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Post by canadianphilatelist on Aug 30, 2013 2:26:21 GMT
Official stamps were created for government use and were never available to the public; therefore how is it possible that mint stamps made it into collectors' collections? The only way I can think of a mint official stamp being in someone's collection was if the stamp was stolen from the government office where it was intended to be used. As a result, I don't think it is right for catalogues to show a value for mint official stamps as this encourages trade in stolen goods.
Can anyone give me another alternative way that mint official stamps made it into collections aside from theft?
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alanl
Departed
Rest in Peace
Abbotsford, B.C., CANADA.
Posts: 1,670 
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Post by alanl on Aug 30, 2013 3:46:50 GMT
They were probably purchased from the P.O. philatelic department
in Ottawa.
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Ryan
Member 
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 2,721
What I collect: If I have a catalogue for it, I collect it. And I have many catalogues ....
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Post by Ryan on Aug 30, 2013 9:50:05 GMT
I dug out my old copy of Roy Wrigley's officials catalogue (3rd edition, "classifying and pricing 234 major varieties, 513 minor varieties"). It's a very slim volume with little accompanying text, but it includes the following quote from the Director of Financial Services, P.O. Dept.:
That explains why I have come across so few mint copies of 5-hole OHMS perforations. I have perhaps 3 denominations of the KGVI Mufti definitive in mint, and have never seen anything else. The Unitrade catalogue doesn't price mint copies of the 5-hole OHMS stamps because of their limited availability on the market. 4-hole OHMS perforations are relatively common, as are the overprinted officials. One interesting point in the catalogue is that physical size limitations on the 5-hole perforating machine required the selvedge to be torn off before perforating the stamps, so there are no plate blocks possible on the 5-hole stamps.
Because the 5-hole perforated stamps are so uncommon, there was / is a thriving market for faking the perforated stamps, and that extends to the 4-hole perforations and the overprinted officials as well. I have a copy of Kenneth Pugh's manual with the unwieldy title "Reference Manual of BNA Fakes, Forgeries & Counterfeits: Series II - Release 5, A photographic guide to the genuine and faked perforated and overprinted official stamps of Canada." Yeesh, what a mouthful. It goes to great detail in displaying genuine perforations, with scans up to 3200 dpi and reference photos for each of the 5 different 5-hole dies and the two sets of 10 different 4-hole dies (better check those Muftis for authenticity!). In his introduction to the manual, there is this fascinating info in which he makes reference to his Series I release:
Wrigley's final 10th edition of his catalogue was filled with listings for freakish errors, double perfins with one at a 90° angle to the other and so on. Pugh says that the fake producers took $1000 worth of mint stamps and perforated them, selling them to Wrigley for $25,000. The RCMP inventoried the collection at a catalogue value of $1 million.
Scandal and intrigue in Canadian philately! Worthy of S. Allan Taylor and Clive Feigenbaum.
Ryan
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Post by canadianphilatelist on Aug 30, 2013 15:44:58 GMT
Thanks for the insight and history lesson  |
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firstfrog2013
Member
Posts: 3,276
What I collect: BNA Liberia St Pierre U.S. Bolivia Turkey
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Post by firstfrog2013 on Aug 30, 2013 15:58:44 GMT
I too have scant number of five hole perfs.Before internet they were impossible to find at all.Sadly now they are pricey and I'm paying college loans.
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