentality thing, to save a measly buck, and get some unknown and untested No Name cr*p made in China.

Buy NO other brand I urge you .... always genuine German made Staedtler Mars Plastic erasers, and 4B Staedtler German made pencils. Anything else I tried created a mess in comparison, and damaged things.

Every art supply store on the planet stocks both, (or indeed Officeworks, Office Depot, Staples etc) or on eBay - a few bucks mailed to your door.

Essential for EVERY stamp den .. also perfect for erasing the prices and no longer needed notes, that generations of cretins have written on covers and album pages etc, and the backs and selvedge of stamps.

Glen

[Allanswood]

It looks like silver liquid ink to me, not a pencil.

And if I was signing it, I would not have used something that could be rubbed off - no one else did.

[Global Administrator]

It looks like silver liquid ink to me, not a pencil.

And if I was signing it, I would not have used something that could be rubbed off - no one else did.

Well if it is a silver pen (agree that is possible) he is a Grade A cretin. How does anyone know what leaching that might create over decades? Like cellotape - it looked fine to users AT THE TIME.

As to ''no others'' using pencil - about 50% of the signatures are thus -

From my ''Stamp News'' article these were the previous owner marks prior to this Weizman American vandal being let loose with his hard pencil on silver ink pen -

REVERSE of the unique 1856 British Guiana 1c Black on Magenta stamp

One of the more fascinating aspects of the British Guiana 1856 1¢ Magenta stamp is the reverse, which shows the personal owner marks of several of its famous owners including:

1. Two strikes of Count Philipp von Ferrary's famous "trefoil" owner's mark. One impression is very faint, at lower left. It sold for then $US32,500 in 1922
2. A large faint "H" of new owner, American Billionaire Arthur Hind at top - said to have burnt a second copy sold to him. "It is now STILL unique".
3. A small "FK" of Finbar Kenny, the manager at Macy's Stamp Department, who brokered the sale by Hind's widow to Fred Small for $US45,000 in 1940.
4. Large, ornate 17 pointed star of Anna Hind, placed OVER her 30 year older husband's "AH" cloverleaf, who had largely cut her out of his will.
5. A small discreet shooting star lower right, added by Australian born Gallipoli hero, Frederick Small, who owned it under total secrecy from 1940-1970.
6. A pencilled "IW" by Irwin Weinberg, head of a group of investors who bought it 1970 for $US280,000 at Sielgels, and later sold it to du Pont via Siegel Auction.
7. A large pencilled "J E d P", initials of the late John E. DuPont who bought it for $US935,000 in 1980, and died in prison. His heirs sold it in 2014.
8. Vandal scrawl added 2019 of "SW" and a vertical stiletto squiggle in pencil or metallic ink pen, by NY shoe seller, Stuart Weitzman who paid $US9.48m.

[chipg]

He used a soft pencil.

The conservator at the NPM did his best to minimize any damage.

C.

[capetriangle]

Well if it is a silver pen (agree that is possible) he is a Grade A cretin.

Now Glen, a cretin is someone merely with an endocrinological mental deficiency, our shoe peddler is perhaps merely a moron or an idiot.

Kindest regards

Richard

[capetriangle]

He used a soft pencil.
The conservator at the NPM did his best to minimize any damage.
C.

Chip, you mean someone got to witness this butchery.

Kindest regards

Richard

[Global Administrator]

The conservator at the NPM did his best to minimize any damage.

You mean they talked him out of the Red/White/Blue sharpie pens?

[fromdownunder]

He used a soft pencil.

The conservator at the NPM did his best to minimize any damage.

C.

That really makes the entire situation a whole lot worse, that somebody who should know better stood by and watched this butchery.

Norm

[pertinax]

[gavin-h]

A soft and dark 4B Staedtler. **ONLY** buy Staedtler for BOTH.

A word for British-made Derwent Cumberland pencils here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derwent_Cumberland_Pencil_Company

Every bit as good as the German Staedtler, Derwent Cumberland have over 100 years' history of making quality art pencils.

And, if stamp collecting is a bit racy for you, I'd recommend a morning relaxing at the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick.

Completely agree, though, that you need QUALITY pencils for any stamp-related work.

[MJ's pet]

The reverse is more visually appealing than the front tbh

And to think Sotheby's were unhappy with the price.
Richard

Cape Triangle - surely Sotheby's were not unhappy with the price? They managed to attract a cashed-up non-collector. Maybe they were unhappy that Bill Gross did not enter the fray. Hard to see another auctioneer getting more realistically.

[Rod Perry]

The reverse is more visually appealing than the front tbh

And to think Sotheby's were unhappy with the price.
Richard

Cape Triangle - surely Sotheby's were not unhappy with the price? They managed to attract a cashed-up non-collector. Maybe they were unhappy that Bill Gross did not enter the fray. Hard to see another auctioneer getting more realistically.

Perhaps Sotheby's were "unhappy" because the price realised fell short of a threshold whereby vendor commission escalated?

Rod

[Global Administrator]

Perhaps Sotheby's were "unhappy" because the price realised fell short of a threshold whereby vendor commission escalated?

Rod

Rod, no it was a FLAT 20% commission (plus taxes) for this sale -

On unnumbered page 7 of the actual catalogue - at the bottom-right corner of the page in a box - is the statement.

SPECIAL NOTICES AND REMINDERS FOR SALE NO9154

There is no online bidding for this auction.

The buyer's premium for this sale is 20% of the hammer price.

Richard Debney

One of the few stamps that looks a TON better in Mono than colour! And Sothebys should not have been paid 2% fee, much less 20% after the APPALLING scans they released.

