Auctions: Scott Listed 1898 Documentary Provisionals: Rarity + Poor Condition = Low Sale Prices

The early October Siegel sale of the Dr. Alexander Schauss collection of United States Revenues included examples of the R150s documentary provisionals:  R156, R157, R158 and R158A.  All the stamps were flawed in some way, with a major visible crease on R156 among other flaws like damaged perfs and thins on the other stamps.  As such, one would expect discounts for these stamps in the final sale price relative to the Scott values and the spate over the last few years of sales of this material.  But given the rarity of these stamps, I figured the final prices would be much more robust than the ultimate results. 

R156 with heavy crease run horizontally across the stamp

Scott Value:  $5,750

Sold for: $850

R156 sold for nearly 1/7 of its Scott value, an incredible discount for even a very flawed copy of this rare stamp.

As for the other provisionals, values and sale prices went as follows:

R157:  Scott $4,500; sale $1,100

R158:  Scott $6,750; sale $3,750

R158A:  Scott $12,500; sale $5,250

I won't speculate as to whether there is a trend here.  Visit the StampAuctionNetwork page with these stamps by clicking here. 

Porto Rico Overprint Specimen Set: Regency Superior Sale 93, June 9 & 10

Puero Rico RS9 $50 Excise Tax Stamp

"Specimen" handstamped

This stamp is part of the Puerto Rico revenue excise issue RS1-9.  The set is possibly unique as each stamp displays a "Specimen" handstamp.   The lot was listed by Regency Superior at a value of $1500 but was reported to have sold for $1050.

Auctions: Ebay 5c Proprietary Multiple with Plate Block

RB31p margin block of 20 with plate block

Currently for auction on Ebay.

A seller with the handle rmtconsulting and a history of only 10 sales has listed this block on Ebay with a starting bid of $1200 and a buy-it-now price of $1320.

Most of the stamps are badly off center and it appears as if there is a substantial crease running through the perfs on what would be the upper third of the plate block of six.  Scott places a value of $1500 on the plate block.

The auction closes on April 27.

Auctions: Johnson & Johnson Private Die Full Sheet

This full sheet of 200 of the Johnson & Johnson private die stamp is currently up for auction on Ebay.  The opening price is $94.99.  You can view an earlier 2009 post with a close up of this stamp here. 

Auctions: Stamped Paper RN X Sample Book Material

A current eBay auction for the item above has a starting bid price of $675.  Bob Hohertz discussed these rather bizarre samples of 1898 printed cancel material in this post from June last year.  He will provide an update to this information in a post on this site tomorrow.  Check this site on Sunday for more.

Caveat Emptor Redux

R163 Block of 4 currently for sale on eBay.

Labeled by Katz as imperf; clear roulettes are shown on the sides of the block

Back in August Stuart Katz also posted this block on eBay, at that time for $450.  His starting price now is $340.  I ran a post at that time on this block that you can find here.  As before the block is mislisted.  This part-rouletted block, worth less than $20, is stil being labeled by Mr. Katz as imperforate, which it is not.  If it was in fact imperf, or more accurately with no roulettes, its value would be +$1000. 

Caveat Emptor!

Auctions: RS303r Piso Company Private Die Full Sheet

A full sheet of Piso Company 5/8 cent private die stamps is currently up for auction on Ebay.  The opening bid price is $159.99.  By the description, and from the rather poor photo of the item, there clearly is some damage to this large sheet, though the sheet is intact and complete.

Bob Hohertz has a page on this company and this stamp at his website.  He provides an explanation for the apparently missing stamp at the lower right corner of the sheet. 

Ebay Listing: RB31p 5 Cent Proprietary Plate Block

Above and below:

For sale:  Ebay listed 5 cent proprietary hyphen hole plate block. 

Starting bid:  $1,295

Buy it now:  $2,795

Unlisted by Scott 3 years ago, the battleship plate blocks now have a place in the specialized catalog.  No blocks are cheap; some are quite expensive and scarce.  The copy above currently being sold by Steve Wittig on Ebay is an example of the expensive and scarce.  He has set a starting bid over a thousand, and a buy it now for close to three thousand. 

