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Aron R. Halberstam Philatelists, Ltd.

British Commonwealth Stamps

Aron R. Halberstam Philatelists, Ltd.

Aron R. Halberstam Philatelists, Ltd.

Buying and selling quality, pre-1960 British Commonwealth stamps.

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P.O. Box 150168
Van Brunt Station
Brooklyn, NY  11215-0168 USA

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Specimen Issues of Rare High Value Stamps

November 22, 2013 by Aron Halberstam Haberstam

Collectors occasionally have an opportunity to acquire extremely rare, expensive stamps by choosing an example with some fault (or worse), or a fiscal cancel. But this is always a difficult compromise.

Another option is to look for elusive but at times less expensive Specimen stamps. We recently acquired four early high value stamps with Specimen overprints, each offered at a fraction of the price for an un-overprinted mint copy.

K.U.T. 41c SG102 Specimen LH
K.U.T. 41c SG102 Specimen Lightly Hinged
Price: $1175
Catalog Value for un-overprinted mint example: £27,000
STRAITS173H14573[1]
Straits Settlements 173 SG412 Specimen Hinged
Price: $1095
Catalog Value for un-overprinted example: £8000
Straits Settlements 203 SG240c Specimen NH
Straits Settlements 203 SG240c Specimen Never Hinged
Price: $1150 SOLD!
Catalog Value for un-overprinted example: £7500
Zululand 24 SG29 Specimen NH
Zululand 24 SG29 Specimen Never Hinged
Price: $695
Catalog Value for un-overprinted example: £5000

Specimen stamps such as these are highly collectible due to their scarcity and value. The Specimen overprint was used to mark sample copies of issues that were sent to local postal authorities for reference, rather than for postal use. Condition for Specimens can be dreadful, as they were sent out to various Colonial outposts, but these gems are an exception.

Each value in a given issue has the same number of Specimen examples,  around 400 for the King George V issues. The printing figure is the same regardless of the scarcity of the underlying stamp.

This makes every Specimen stamp equally scarce, and often prices for Specimen copies of lower values fetch higher prices than more common un-overprinted copies.  The situation is reversed for very scarce high value stamps such as those pictured above.

These stamps are an excellent way to acquire a rarity otherwise out of the price range of most collectors.

 

Filed Under: Philatelic Files, Seller's Files, Uncategorized

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