In a few recent columns I have outlined the huge prices that some of the CTO Australia stamps have been achieving at public auction, and that trend continues strongly.

In the past I have mostly highlighted Kangaroos, so this month I’ll take a look at a couple of interesting KGV heads realisations.

The December Phoenix Auction in Melbourne saw this pair of 4d Violet KGV being invoiced for about $600, with the “Queensland” CTO cancel.

Retail price as a pair, with any other cancel would be about $20!  Indeed if torn in 2 singles, I doubt anyone would take a second glance at either. 

Another mind-blowing price was the $2,000+ invoice for a used block of 4d Oranges, also with the Brisbane cancel. Nearly treble the $725 estimate, and many I am sure thought THAT was very high!

There are no varieties on this block, no inverted watermark, no scarce shade, no other magic ingredients except the cancel. If this was in a dealer box in the UK or the USA it would be marked at $10-$20 retail.

1915, SG 22, they are cat £2½ each used, so £10 for 4, and with this poor centering I am SURE you’d not see them priced much above $A10 from overseas dealers or circuit books.   

"Knowledge Is Power" applies here in spades, and those short sighted collectors and dealers who choose NOT to buy the latest catalogues, that list and price these things, are the ones that miss out, not the savvy ones.

Stampboards has had superb detailed discussion on these CTO’s - many 1000s of posts, and all of that info, with 1000s of pix is transcribed here - tinyurl.com/ozCTOs

I sold a set of 1913 Roos to 1/- this week for many $1000s, each with a very rare CTO cancel type on them,  that unless you read that thread, you’d not know ever existed.

The huge and iconic £5 Orange Queen Victoria stamp from 1882 is THE glamour items of any GB collection, and is missing from fully 99% of them.

Hence whenever one appears for sale, anywhere on the globe, there is always plenty of bidding, and prices are always strong.

For many years, a somewhat "cheaper" option to fill the space, was to buy the same design stamp which had the words "TELEGRAPHS" across the top, and not the word "POSTAGE".

As with buying anything from online auctions, my favourite saying: "Knowledge Is Power" applies strongly here, moreso than most other areas.

Belgium online seller “Encorela” offered the £5 Orange “TELEGRAPH” stamp for 299 Euro plus post in December, and used the photo you see nearby in his “auction”.

This TELEGRAPH stamp is cat by SG at £2,800.  299 Euro is £230, so why ANYONE sane would imagine they’d be getting a genuine FU key top value stamp for 8% of SG, is something only online buyers can try and explain. 

A stampboards member bought it, and was not happy with it. You guessed it - despite the usual hollow “immediate refund if not happy” mantra of most online sellers, there was NO refund appearing!

He showed the image on stampboards, and I posted right away the entire thing was a crude modern Latvian fake, buyable anytime for 1 Euro or so, and to be honest can’t believe anyone could have imagined it was a genuine stamp.

Dealers do have a “nose” for many things collectors do not, and in my case 35 years of doing this develops a pretty good “sniff test” - but surely to others this screams “Crude Fake”?

It all comes down to HOW you get a refund in such cases, and this member was asking how to get Belgium Police involved. Good luck with that. “I bought this 125 year old English stamp, and yes I saw a photo, but ….”

On-line buying of stamp pieces for many $100s, especially from overseas, is fraught with dangers, as this and 1000s of other documented cases show.  But some collectors never learn from the big mistakes of others!

Unless the seller is a member of leading dealer trade bodies, you essentially have ZERO recourse to getting a refund.  tinyurl.com/ASDA-PTS is a current stampboards discussion of buying off REAL dealers online. 

Well worth a read, as you generally pay the same price level, BUT have an instant pathway to a refund if the dealer sells you an absurd $1 modern laser print fake like this for $A430, and will not refund your money.

The online auctions have long pocketed their ~$A40 fee, and clearly are seldom in a hurry to lose that fee cold, and hand it back, or intervene.  A Dealer Trade Organisation would DEMAND that seller refund you - IF he were a member.  

Stampboards.com is a great free resource to ask questions FIRST, when thinking of buying such an item for many $100s, to get a range of useful input from lots of experienced eyes globally.

Had this chap asked FIRST, and shown the photo, before hitting “BUY”, he’d have read my and other’s summation that the entire rag was a laughable laser printed fake, and saved himself $A430.