When the listing for this block first appeared in the 2010 specialized catalog, there was only a dash where a price should have been.  Now in the 2012 catalog, instead of a dash, there is a price of $1750, though the price is in italics, indicating a lack of robust market information.  What happened in the intervening 2 years?  In April 2010, Siegel sold a plate block of 12 of this stamp for $1900.  And sometime over the past 2 years a copy of this block for sale at Eric Jackson's website listed for $1500 was removed from his site.  It must have had a buyer.

So there is some demand for these blocks out there, though I doubt we are quite ready to have anybody willing to pay the buy it now price on the Ebay lot above.  Two years ago I wrote a full post on proprietary hyphen hole plate block values. Perhaps it is time to do it again. 

Auctions: 40 Cent Documentary Used Block of 12 at Spinks Shreves Galleries November 18 - 19, 2011 Sale

4X3 Multiple of R170

Lot #261 in the November 18-19 Spinks Shreves Galleries Auction

Est. $200-300

2011 Scott Catalogue value for a block of 4: $52.50

From the lot description: 

#R170, 40c Blue lilac, rouletted 5½, used block of twelve (4x3), cancelled with bright red Wilson & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. June 7, 1899 c.d.s.'s, some perf. separations and a few hinge reinforcements, very fine and attractive; this is the largest recorded multiple of #R170, the next largest being a strip of ten.

*****

The strip of 10 that Spink Shreves refers to can be found in the inventory list of The Curtis Collection.  A scan of that strip can also be found below.  The block of 12 offered in the sale is certainly rare, though I wonder if there are not larger blocks of this stamp out there somewhere.  I submitted a scan of a used block of six of R172p, the slot perfed 80 cent documentary, to The Curtis Collection, and it remains the largest multiple recorded.  I have to believe that there must be a larger multiple out there somewhere.

R170 strip of 10 referred to in the lot description.  This scan can be found at the website of The Curtis Collection.  The site reports this strip as ex-Joyce.  Like the block of 12, this strip was also cancelled by Wilson & Company of Pittsburgh.

WILSON & CO.

JUN

7

1899

PITTSBURG, PA.

Dave Thompson sent a scan of a R173 with a Wilson & Co. of Pittsburg cancel.  To date, I have yet to trace much on the firm of Wilson & Company in Pittsburgh.  Please send any infomartion you might have about this cancel and the company that made it to 1898revenues@gmail.com.

WILSON & CO.

OCT

23

1899

PITTSBURG, PA.*

*A note on the spelling of "Pittsburg".  For most of its history, including the present, the City of Pittsburgh was spelled with an "h" at the end.  A declaration by the United States Board of Geographic Names stated the spelling of the city should not have an "h" at the end, so from 1890 to 1911 the city was spelled "Pittsburg".  Hence the spelling on the R170 cancels above is correct.  The official spelling reclaimed the "h" in 1911 after citizen petitions. 

Auctions: Ebay 1898 Dollar Documentaries Lot

Screen capture after the October 20, 2011 close of an auction for hundreds of used 1898 dollar documentaries.  The lot sold for $331.

A couple of months ago I began to publish posts on a regular basis of handstamp cancelled 1898 dollar documentaries.  These stamps have never attracted much attention.  Try asking for dealer stock at stamp shows of these stamps.  Dealers normally don't haul them around because of their relatively low value and the low demand that surrounds them. 

But something odd happened about a week ago on eBay.  A lot of these stamps, albeit a big one, just sold for more than $300.  The retail value of these stamps hardly reached the $300 final price, yet there was clearly a bidding competition for this lot between at least two buyers.  Why are these stamps hot?   I certainly could use a number of them to complement my existing work on the site.  Dave Thompson has been very helpful with his contributions of scans, but the balance of most of the material going up comes from my collection.

A large number of the stamps were used by the New York brokers Strong, Sturgis, but there is also a variety of other New York broker cancels. 

Here are a few close-ups of the lot:

The stamps above represent the following New York brokers: 

Kissam, Whitney, & Company
J. J. Manning
Wasserman Brothers
Charles Minzesheimer & Company

Maybe this site will get a shot at studying these cancels.  Who is the buyer of this lot?

