Without any doubt, the most famed and expensive plate variety or printing error from the entire South Pacific, is the Western Australia 1854 4d blue imperforate Swan, with “Inverted Frame”.

One example sold May 31 in Switzerland by Corinphila Auctions.  It was part of a large Australasian collection formed in the Swiss town of Besançon.  It was invoiced for 314,600 Swiss Francs, or near exactly $A425,000 at the time.  It had a few small faults, and the auction photo was poor, so I have not used it.

Only 14 genuine “Inverted Frame” examples are recorded, and exactly HALF of those or 7 copies, are in Museum or Royal or Institutional collections, and are thus not buyable by modern collectors, and never will be I am sure. 

A Hong Kong Doctor, Arthur Woo owns near all the others - I have seen them exhibited all on one page - and he may well have been the buyer of the example auctioned this month in Switzerland. The buyer has not yet been disclosed, and/or made himself known. Time will tell.

Of the 4d WA Swan Inverts it was accepted for decades that just fifteen examples existed - the Williams Brothers numbered them in Roman Numerals – “I” to “XV”, and the purists oddly prefer to keep that listing, despite some crude fakes being part of that list, and a genuine Inverted Frame not being included in it at all!

The very desirable damaged strip of 4 on piece, that was the “proving” evidence that the FRAME was inverted, and not the Swan, does not have a number on this list bizarrely, despite it being genuine, and MOST philatelically important.  A London dealer discovered it in 1937 in junk kiloware, and it was largely ignored by WA collectors ever since.

So that makes 16 copies that were generally accepted as being recorded.  Research this month on stampboards has conclusively shown that copies ‘’X’’ and ‘’XV’’ are both rather crudely forged.  So that leaves FOURTEEN copies that are now widely accepted as genuine.

Stampboards member Greg Allen “Allanswood” from Goulburn has invested a lot of time and graphic skills, and compiled a photo montage of EVERY copy in a handy visual table - along with much discussion here - tinyurl.com/FakeSwan 

The wide access to scans and image programs today, makes spotting and calling out fakes of such crude early stamps a cinch, just by looking at the large scans side by side. The small differences are thus surprisingly easy to spot on that basis.

All true Inverted Frames of course come from the same position in the sheet, and all must match each other exactly to be genuine.  Luckily, with each unit on the plate being locally hand painted, means the shape and position of outer letters and design details on each unit in sheet differs, meaning a fake is very readily spotted.

The absolutely massive (7 kilos!) and thick Morocco Buckram leather hand-bound “The Royal Philatelic Collection” tome was published before I was born, and yet has a superb illustration of the Queen’s genuine example for quick comparison purposes, and when that single in isolation is blown up, all design detail is crystal clear.

I have one of these superbly printed monsters on my desk right now, complete with the hard slipcase, if anyone is interested. These books are like liquid gold, as 65 years old now, and Heinrich Kohler sold 2 copies for $A2,500 apiece at auction in Germany. Mine is under half that level! 

The initial UK sale price of this massive reference at 60 Guineas, (£63) was literally 7 MONTHS average gross salary for a UK working man in 1950!  Indeed the AVERAGE annual UK wage in UK 1950 was just £100 - I kid you not - tinyurl.com/UKwage  I just took the photo nearby of the States page with the 4d. 

Dr. Woo currently owns at least four examples of the real WA “4d Inverted Frame” (not including the possible recent Besançon purchase), also the attractive cut square forgery (stamp “X”) and the “proving” fragment strip 4 on piece.  So he owns nearly all the stamps outside the seven in Institutions or the Royal Collection.

Stampboards member Richard Debney owns another - a stamp I was keen to buy at a Christies New York auction in 1989 for the now pittance of $US14,500 plus 10% buyer fee he paid, and I phoned Stamps head Elizabeth Pope at the time, to get more detail, that is all outlined here -  tinyurl.com/FakeSwan

Shown nearby is a fuzzy mono image of the massive limestone lithographic stone literally used to print these 4d and 1/- Swans, showing just how hard it was to get a good impression - AND good margins. It also shows arrowed, the legendary "Inverted Frame" position in the original sheet.

Ex Western Australia Premier Brian Burke in hindsight may regret his interest in stamps, as he served prison time for that, and other money issues etc in the 1990s after the “WA Inc. Royal Commission” was established in 1991 to examine his tenure,

However, collectors can be forever thankful to Mr. Burke for using his considerable influence in that state well before that, to ensure some very major philatelic material was purchased for the W.A. Museum.

