I’d call it a dead heat tie for price with the £2 inverted overprint that the late Simon Dunkerley bid on at Gray, shown nearby, but both prices are amazing!

Reason for the high price on this 10/-?  The “S” and “C” of Specimen are slightly deformed, making it the scarce type “C1” overprint.

Prestige had a rant in sale cat - and I agree with it, that these variants have been given pretty bizarre ACSC designations, and are badly in need of revision.

All the “variants” are truly minor, and it may seem odd to many that a rather ugly stamp - otherwise worth $100 or so, gets near $20,000 due to that … collectors at work!

One of the pieces is illustrated nearby, a strip of 6 of the 1970 6c Flower coil.  Along with several other nice pieces he bought, it recently got a clear RPSV Certificate.

The vendor was happy that it got above estimate, so WIN-WIN all around, and hope the pre-publicity in my column flushed out a bidder or three!

I have a number of Australian major missing colours from the same era on my Rarity Page now, that are in the ‘5 copies known’ region, for just $2,000 or so each.

This area, compared to Kangaroo errors and imprints and monograms is wildly under-rated I’d say.

A Kangaroo piece of only 5 units known is WAY into 5 figures as a starting point.

Once again the ACSC Decimals volumes all being TEN years old now, make setting a fair price on scarce Decimal pieces a total lottery - for either buyer or seller.

Extremely damaging and de-stabilising for the hobby, and let us hope the New Year sees some common sense prevail in this area. 

It is sad to see large Philatelic Bureaus prostituting themselves by selling things that look like stamps, but are simply non-postal jam labels.

Hungary issued the garish jam label shown nearby in 2009, to commemorate that very mixed-up musical performer Michael Jackson.

The label was made to resemble a stamp miniature sheet, and had the Hungary Post logo on it, and was and still is, offered on their website for about $US45 – for 10,000 Forint to be precise.

Why on earth these things do not just get issued with a 10,000 Forint face value beats me.  They would get in catalogues then, and thus sell far more copies.

The passing of Steve Jobs at age 56 – the co-founder, and widely acclaimed brains behind the Apple Computer empire, was likewise just “commemorated” by Hungary.

On December 1, Magyar Posta issued the perforated “Souvenir Sheet” shown nearby, in a little folder.

No sign of an Apple logo anywhere on it that I could see – probably mindful of getting sued.  Apple attorneys are globally feared.

That little confection sold for a mere 1,000 Forint – about $US4.50.  Why Jobs is worth only 10% of the Jackson Jam Label I am not sure. 

5,000 were made, and even if all sell, to lose all your philatelic credibility for just $22,500 seems a very low price to put on it.

I was taken by the strong resemblance of Jobs in that image to the Indian legend – Mahatma Gandhi – what do readers think?

A lot of readers own or handle or encounter the common letter rate Australian States material from the 1890s -1910 era, that are very common.

These usually have a value of a few cents each used.  Indeed they are often still sold for peanuts as “bundleware”.

However many of them have town or numeral postmarks on them, that make them worth many times more than a FU £1 high value from the same State!

I have noticed a few selling recently for terrific prices, and I record them here for the possible interest/profit of others.

This Victoria “1432” cancel shown nearby was invoiced in late November for over $2,000 on an estimate of $300 by Phoenix Auctions in Melbourne.

Numeral “1432” was allocated to Glenmaggie, and later renamed Dawson.  A very nice find by someone!

At the same November Phoenix sale, someone ran up an invoice for more than $A1,500 for this well struck scarce cancel illustrated here -  “276” of  Freshwater Creek.

It also had a pre-sale estimate of $300 ... so again got very keen interest from those with far sharper eyes and deeper pockets than mine.

Please excuse the rather garish scans of both – best the Auction could supply me with.

Big prices.  Both of them got FAR more than a superb MUH 1932 5/- Sydney Harbour Bridge stamp would sell for – yet probably cost the owner zero.

The superb 420 page Freeman/White “Cancels of Victoria” hardbound volume is where one finds out WHAT numerals are scarce.

I have sold literally scores of these books in the past year or two – tinyurl.com/cdsVict -  and just one find like these, will of course re-pay the book’s cost FIFTEEEN times over.

The superb feature of Freeman and White are the amazing number of clear real cancel photos of the many sub types of each numeral. And precise date ranges recorded.

Both an understandable major weakness of Purves and the earlier pioneer works.

These two cancels are illustrated therein, so clearly there are others recorded.

The handbook also covers and rates all the “Butterfly” and “Barred Oval” earlier numeral cancels, and illustrates near all of them with actual photos.

I was chatting to Hugh Freeman at the recent Northern Beaches Stamp Expo, and he tells me he is in the midst of selling his ICELAND cancels and getting huge prices!

The mind boggles at how someone in Sydney amasses such material, but that is the global nature of our hobby.

A little birdie tells me much progress has been made on a detailed NEW SOUTH WALES cancel handbook, so fingers crossed for more news on that.  

Ditto for the just as useful recent Bernie Manning “Queensland” cancels tomes – where he even rates those cancels on KGV heads and Kangaroos - compared to QV Chalon heads. 

See past magazines for my detailed reviews of those two books.

My Mantra has always been “Knowledge Is Power” and I think I’ve sold more of BOTH those books than any other dealer globally, as I actively urge clients - whether dealer or collectors, to have BOTH of these essential books in their libraries.

The cancels of Tasmania also fetch super prices quite often. The early numeral series have a strong following.  The circa 1900 town cancels on “Pictorials” also are very keenly sought.

Members of Stampboards.com have tediously transcribed the lists of numbers against towns, but there is absolutely no substitute for having the printed reference books on hand.

A Prestige Auction of June last year had a rather watery looking “NEW RIVER” town cancel on a common 2d violet, that was invoiced at over $1,100. 

Another copy had previously sold at another auction for over $1,200, so clearly a sought after strike.

I love the cds cancels on Tasmania Pictorials, and started a sideline collection of them 30 years back.

Scarcer ones turn up all the time in kid’s albums and junk lots, if you remember the towns for the more elusive ones, which very luckily I do – mostly! 

There are quite a few different $500+ town cancels from Tasmania, and the pictorial stamps being so large really can show them off wonderfully.

Many of them only cost a dollar or so each, and offer a great new challenge to take on!

Subscribers will know that the front cover of the “November” Magazine depicted the superb new South Georgia stamp set 8 featuring explorer Frank Wild.

The 2 pages of text relating to that was removed, just as the magazine went to press, to allow the 2 page Obituary to dealer Dianne Cooper to make the magazine. 

The text and photos relating to the stamp issue appeared on pages 6 of 7 of last month’s “December” Magazine.

The Managing Director or Pobjoy Mint in the UK - who design the stamp issues for Falklands, South Georgia and many others is an old friend, and arranged some unique promotion for “Stamp News” on the island.