P O S T A L A U C T I O N S Lot 3063 PTPO 2d Violet Die 1 - 1 copy only recorded by Stieg Postal Auction No. 70 World Stamps, Postal History & Postal Stationery Plus Specialised Australian Postmarks closing 10:00am Saturday, 23rd June 2007 www.premierpostal.com email: [email protected] Phone: 03 5968 3499 Int: +613 5968 3499 Fax: 03 5968 6981 Int: +613 5968 6981 PO Box 91, Belgrave, Victoria 3160, Australia Page 2 Auction 70 - 10:00am Saturday 23rd June 2007 PPA Preamble Welcome to our next Auction, with over 6,700 lots this is the largest auction we have ever held. Our Australia and Australian Colonies/States collectors will be pleased to see further strong selections of stamps, varieties, postal history and postmarks. The interests in our registration label selections has been strong and we are pleased to be able to continue to offer more. Our non- Australian collectors have not been left out as there are over 2500 lots of world material as well. So, as we often say, there will be something interest for just about everyone in this auction. In June we have taken stand 7 at the Sydney Stamp Expo 2007. The show is being held at The Shannon Room, Royal Randwick Racecourse, Alison Road, Randwick. If you are attending the show we would be pleased to see you. We will have virtually all the lots for this auction available for viewing as well as as many 1000s of items available for sale at the show. The opening hours are: 15th June Friday 10am - 6pm 16th June Saturday 10am - 5pm 17th June Sunday 10am - 4pm For more information about the show visit there website at http://www.sydney2007.stamparena.com We pride ourselves on the level of service we provide to our clients and the innovations we introduce to improve this service. As part of our on-going improvements we have developed a free presentation titled How To Get The Most From Our Website. The first one will be conducted on Saturday, 16th June at the Sydney Stamp Expo. This presentation will be held on the mezzanine floor from 5-6pm, immediately after the show closes for the day. This will give you the opportunity to understand the many features on our website and how to use them to your advantage. Points covered in this presentation will include: - All the menus and pages and what each of the fields do - How Collecting Interests can make checking the catalogue more efficient - How to search for lots which contain specific words, or combinations of words - Image Galleries - How to use the website Bidsheet - How to view the auction in real-time - What information is available in the Invoice Register - What information is available in the Mail Register - How to use the Post Office reference tools, including how to search for an office when you only have part of the name - What other reference tools are available If you would like to attend this presentation simply be on the mezzanine floor at 5pm. However, for planning purposes only, it would help if you let us know before-hand if you expect to attend. We endeavour to improve our website, in some fashion, every auction, and this one is no exception. We have introduced 2 new changes on our website bidsheet. 1. There is now the ability to add a new bid on the bidsheet. Previously this could only be done by going back to the catalogue and finding the lot and then bidding from the catalogue pages. Now, if you know the lot number, you can just add your bid on the bidsheet page itself. 2. There is a new ‘+5%’ button beside each lot on the bidsheet. Pressing this button will automatically increase your bid, on the selected lot, to 5% above the current starting price. Remember we are always happy to help with any of your questions David, Debbie, Freedom & Lida Auction 70 - 10:00am Saturday 23rd June 2007 Page 3 HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM OUR CATALOGUE [These notes are offered as a guide to understanding the information given as symbols.] 1. Firstly, we have the lot number. If it is in bold and underlined, the item is illustrated: e.g. 1234. (The actual location of the illustration is given at the end of the description: e.g. {Page 41.37} is position 37 on page 41.) 