Mr. Burke ensured the W.A. Museum was granted fully legitimate funds to purchase for $A135,000, THE finest extant example of the 1854 4d W.A. "Inverted Swan” stamp. This fault free 4 margin example was previously in famous private collections like Avery, Worthington, Liechtenstein, Meinertzhagen, Lilly, and John Boker.

Mr. Burke's influence also ensured substantial legitimate funds were located to purchase for the WA Museum, from David Feldman in Switzerland, the original Lithographic intermediate limestone printing stone, for the 1854 4d and 1/- Imperfs that are shown nearby.

Burke later controversially went to prison for fiddling the Labor Party funds to buy other stamps etc.  Postage Stamps were part of the whirlpool of alleged offences that led ex-WA Premier being imprisoned for improper conduct, and later for expense rorts, and later for allegedly stealing $122,585 in campaign donations.

Brian Burke was an active stamp buyer and collector, and widely mooted as a future PM.  He phoned me up one time from the Premier’s Office to buy a 1937 Coronation Omnibus set!  In 1995, Brian Burke was stripped of his 1988 Honour as a Companion of the Order of Australia.  He later worked as a lobbyist, and caused many ructions in WA politics. 

The then WA Premier banned any State Minister from talking to him.  Burke later stood trial on five charges of telling lies to the Crime Corruption Commission inquiry, and on 1 April 2010 was found guilty of deliberately giving false testimony, and fined $25,000.  He appealed this to the High Court, and lost.

The original Lithograph stone was a quite amazing discovery by Perth dealer Wim Smits in 1978, and clearly showed the "Inverted Frame" error.  Wim ran ads in WA newspapers there seeking unusual WA items and stamps and covers for a planned huge 1979 "W.A. Sesquicentenary" themed auction in Perth.

Someone turned up at his shop with this long lost lithographic limestone printing stone, after reading the ads.  Smits offered about 10 times what the owner imagined its maximum value to be, and hence almost lost the sale!  They assumed they had only a few $100 or so of value, and were shocked at his high figure offered. 

True story.  The person selling the stone said they had used this massive lump as a doorstop to hold open the kitchen door, as had their family before them, and it had also been a lintel stepping stone to the doorway at some time as I recall!  How the stamp images on it survived all that is a miracle.

This massive lithographic printing stone, and superb "4d Inverted Centre Swan" is on permanent display at the WA Museum in Perth, along with the superb Bromfield and Bishop Riley stamp collections of WA material.  Well worth looking up if you have some time in Perth to set it up.

Perth dealer Wim Smits reproduced full MINT sheets of the 1/- and 4d (with invert) a few decades back, before he sold off the stone at Feldmans, in a lavish folder with colour repros of the 1/- and 4d sheets, and the 1d Black Swan sheet was in there too as I recall, that look very nice, and still get pretty decent prices 30 years later!

Wim somehow tapped into the WA State "Rivers Of Gold" in 1979, and sweet talked someone in Government to give him $ Gazillions to publish a fancy set of hard cover books in a hard leather like slipcase for the state Sesquicentenary. The Foreward was from Sir Charles Court, then WA Premier. They also had colour and mono reproductions of the Lithograph sheets in there.

The books failed sales wise pretty much, and/or were heavily over-produced, and Wim ended up with a garage full of them.  He sold me about 200 sets at some stage decades ago for a pittance. The freight from WA cost him a fortune.  I retailed them at $65 a set, or 5 sets for $250!  Long sold out now, but a very cool set at that price point, if you see one offered.

Each boxed set also contains the nice set of 18 W.A. Post Office Souvenir Folders with special design postmarkers, Applecross to York, and other official P.O. covers, all in deluxe sheet protectors. The Postmarks are catalogued $A85 alone in PictorMarks, and boxes were individually numbered etc. Cost a FORTUNE to print these sets I bet.

Wim is still active today, and as I recall got stiffed like many others in the mossgreen auctions implosion recently.  His son Mikel still runs the stamp shop over there in Perth as far as I know.  Wim Smits was a large dealer and advertiser in the 1980 era stamp boom, and had a very large retail presence there.

Well that is allegedly the story, and as I type this near July 1, no-one seems to have any real idea if this will be correct or not on July 1.  Ebay is telling overseas sellers it is happening, and at the same time being on media here, saying it will not occur.

The Australia Federal Government a year back, announced that from July 1 2018, all goods imported of less than $1,000 value must have GST paid on them at the full rate of 10%.  This is a deviation from the current arrangement in place for recent years, where imported goods costing less than $A1,000 can arrive free of GST or taxes.

