Wednesday 17 November 2010

When Is A Stamp Not A 'Real' Stamp?

well two answers would be when it is produced as a commemorative/art stamp or a charity stamp, a third would be also as a trading stamp, buy something and redeem them for goods later, well I have been bidding for few of the first two, the one above a commemorative of the 1937 wedding, 4 lovely stamps just £1.20,
the second a sheetlet from a stamp exhibition, featuring a copy of Queen Victoria painted in 1838 by Chalon, this is a copy sheetlet printed in 1940 the original was printed by Perkins Bacon & Petch, as it was known in 1834, folliowing the death of Petch in 1887 it became known as Perkins Bacon & Co. Ltd. this document takes a bit of time to download but it is a great read, the sheetlet was £4.99, for a few more pictures of her portrait on early stamps have a look here, Perkins Bacon as it was then known went bankrupt in 1935, but they had a spectacular fall from grace in 1861, it cost them the printing contract for Great Britain, the Crown Colonies and other postal jurisdictions,
three more 1937 Coronation commemoratives, £2.50 for the 3 of them, some times these stamps are refereed to as 'Cinderellas', they seldom appear in stamp catalogues, but for me there are nice to collect, the artwork is superb and as they are not considered valuable they are getting rarer all of the time!
my last bid of the evening, if you read the label it is self explanatory, buy a stamp for a donation, I still think that for this beautifully engraved pair of stamps £2.99 is a bargain! by the way none of the above can be used to pay for mail charges, for me they are just nice to collect and look at.

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