Auctions: Scarsdale Collection Part 6, November 3, 2011, Robert Siegel Galleries

The 1898 revenue series consists of a small group of stamps compared to those in use for the civil war.  Yet the series has given revenue collectors some of the field's greatest rarities.  Siegel is conducting part 6 of its sale of the Scarsdale collection, and this sale contains the prime Scott listed rarities of the 1898 series, including the gem, R158B, the Daprix overprint on the 1c Trans-Mississippi postage stamp. 

Scott R158b

I. R.

P. I. D. & Son.

Lot 100 from current Siegel Sale 1015:  Listed for $35,000

In Siegel Sale 915 of Henry Tolman's material a copy of R158b sold for $35,000.

In the more recent Siegel 977 Whitpain sale of a more faulty R158b, the lot sold for $15,500.

From Siegel:  FINE APPEARANCE. ONE OF THREE RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE ONE-CENT TRANS-MISSISSIPPI ISSUE WITH THE "I.R./P.I.D. & SON" PROVISIONAL OVERPRINT. ONLY TWO OF THE THREE ARE UNUSED, AND THIS IS THE ONLY EXAMPLE TO RETAIN ANY OF ITS ORIGINAL GUM. ONE OF THE GREATEST RARITIES OF REVENUE COLLECTING.

Scott R158a

I. R.

L. H. C.

AUG 17 1898 handstamp

Listed for $11,500

from Siegel:  VERY FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE EXAMPLE OF THE ONE-CENT CHAPMAN OVERPRINT. ONLY SEVENTEEN COPIES ARE RECORDED IN TOTAL. ONE OF THE GREATEST REVENUE RARITIES.

According to Scott Catalogue, the 1c Trans-Mississippi was overprinted by the Purvis Printing Company with federal government approval. They were ordered by L. H. Chapman of the Chapman Steamboat Line, which operated freight-carrying steamboats along the Erie Canal. Only 250 stamps were produced, additionally, 250 were printed reading "I.R./P.I.D. & Son", for P.I. Daprix & Son, which served different ports along the same waterway.

Scott R156

Siegel Lot 96

Cancelled:

I. R.

handstamp

M. M. L.

I. C.

7/12/98

manusript

listed for $5,750

from Siegel:  A large quantity of 1c and 2c stamps were printed with an "I.R." overprint (Scott R153, R154, R155 and R155A). Additionally, small quantities were produced in the 8c, 10c and 15c denominations. These issues mark the first time that the United States had to resort to surcharging. According to Sloane's Column (Jul. 31, 1948), the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Co. handstamped copies of the 8c, 10c and 15c regular issues over a period of five days in July 1898. Sloane states these provisional revenues were brought to the philatelic market by J. E. Scott, a collector and employee of the company. J. E. Scott reported that the company used 41 copies of the 8c, 66 of the 10c and 28 of the 15c. The Scott Retail values support this relative mix of supply.

Scott R157

Siegel Lot 97

cancelled: 

I. R.

handstamp

M L

7/22

manuscript

listed for $4,500

Scott R158

Siegel Lot 98

cancelled:

I. R.

handstamp

M M

L I Co.

July 11/98

manuscript

listed for $6,750

Spectacular examples of less rare yet still scarce stamps are also up for auction in this sale:

Scott R180

Siegel Lot 102

listed for $1,600

Scott R181

Siegel Lot 103

Listed for $400

Scott R194

Siegel Lot 106

listed for $2,250

Auction Results: Sam Houston Philatelics Sale of Battleship Plate Number Singles

Sam Houston Philatelics has listed the results of its September 17 auction.  Posted on Stamp Auction Network, the auction included several lots of battleship plate number singles. 

I can't quite understand how they valued the lots.  At first I thought they were valued according to the value of the unused singles in the Scott Catalogue.  Yet many of the lots as described and priced don't even get close to the listed value.  

To no surprise, the singles sold across the board for less than their posted price.  Battleship plate number singles are relatively common, while plate blocks are scarce and some quite rare.  The sale results:

Lot 448  Collection of R163-R168 plate number singles (photo at top), 385 stamps, As claimed, Scott value for singles:  $3450, Lot listed for $1800, SOLD for $675.00.