The current policy was absurd for Government, as BILLIONS in income has been lost in recent years.  Consumers buying a new iPhone, Camera, Perfume, expensive watches/jewellery, computer tablets, perfumes, or stamps etc from overseas, now pay ZERO tax to Australia - either GST, or anything else.

Retailers like Harvey Norman, JB HiFi, or David Jones etc, make zero on that iPhone or Camera etc if consumers buy it direct from Asia or USA etc. They employ staff, pay taxes, and rent buildings, collect 10% GST, take advertising, and add to the economy.

They can’t do so much of that, when the public has been legally buying planeloads of sub $1,000 small physical size purchases on the web, and dodging tax entirely in this country.  It makes zero sense to anyone with any grey matter.  Sadly few of our politicians are over-endowed in that area! 

The latest Apple iPhone 8 shown nearby costs under a little under $A1,000 landed in Australia, and shipping is cheap.  However, the Government misses out on the $100 of GST, and a retailer somewhere in Australia misses out on a sale.  It makes no financial sense to me.  Why on EARTH was the import cap ever raised to $1,000??  How does that help our budget deficit?  

The Import Rule was capped at $400 tax free until recent years, when some genius in Government for no sane reason whatever, RAISED it to $1,000.  Instead of using some brains, and reducing it to $100 or $200 maximum.  That level seems fair enough, and targets only higher value merchandise. Even if they chose that lower $A100 level, it would be wildly generous compared to Canada, UK, Europe and Scandinavia etc.  In Canada and Europe and NZ anything over $A25 imported gets taxed (usually their VAT/GST is 20%), AND a “collection/processing fee” is added on top.

That savvy policy creates no incentive there to buy from overseas.  A camera or iPhone or perfume that is 20% cheaper overseas is not cheaper at all, if you get clobbered 20% inward tax on it, so they simply do not bother, and buy it locally.  A local retailer then makes some money, pays taxes, employs staff, and supports the economy, and YOU pay the same - or less.  No-brainer.

So our brilliant Government would have easily collected BILLIONS of extra dollars in the past 4 years if they had changed nothing.  POs are fully set up to collect this tax on package arrival - they did it when limit was $400, and they still do it now when it is over $1,000.  Zero extra work or systems needed, to collect via PO’s.  LPOs get a small slice of what is collected via a flat fee, so they are vigilant.

Invoices or declared value on outers are noted by staff in mail centres. The Gold and Green “Charges to Pay” sticker is affixed, sum assessed written on it, and packet continues on its way.  One minute’s work to make $100 on that iPhone.  Australia Post makes a tiny slice for collecting it, via a simple and time proven, and fully in place working system.  Happy Government, happy Postmasters.

There is the answer, if they want to get taxes on what fancy consumer goods the public import, and choose not to buy locally.  Incredibly, the dullards who changed it from $400 maximum have cost this country a Billion or more in lost revenue in recent years.  Much more discussion here on stampboards - tinyurl.com/ebaysGST

So INSTEAD of this system above that does work, and WILL work, some genius dreamed up a system where all sellers of goods to Australia that exceed more than $A75,000 in a year in turnover, need to register for Australian GST, charge it on the invoice, and rebate that ALL to the ATO!!  Durrhhh. 

These clueless Bureaucrats are planning to move us from near the world’s most generous system on personal imports, to the world’s most draconian at the stroke of a pen.  In the space of a day, we have gone from $999 of goods - absolutely no GST tax payable, to every $5 stamp or $5 toy or $5 lipstick  - you now pay full TAX!  No other country is that draconian.

It is like Fawlty Towers at work.  As IF most foreign sellers will bother - and what possible penalty can OUR Government invoke, to penalise a Chinese, Hong Kong, Russian or Canadian etc seller of anything, or Stamp Auctioneer for not becoming an unpaid tax collector for Australia! 

The idea sounds like yet another idle thought bubble of a clueless bureaucrat, with zero concept of how global business works.  There is NO way to force a foreign national to collect Australian tax on retail sales, and lodge boxes of GST/BAS paperwork a year in the process.  That tax needs to be collected HERE upon entry. 

This below is the super rubbery official Government thought bubble outline of the “new deal” that is scheduled to take effect from July 1^st, 2017- this Government seems to have no tax raising options that ever work or are remotely thought through -

“The Government has announced that from 1 July 2017, GST will apply to imported low value goods. This includes all physical goods sold to consumers and imported into Australia, that have a value equal to or less than A$1,000. These goods are currently exempt from GST.”