2. The second column contains a symbol, which represents the item(s) in the lot: ** Mint, unmounted o.g. * Mint, mounted o.g. W Unused, no gum D Piece (“Postmarks” lots) C Cover or card (“Postmarks” lots) A Albums and accessories L Literature P Proof S Stamp (“Postmarks” lots) or, in the case of used stamps, covers & Postal Stationery a grading of the cancellation: V Neat postmark, leaving most of the stamp design clear F Neat postmark, across at least half of the stamp design GUntidy or indistinct postmark H Heavy or poorly struck postmark 3. The third column gives an overall quality assessment for the lot, from ‘A’ to ‘D’. The same standard applies to mint and used stamps, to covers, postal stationery, literature etc. An item graded ‘A’ is very fine; it has no faults. ‘B’ items are fine and may have minor imperfections. A ‘C’ item will exhibit obvious faults. Items in poor condition are rated ‘D’. Occasionally, an item in truly superb condition will be rated ‘A+’. This grading is used sparingly and is not applied to modern material, which one would normally expect to be in very fine to superb condition. An otherwise very fine item which has a subsidiary problem may be allocated an ‘A-’. This may be a stamp with writing or a hinge remainder on the reverse. A cover may have a receiver’s endorsement on the face. The halves of a letter card may be stuck together. A book may have a previous owner’s notations. Whether this factor makes the item an ‘A-’ or ‘B’ is a matter of degree. 4. The fourth column is relevant to perforated stamps, and also to lots listed under the sub-heading ‘Postmarks’. For perforated stamps, this column gives a grading for both centring and perforations. The letter ‘A’ to ‘D’ relates to centring. ‘A’ stamps are very well centred; ‘B’ stamps are slightly off-centre; ‘C’ stamps are significantly off-centre, and may have the perforations slightly into the design; ‘D’ stamps are badly off-centre, with the perforations well into the design. [NB: These gradings are the same for all perforated issues, whether Australian Decimals, De La Rue Colonial keyplates or 19th Century American issues. However, it should be understood that for many issues poor centring is the norm. Thus ‘C’, and even ‘D’, gradings should be expected and accepted. For such issues a ‘B’ stamp will be above-average and an ‘A’ stamp will be considered an exceptional copy.] Following the letter ‘A’ to ‘D’ is a number ‘1’ to ‘4’. A stamp with all perforations intact is ‘1’. One or two short perfs, or normal rough perforations, will drop the grading to ‘2’. More notable perforation problems such as the perfs down one side being trimmed will result in a ‘3’ grading. A stamp with major perforation faults will be a ‘4’. [NB: A stamp graded ‘A1’ is well-centred with all perforations intact. In many cases, particularly with modern issues, this is the norm. However, for many issues, ‘B2’ or even ‘C3’ may be normal and quite acceptable.] For lots listed under the sub-headings “Postmarks” and “Ship/Paquebot Markings”, this column gives a grading for quality of the strike, and completeness. Quality is graded from ‘A’ (very fine) to ‘D’ (poor). Completeness is graded from ‘1’ (complete) to ‘5’ (identifiable only). ‘+’ is used for superb strikes; ‘-’ is used for postmarks which are lightly struck, a little doubled, or otherwise a bit short of the mark. 5. The 5th column contains the general description of the of the lot and should be self-evident, however the following notes apply specifically to postmark description. Whenever possible postmarks will be described in full, except that the top portion of a postmark is only spelt out when it differs from the post office name or requires some clarification. Bracketed shaded text within a description indicates that these characters cannot be read, while greyed characters are hard to read or are only partly present, as is the case when part of the postmark is on the edge of a stamp. Very large or small letters are represented by large and small fonts respectively; small fonts are particularly used to indicate the presence of small nylon wheels in the datestamp. The following example illustrates these points: '[POST] OFFICE/21DE86/GARAH'. For postmark lots the condition of the postmark is the most important aspect of our descriptions. Minor defects in the stamp or cover are mentioned only when the value of the item is significant. Naturally, major defects will always be described. 6. The symbols in the second, third and fourth columns, and the illustrations of lots, form part of the lot description. 7. Figures in the right-hand column are our estimate of value. You may bid at, above or below estimate. The reserve price for almost every lot is 80% of estimate (rounded to the nearest bidding step). Bids below this level will not be considered. Lots with an estimate of $3 or less have no reserve. 8. Australian residents will have GST added to the hammer price of all lots. 9. We use the following standardised abbreviations: o.g.