Flat and boring with chunks of stamp hinge remains in the official media scan.

On April 17 The National Postal Museum in Washington was visited by David Redden, a vice president of Sotheby’s, who took along the 1¢ British Guiana for detailed analysis.

Redden was joined by respected stamp expert Robert Odenweller, of the museum's Council of Philatelists, a security officer, James Barron, a reporter from the New York Times, and a photographer from the paper.

The equipment used included the VSC6000, Leica Microscope, X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF) and the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscope (FT-IR).

VSC6000 is the Video Spectral Comparator 6000, which is a high resolution analyser, allowing for the removal of color to better see the stamp and its markings under high magnification.

The wonderfully clear image shown here is from that recent visit and the stamp design, detail and postmark all show wonderfully when in mono as you can see!

This is the best image that Sothebys have bothered to release!

[MJ's pet]

Has Sotheby's ever said they were "unhappy" with the price? Or was this heard on the grapevine?

The Buyer's Premium was a flat 20% as noted. At this price level, there is usually a special Vendor's Commission (which we are not privy to) which goes down as the hammer goes up.

While the hammer of US$9.5M was just below the printed Estimate, US$10M - $20M, at that level they did set a world record for a single stamp.

Is there any evidence that Sotheby's realistically expected US$20M, or anything approaching it?

The very wide estimate band suggests they were throwing it wide open. Their vendor was dead (the best kind of vendor 8) ) so Sotheby's only needed one reserve bid to say: mission accomplished.

[Rod Perry]

Perhaps Sotheby's were "unhappy" because the price realised fell short of a threshold whereby vendor commission escalated?

Rod

Rod, no it was a FLAT 20% commission (plus taxes) for this sale

Glen, Vendor commission, rather than Buyer's commission, is what I'm suggesting may have disappointed Sotheby's.

For example, there may have been no Vendor commission on a realisation of less than $10 million?

Such threshold arrangements are not unusual in the auction industry.

Rod

[Global Administrator]

The arrant brain-dead egotistical "SW" vandalism this Stuart Weitzman cretin just added to the back of a $A14 Million unique rarity is beyond belief -

Stuart Weitzman recently added this reckless and egomaniac vandal graffiti, on the left of the unique British Guiana 1856 1c Black on Magenta stamp.

I just wrote on it here - hope he sues me - Money certainly does not buy Wisdom Mr Weitzman.

https://glenstephens.com/snjanuary20.html

Glen


The new owner of the ~$A14 million British Guiana stamp decided recently to flamboyantly add his initials to the reverse of it. Nothing really unusual about that, as many past owners have done that just that - see photo nearby and index of those markings.

Current owner, Nu Yoiker, Stuart Weitzman does not collect stamps. But he does sell expensive women’s shoes. So his brainstorm was not just to initial the back of the stamp at far left with “SW”, but to add a large stylised woman’s Stiletto shoe under his SW initials. Brilliant stuff.

We are all but temporary custodians of any stamp we own, and this kind of dopey stuff is infuriating - to me anyway. Sure, he can slice it all into little pieces if he really wishes, but he is purely an investor who bought it for bragging rights to his buddies it seems, so cutting it up might harm his “investment.”

Anyway, what is done is done, and hopefully when Weitzman tires of it, someone with a bit more common sense will own it, and not repeat the same wanton madness.

[MJ's pet]

Looking for something else and found this.

An Australian identified as owning the 1c British Guiana in 1954 but not named. This was my favourite bit (what a bunch of dreamers ):

"At the first annual Australian Stamp Dealers' convention, held in Sydney recently, delegates planned to form a syndicate to raise "considerably more than £18,000" for the stamp.

But will the mysterious owner rise to the bait?".

Sunday Times (Perth), 28 November 1954, page 33

[fromdownunder]

The 1 cent Magenta has magically turned up on eBay "found in old auction house loft that we bought", and with the new owner having the same hand and glove as the person who held it up for photos back in 2014.

In fact it is the photo was from a six year old article in the Guardian (3 June 2014), which just shows that the seller and potential fraudster come convicted criminal has the native intelligence of a punctured balloon.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jun/02/british ... mp-auction

Opening bid is only GBP6,000.00 from mardonn15 (Maybole, United Kingdom)





https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Collectible-Stamp-British-Guiana ... 3385583538

Norm

[Global Administrator]

A ''Grade A'' Moron - even by ebay standards!

He keeps flogging it time and time again - can it be reported to ebay please folks in case an equally dopey Bunny actually ''buys'' and pays for it, which is the end game of course for this ebay crook mardonn15

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/mardonn15/m.html?item=3833855835 ... 6732.m1684

[faro]

A ''Grade A'' Moron - even by ebay standards!

He keeps flogging it time and time again - can it be reported to ebay please folks in case an equally dopey Bunny actually ''buys'' and pays for it, which is the end game of course for this ebay crook mardonn15

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/mardonn15/m.html?item=3833855835 ... 6732.m1684

"Stamp only non sticky" apparently.

[fromdownunder]

It seems to have gone bye-byes.

Norm

[Global Administrator]

Good to see ebay have deleted the lot.

Why they did not simply delete the account of this spiv beats me - only 11 feedbacks and selling something he clearly does not own.

Welcome to the wonders of ebay, and the den of cons and shonks and shysters that list with impunity.

[Allanswood]

I reported it yesterday and told ebay these were images of the actual stamp valued at $10,000,000

I'd imagine I wasn't alone in reporting it.

Makes it hard to explain though when you only have about 100(?) characters to use.