“Under this measure, you may need to register and pay GST if you are a non-resident supplier who sells low value goods to consumers, and import the goods into Australia, and meet the registration turnover threshold of A$75,000.”

Furthermore, the Government dunderheads formulating this wacko policy, have decided to hit the 2 biggest online platforms first - Amazon and eBay, to demand THEY rebate the 10% GST direct, so that the Feds get every cent of it, for ALL imports, with no effort on their part.

Government bureaucrats are never chosen for their IQs or knowledge of the real world, and the simple response from ebay in national media here late April was their likely reaction was that all sales, of all goods to Australia, would simply be banned, from their overseas sellers!

Australia is truly a pimple on an Elephant as far as eBay or Amazon etc are concerned, and they clearly would prefer just to ban all sales to here, than be forced into being an unpaid and unwilling Tax collector. The “Sydney Morning Herald” carried this report mid-April 2017 with a strong response from eBay -

eBay says it will likely block Australian shoppers from buying goods from overseas, if the Government pushes ahead with plans to apply GST on all goods sold through the online marketplace.  Goods bought from overseas sellers and imported to Australia worth less than $1,000 are currently GST exempt, but Treasurer Scott Morrison wants to apply the 10 per cent tax to all sales from July 1 this year.

"Regrettably, the Government's legislation may force eBay to prevent Australians from buying from foreign sellers," eBay Australia and New Zealand Vice President, Joo Man Park wrote in a submission to a Senate inquiry into the so-called ‘Amazon Tax’. "This appears to be the most likely outcome at present.”

"No tax would then be paid to Australia, and none would be owed.  It would raise no revenue, deny Australians access to choice, and lessen price competition."  The proposed tax treats online sales platforms like eBay and Amazon as the supplier, meaning they would be responsible for applying the tax.

eBay said that it did not own, hold or distribute goods, nor handle payments.  eBay said blocking overseas sellers was "the most likely outcome at present"

"In reality, buyers use the eBay search engine to find goods and choose which seller to transact with," Mr Park continued. "Deeming eBay to be a seller, is a fiction designed by the Australian Government to give the impression of raising revenue."

Meanwhile no-one really has much clue how and when foreign sellers need to be registered, and start collecting this wacko tax and to complete BAS/GST reports. The Bureaucratic Bungling drags on, and another $ BILLION in inward taxation will not be collected, as no crystal clear rules or policy have been confirmed with major overseas sellers, for a tax SUPPOSED to be fully in place as you read this.

It seems Australia will be the first country in the WORLD to require foreign sellers and marketplaces to collect and remit GST on any item, no matter how low the cost.  The massive online retail giants Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Alibaba all strongly opposed the measure. "The Sydney Morning Herald" ran this piece - tinyurl.com/OzGST

Alibaba is the most dominant retailer in the world, generating more gross merchandise volume (GMV) than Amazon.com and eBay combined.  Its online sales and profits surpassed all US retailers (including Walmart, Amazon and eBay) combined.  Their position here after July 1 is not known to me.

The Alibaba CEO for Australia and New Zealand, Mr John O'Loghlen, at the Australian Senate enquiry into this nonsense said: “foreign small businesses are particularly disadvantaged on compliance of this rule, because of the $75,000 GST turnover threshold.”

“A Chinese merchant selling into Australia through AliExpress will see GST will be applied to every single sale, even if this Chinese seller's entire Australian sales revenue is just a couple of hundred dollars for the relevant year”  Mr. O’Loghlen concluded.

The huge Amazon portal simply told the Federal Government to go jump in mid-2018.  Amazon stated they were “Geo-Blocking” or “Geo-Fencing” Amazon.com (USA) and Amazon.co.uk sites etc, to Australian buyers from July 1.  You simply cannot see them then - Amazon has blocked you! 

All you will now see, as you are being Geo re-directed, is the heavily truncated range offered by amazon.com.au locally - being a tiny % of the overseas Amazon offerings, that was your full option before July 1.  And those goods that are offered here, are at much higher prices, from the many reports I have read. 

I get the feeling the launch of Amazon Australia earlier 2018 was something of a monumental flop, compared to market predictions, due to the limited range, far slower than promised delivery (as Australia Post were involved!) and far higher buyer costs locally, than buying ex Amazon USA.