Lot 449  33 1ct Documentary plate number singles. Listed for $245.00, SOLD for $115.00.

Lot 450  35 2ct Documentary plate number singles.  Listed for $265.00, SOLD for $100.00.

Lot 451  6 4ct Documentary plate number singles.  Listed for $250[!], SOLD for $80.00.  What catalog values six 4 cent battleships for $250?  I have yet to see the 2012 catalog.  Is there something I don't know? 

Lot 452  Six 5ct Documentary plate number singles.  Listed for $165 [!], SOLD for $30.00.

Lot 452  Eleven 10 cent Documentary plate number singles.  Listed for $320.  SOLD for $60.00.

Lot 461  Forty three RB20-25 plate number singles.  Listed for $500, SOLD for $310.00.  The photo above is from this lot.  The 3/8c is sulphurized and three of the stamps are off center. 

Seems to me we have two phenomena happening here:

• All the lots are hugely overvalued by the auction firm.
• The lots drew good prices, relative to their real value, not relative to Houston's valuation.

Again, battleship plate number singles are not scarce, though Sam Houston referred to the value of the scarce plate blocks as setting a potential value maximum for the plate singles.  I would have set the value of the plate singles at a small multiple of the singles prices in Scott.  Yet valuations based on this method were actually exceeded by the prices paid.  Though it does not appear so, these results were bullish for 1898 values.

Auctions: Perfume Bottle with 1 7/8 Cent Proprietary Battleship

A reader of this site conducting research on the stamp attached to the bottom of the bottle sold in the above eBay auction drew my attention to this item.  The bottle was listed under Antiques...Perfume Bottles and Collectibles...Decorative Glass.  The item was not listed under revenue stamps.

A 1 7/8 cent stamp, especially a hyphen-hole copy like this one, is quite scarce if not very rare on a bottle like this.  The stamp is not in the greatest shape, but this type of stamp on its original bottle shouldn't be dinged too much for being a bit ragged.

The 1 7/8 cent stamp indicates that the original retail price for this bottle (with the perfume inside!) was between 50 and 75 cents.  Does anybody know the maker and the brand of this perfume?

The reader of this site that drew my attention to this bottle and stamp specializes in old glass bottles like this.  She wrote that this type of bottle would likely not have been used as a commercial bottle for perfume.  The stamp tells us otherwise, but could something else be happening that we don't know about?  She thinks the bottle might have been made by Reidel, but could also be the product of Moser, Baccarat, or Harrach.

*****

Update September 24, 2011:  A perfume expert was consulted and the educated guess is that a perfume made by Lazell was sold in this bottle.  The same expert confirms that the stopper does not match the bottle, and was made in the 1920s for a Colgate product. 

Auctions: Sam Houston Philatelics September 17, 2011 Sale

Two 1898 lots from current Sam Houston Philatelics sale

Stamp Auction Network screen capture

You can view the documentary lots in this sale by clicking here to go to Stamp Auction Network.

Sam Houston Philatelics, which I associate with only selling duck stamps, has an upcoming auction that can be accessed through Stamp Auction Network.  A link is provided above.  The auction includes a bunch of lots of battleship plate number singles.  Proprietaries are included but there are several lots of documentary plate number singles.

As in many auction lot descriptions the lots are enthusiastically described.  The value of the plate number singles are associated with battleship plate block prices, at least narratively.  Of course, 1898 collectors know that plate number singles are relatively common while plate and imprint blocks of six are scarce and in some cases, quite rare. 

This is a good opportuntity, however, to acquire large quantities of these singles for the number and position collector.  Let's see how these lots sell at auction.  Thanks to Dave Thompson for calling my attention to these lots.

Auction Results: Spink Shreves Sale, August 19-20, 2011

1898 Proprietary lots from August 19-20 Sprink Shreves Sale

Stamp Auction Network screen capture

A couple of 1898 items were placed on sale at the recent Spink Shreve auction.  Interesting and bullish results for the two lots:

• An RB27p 2ct proprietary plate and imprint block of six sold for $210, within the estimated price range for the block.

• A collection of proprietary stamps including imperf between pairs of the 2 1/2c and 5c stamps sold for $450 when the estimated price was set from $200-300.

