hdm1950
Member 
Posts: 1,886 
What I collect: I collect world wide up to 1965 with several specialty albums added due to volume of material I have acquired. At this point I am focused on Canada and British America. I am always on the lookout for stamps and covers with postmarks from communities in Queens County, Nova Scotia. I do list various goods including stamps occasionally on eBay as hdm50
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Post by hdm1950 on Jul 31, 2024 22:02:48 GMT
Today's mail brought these two Hong Kong Queen Victoria stamps. I placed low ball bids because sadly the seller often struggles with proper identifying early classics. They were listed as a used Scott 17 .18 cent with a crown and CC watermark and a mint Scott 46 .12 cent with a crown and CA watermark. I have handled enough of early Hong Kong to know that the watermarks generally jump right out at you. My judgement is that both of these are from the first Queen Victoria set issued in 1862 without watermarks. If I am correct they are Scott 3 and 4. That would make me rather happy with the .12 cent stamp if it were in fact mint. The soiling makes me suspect that there may have been a revenue cancel. On the other hand the back is very clean and may have original glue. I am not about to lick it to find out..  .   |
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doug534
Member
A new enthusiast leaning to pre-1957 Aden, New Zealand, Switzerland, great designers & engravers
Posts: 164
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Post by doug534 on Aug 18, 2024 18:57:48 GMT
Today's mystery from my dad's philatelic materials stems from a shoebox stuffed with "Queens" (pictured below). Each envelope in the shoebox is labelled with an issuing entity. I'm just starting to examine the contents and pulled out a single envelope labelled "Hong Kong." It contained 16 glassine envelopes (including the 13 pictured below) containing the twelve 1954-1960 Queen Elizabeth II definitives that existed in 1957 (Scott #185-198, without #193 & 195 first issued in 1960). Three of the glassines were a mix of these same stamps. Some of the glassines have my dad's (1957) sales price noted on them. The mystery concerns the two separate glassines containing the $5 stamp (Sc. #197; green and violet, bottom right in the image). I'm not sure whether the "57a" written on one of the two glassines is a clue. The online Scott catalogue does not indicate there are any variations among any of these issues. Clearly the number of copies on some glassines does not match the contents, and I am unsure of what other numbers mean, save when the number matches the denomination value.   |
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hdm1950
Member
Posts: 1,886
What I collect: I collect world wide up to 1965 with several specialty albums added due to volume of material I have acquired. At this point I am focused on Canada and British America. I am always on the lookout for stamps and covers with postmarks from communities in Queens County, Nova Scotia. I do list various goods including stamps occasionally on eBay as hdm50
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Post by hdm1950 on Sept 22, 2024 23:00:01 GMT
Today's mystery from my dad's philatelic materials stems from a shoebox stuffed with "Queens" (pictured below). Each envelope in the shoebox is labelled with an issuing entity. I'm just starting to examine the contents and pulled out a single envelope labelled "Hong Kong." It contained 16 glassine envelopes (including the 13 pictured below) containing the twelve 1954-1960 Queen Elizabeth II definitives that existed in 1957 (Scott #185-198, without #193 & 195 first issued in 1960). Three of the glassines were a mix of these same stamps. Some of the glassines have my dad's (1957) sales price noted on them. The mystery concerns the two separate glassines containing the $5 stamp (Sc. #197; green and violet, bottom right in the image). I'm not sure whether the "57a" written on one of the two glassines is a clue. The online Scott catalogue does not indicate there are any variations among any of these issues. Clearly the number of copies on some glassines does not match the contents, and I am unsure of what other numbers mean, save when the number matches the denomination value. You had posted this while I was away doug534 so I did not reply. In regards the 2 envelopes of the Sc 197 $5.00 value I suspect your dad was doing what many of us do, use old envelopes we have laying around. That would explain the odd numbers. My older catalogue shows no noted varieties. It does look like there may be a block of 4 that is nice if it has a postal cancel. |
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