The photos nearby are just two of HUNDREDS of massive Amazon fulfilment centres globally, that local buyers will have no access to now after July 1.  The two shown nearby are in Europe, and some of them look like Boeing Factories, they are so vast.  Amazing that they can function, so they are so enormous.

Amazon told Yahoo Finance on May 31, 2018, - "While we regret any inconvenience this may cause customers, we have had to assess the workability of the legislation as a global business with multiple international sites", adding that the firm was taking the measure to comply with the new legislation, and not to avoid paying tax.

In a submission to a Productivity Commission inquiry into GST changes last year, Amazon said delivery companies like Australia Post, DHL and FedEx should be responsible for collecting the tax instead of vendors like itself, and eBay.

A model in which vendors collected GST was "fundamentally flawed" because it required voluntary compliance from thousands of offshore online retailers, Amazon argued, and consumers would simply seek out vendors that did not comply.

If ebay DO follow through with the apparent plan they have half announced and half denied, the Australian CONSUMER here from July 1, will pay that 10% if they buy via ebay - as ebay will add it on AUTOMATICALLY to your invoice at check-out, and (allegedly) hand that 10% GST over to the Australian Federal Government.

Buy on ebay a $500 stamp off ANY foreign seller, whether based in China, Germany or USA or Canada etc, and ebay will automatically add 10% GST to your Bill for the stamps and shipping - WHETHER that actual seller is doing $A75,000 a year in sales to here, to need to register for GST - or not.

And I suspect the stamp buyer will ONLY know about that extra $US50 at invoice stage.  Bid $US500 or Euro 500 at an ebay stamp auction or ''Buy It Now'', and you do NOT see that looming 10%, until you get around the paying the bill.  The 10% GST will also be added to the cost of all shipping, as the “S” in GST is for “Services.”

All the large overseas Auctions like Spink and Feldman and Gartner etc, will clearly all do more than $A75,000 annual sales to here, and will need to register for Australian GST the Feds here blissfully imagine, and will need to add the same 10% levy at invoice point I surmise? 

Given how totally muddled and confusing and contradictory Spink London are even on their own website, at even outlining all the relevant British taxes, VAT and fees to foreign Buyers, as we saw for recent sales, they will simply charge it on ALL invoices to here I would not be surprised, not just the under $A1,000 ones.

So a $US500 online purchase of a stamp album on ebay with $US50 shipping will cost you US$55 (=$A75) more, from about the date you read this, it seems.  Even if you only bid $500!  A very expensive lesson for many readers of this article, who I am sure had NO idea this stealthy change occurred on July 1, 2018.

Much more discussion here on stampboards - tinyurl.com/ebaysGST and right up to time of being implemented, I cannot see that ebay have had the courtesy to tell local buyers that all purchases from overseas will now cost them 10% more than it appears to cost, when ordering. 

I am surprised ebay are not outright refusing to collect it as it penalises THEIR buyers, and only their buyers right now, and buying stamps or cameras etc off other sites do not have tax added at invoice point, and probably never well.

Something most readers would not know I am sure.  As I type regularly here “Knowledge Is Power” and using this book this week made me a few $100.  All these covers are illustrated in here large size in full colour, have catalogue numbers, and are easy to follow.

Noel Almeida has published a catalogue titled “Overseas Mailers FDCs of Australia.”  It is devoted to the first day covers of Australia, produced by Overseas Mailers Limited of New York USA, and comprises a complete pricing and cat number listing of covers made by this American cover producer. John Barnard (Jay) Leach owned Overseas Mailers in the USA.

“Overseas Mailers” involved adding minor modifications and embellishments to the branded Australian covers of Guthrie, Royal and Wesley, amongst others. The additions can be very subtle, and they are readily worth $50-$75 each, so WELL worth looking out for!

The photo nearby is from a group of 8 embellished Wesley “WCS” covers I sold quickly for a few $100 this month.  As normal Wesleys these are worth just a few dollars apiece. tinyurl.com/OSmailer shows the other covers, and how to order the handbook.

If you look carefully you can see the 5d green QE2 has a map of Australia printed over the standard Wesley design.  Looks like part of the design I am sure you will agree. The strip of 2d QE2 brown has had a green infill added into cachet, and a red cartouche lower right of cachet, and a red cartouche lower right of cachet etc.  

They were done on FDC from the late 1950s to mid-1960s.  Why did we not know about these covers Down Under?  The answer lies in the fact that “Overseas Mailers” were only marketed to subscribers in the USA and sit unloved in dealer dollar boxes.  Only 75 Different FDC were ever done, so a very doable fun sideline area to collect.