“County” is UK based Dr. John Horsey, owner of County Auctions, who was inspired after his medal win to record his collection for posterity in a large 312 page hard cover book in dust jacket, published by Stanley Gibbons, London.

That book "The £5 Orange" was recently awarded a Large Gold medal at Stampex, the National Stamp Exhibition in London. It is a superb read, and well worth chasing - County, SG, and larger dealers will have stock.

Being a huge stamp, finding top quality examples without faults has always been a tough call. Did you realise that virtually no POSTALLY used examples of this are believed to exist?

As chance has it, I had the author John Horsey visit me here when on a visit to Sydney, who had his 16 frame exhibit of the 1882 GB £5 Orange, that he showed me, and we got talking about them.

Horsey believes virtually all the existing "used" £5 GB Oranges in the global market were NOT postally used.

Even the 1899 "Registered Threadneedle Street" cancel one he has in his collection, that is illustrated on stampboards.

Which he believes was used for TELEGRAM bulk lodgements there, despite the "Registered" cancel which was used, as it was the closest one to the clerk.

He has checked and logged about 3,500 examples of the 7000 £5 he guesses exist globally, and he seen only seen a few £5 he is confident have done genuine postal service of any kind.

These few “maybes” are shown in the book. Fake and contrived ones exist, and are also shown in the book, and some are incredibly cleverly done. But were NOT postally used!

Lots of £5 Oranges exist with crisp neat single cancels, but oddly that is near always a sign of Telegram or Excise payment use.  A DOUBLE cds is often a guide to likely postal use in most cases. Long story - read the book.

Horsey advised me that about fully 15% of the £5 Oranges he has seen in his many decades long study, have Edinburgh, Glasgow or Belfast neat cds cancels.

These were it seems, used for the collection and payment of Excise Duty (nearly all whisky) paid by the many distilleries in those places.

As was the used block of 10 all used with neat “Glasgow” cancels. Illustrated nearby from his collection - excuse the fuzzy scan.

Don’t get me wrong - I’d love to have that block in stock, and it would easily sell for 5 figures, but I never knew such pretty things were non postally used only.

tinyurl.com/QV5PD contains masses more images, and much discussion on this interesting topic, many of them from “County” who owns the largest collection of this stamp!

The book, being written by a dealer, has an interesting slant, as all kinds of fakes and alterations, and “irregulars” are also shown - many that fooled the best in this business. Read on. 

The stamp illustrated nearby is a truly lovely looking example of a key stamp, I am sure you’ll agree.  Nicely centred, great colour and perfs, and attractive.

This 1882 GB £5 Orange stamp is cancelled with a neat "Registered - Threadneedle Street London" oval cancel of "24 - JA - 83".

This stamp has the usual large single lined Anchor watermarks on each side. SG 133. Cat £15,000 used.

Has a 1985 Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) clear photo Certificate of Genuiness saying - "SG 133 £5 Orange on blued paper, used, is genuine".

So a lovely looking stamp, cat £15,000 with a clear RPSL Certificate, should be worth about $A10,000 or more - correct?  Wrong - it is a FAKE!

These stamps overprinted “SPECIMEN” are listed by SG in mint, at a small fraction of a used copy.  Hence a faker carefully picking/scratching off those letters, and then adding a forged cancel, makes $1000s.

A normal mint SPECIMEN stamp is shown nearby, as well as this altered one held obliquely to the light, showing the removed letters clearly. How the RPSL missed this, is anyone’s guess.

All this and much more outlined in this superb book, from where all these photos are used, with kind permission of the author and Stanley Gibbons.

It simply reinforces my age old phrase: “Knowledge Is Power”.  The more you read and learn, the less chance you have of being conned with stamps. We ALL learn each day in this hobby. 

I ran a stampboards Poll on this one, and until the true answer was guessed at, the main guess (about 25%) was that the stamp had been “heavily re-perforated”. (The perfs are actually untouched!) All here: tinyurl.com/Orange5PD

How there is enough to write about, on one stamp, to run to 321 large A4 pages, one should really have to wonder, but this book is proof that it is possible, with enough study material available.