To view the actual auction results, click over to this page at Stamp Auction Network.

Buyer Beware!

Current R163 offering on Ebay

Coincidence?  Two days ago I browsed the APS sales website for the first time, and found an R163 pair listed as an imperforate, or more accurately, imrouletted pair, and with a catalog value of $500.  Lo and behold, today, Stuart Katz has put up a block of R163 and lists it as an imrouletted block, this time with a catalog value of $1000, and buy it now price of $450.

In both cases these are not imperforate or imrouletted stamps.  These are part-perforate or part-rouletted stamps, and only on the horizontal.  The vertical rouletting can be clearly seen in the scan above, for example.  I don't have a copy of the Scott Catalog with me right now, but pairs of part-rouletted R163 should be listed for $8.  Yes, eight, and not hundreds of dollars. 

To see a legitimate imrouletted or imperforate R163, see this post from over two years ago.  A survey of rouletting varieties on R163 can be found here.

Partially rouletted R163s are common, and I have seen many pairs and blocks.  The referenced imrouletted copy is the only one I have ever seen.

Stuart Katz's errant listing on Ebay can be found here.  The APS responded quickly to an email I sent and wrote they would take the listing down. 

Color Variation on R194, the $50 Green

R194, 2x, from Harmer Schau Sale 90, the APS StampShow Auction

Dave Thompson brings to our attention these copies of R194 listed in the current Harmer-Schau auction.  Two interesting things to note:

• The colors of the two stamps are strikingly different.  Why?
• The varnish square on the unused top stamp shows very clearly.

In the same auction is also an unused block of four of RB28 with a dramatic fold over printing freak.

Auctions, Ebay Lot: R155 Cancelled July 1, 1898

The G. C. M.

July

1

1898

NEW YORK

This stamp just sold on Ebay today for $36.  A great cancel on the first day of use, July 1, 1898.

Auctions: RN-X Paper Samples Booklet

The sample booklet referred to in the previous two posts just sold for $1600. 

What is in the Sample Books?

Concerning the sample book at auction in the Siegel Rarities of the World Sale, I asked Scott Trepel if he could scan a page or two for me if it wouldn't damage the book, but he replied that it was too fragile to do that. That's understandable.

If you want to see some cut-down samples from one of those books, read on.

A one-cent imprint on a wallpaper-like background.

One-cent imprint on dark blue, foil-surface paper.

Two-cent imprint on dark red foil-surface.

Two-cent imprint on red leather-like paper.

The one-cent imprints have one repeated plate flaw, and one that occurs on some copies, but not all. The chunk out at the top occurs on all that I have seen, while the dot in the numeral occurs on two, but not all.


The two-cent imprints also have a flaw at top, stray lines at bottom right of the rightmost small "2", and a large chunk of the bottom scroll missing on the bottom left side on three copies in my collection. However, the item below does not show any of these flaws. If it was not from one of the books, why would anyone print it on moire paper? Very elaborate printer's waste?

There are a number of questions concerning the imprints on clearly unsuitable paper. First, who created the books? The Bureau of Engraving and Printing certainly did not need to "sell" the designs to the selected security printers who printed them. Since there was so little time to come up with designs in the first place, it is difficult to believe that the books were prepared to convince government officials to adopt them - all the work in printing and preparing them would hardly have been necessary. Surely a sample on plain paper would have sufficed.

On the other hand, it is unlikely that the Bureau would have sent flawed dies to any one of the twenty-eight printers that were selected to apply imprints in the first year. Unless, and this is far fetched, the Bureau required each to print up something like this in order to get a contract - but again, there was so little time between passage of the revenue law and appearance of the first imprints - less than a month - that it is difficult to believe that the Bureau would have had time to do anything like this.

Somewhere I got the idea that there were two of these books in existence some years ago, plus at least one cut up. (I know one is cut up - I have chunks of it - and perhaps from two different ones?) Since some of the imprints seem to have flaws that others don't, do ones from different books show different flaws, and perhaps somewhat different papers? That's why I would love to have been able to see a page from this book. It might have cleared up this question, and given us a clue to just why these books exist (assuming more than one still does.)