It covers the entire life of the £5. The inception as a “Telegraph” stamp, the conversion of the plate for the £5 Postage stamp, the methods and places of use, and an analysis of the scarcity of the cancellations, and “Specimen” overprint types etc.

It highlights numerous hitherto undocumented plate varieties based on an analysis of over 3,500 £5 oranges. Also included are the little-known “IR Officials”, the King Edward VII £5, the forgeries and related Cinderellas, as well as guidance for detecting regummed, re-perforated and repaired stamps.

And contains listings of all known cancels, with 100s of photos, and scarcity of each, and graphs and charts and dates etc - it is truly a detailed textbook on the £5 Orange stamp.

There was probably no more spectacular looking stamp issued anywhere, than the USA 1871 “Large Persian Rug” $500 Documentary Revenue issue.

The stamps are absolutely HUGE, and that, combined with the ornate design, gave them the “Persian Rug” nickname that has always stuck!

This lovely example was offered in January for Auction by Regency-Superior (USA), and oddly it did not get a bid. Possibly as the reserve of $US21,000 (plus all the nasty add-ons) was well above the Scott Catalogue value of $US17,500.

Given that US buyers often pay way over Scott for really top end grade of scarce pieces, I am rather surprised it did not find a new home. In 10 years’ time if anyone looks back on this article, I suspect they will say: “wish I had seen THAT one”! 

Only 210 were ever issued, and not many are known to exist today, the majority of which are faulty. Rich, bright color, nearly full original gum and light manuscript cancel of “R & I. C & I Co., April 1/72”.

This “Rug” is Ex-Weill, and has a 1989 PF Certificate and a 2014 PSE Certificate. $500 was the very highest face value of this series, and it is a very pretty piece to show here!

Luckily, stamp transactions and purchases do not often involve lawyers and courtrooms and affidavits etc, and long may that remain the case!

We had that nasty mess in latter 2014 where Prestige Auctions, Charles Leski/mossgreen, Sir Ronald Brierley, Richard Juzwin, John Mowbray - and about $250,000 of expensive Kangaroos, all got intertwined in a nasty family dispute that ended in the Supreme Court.

The top end Kangaroo stamps had been bought in a multi-million dollar buying spree by wealthy Melbourne collector, the late Julius Sterling.  An injunction was issued they NOT be auctioned, almost as they went under the hammer. 

The family members - Michael, Brian and Marilyn Kino were basically squabbling over who owned them, and doubtless as usual, the lawyers ended up getting more out of the mess, than anyone else did.  Sad to see. Full details here -  tinyurl.com/1Kino

A far larger dispute was unfolding in a Manhattan Court late 2014, regarding payment of about $US7½ million for British Guiana stamps, purchased from the John du Pont collection.

These stamps were auctioned by David Feldman in Switzerland in June. That was an amazing auction, and I listened to it live, and the bidding was manic.

The buyer of near all the lots was a totally unexpected visitor to the Auction room, an Arab Sheik - who died suddenly aged 48 in November … BEFORE the stamps were paid for!

Sheik Saud Al-Thani, a member of Qatar’s ruling family, had such a reputation as a high-end art collector, that Feldman’s departed from its protocol, agreeing to let him pay off the purchase in monthly instalments

That June auction followed only a week after the du Pont 1856 1¢ British Guiana Black on Magenta unique stamp was sold for over $A10 million by Sothebys New York, on June 17, 2014.

However the Sheik ended up re-negotiating the usual terms, handed Feldmans a down payment of 10% -  $US872,000, and failed to make any of the subsequent payments before his sudden death.

Feldman Auctions is suing the Sheik’s estate, as well as Sotheby’s Financial Services, which holds $US83 million worth of the Sheik’s valuables as collateral, for a nearly $US30 million loan. “Pawnbrokers to the Arabs”!

Recent vague Third Party reports are that there are quiet moves being made to straighten out his tangled finances, but it seems the Feldmann legal action is still in place as far as I can deduce.

Once widely regarded as the world's richest and most powerful art collector, Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al-Thani of Qatar served as the country's president of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage, from 1997 to 2005.

During his tenure, he spent well over $US1 Billion on art purchases during that period, more than any other individual globally, according to many art-market observers.

However he also had a documented history of buying things on his OWN account and not paying it seems!  He later got into legal hot water in Qatar and charged with misusing State funds.