This pair nearby came from the QUEEN'S COLLECTION.  It was obtained by King George V who was very keen on the Kangaroo issues.  The two stamps have a Royal Philatelic Society London, Expert Committee, Certificate of Genuineness which accompanied the lot.  As you can see, the submitter of the pair was: "The Keeper Of The Privy Purse" !  The stamps come in the original special lot folder from Spink, inscribed "The Royal Philatelic Collection - May 17, 2001".

The stamp are from position 14 and 15 on the left pane. the RH stamp has the constant variety 51(D)L ($3,500) "Break In Value Circle At Left" - not noticed by RPSL.  Believed unique in any kind of multiple, mint or used.  Provenance such as this should add 25% over the price of any other pair - themselves very rare multiples.  Almost nothing on the market - from any country - is originally from the Royal Collection.  If I owned them today, I'd ask - and get easily DOUBLE what I last sold them for.

Globally known corporate identity, and big league stamp collector, Sir Ron Brierley has pleaded guilty in a Sydney Court to several Police charges of owning child abuse material.  He was charged after Police stopped him at Sydney International Airport and found certain images, and later searched and found more in his 3 storey waterfront mansion in December 2019.   He will be sentenced on August 20.

The businessman amassed phenomenal stamp collections over many decades, and had numerous “Lionheart” Auctions here and overseas (named after his luxury yacht moored at Pittwater) and disposed of small portions of it each time.  At one time, he owned Stanley Gibbons Australia Auctions, along with John Mowbray from NZ, and they offered a portion of his material in the first Mowbray Melbourne sale, and later in April 2005 at Pacific Explorer with estimates of about $A2 million then. 

Spink London have so far held FIFTEEN (15) different special catalogue “Lionheart” sales between 2013 and 2021, believe it or not.  And likely more are in the pipeline.  Near all containing just high quality GB and British Empire stamps, and each groaning with truly rare and expensive pieces and blocks and collections.  There must have been $10s of millions in those alone, looking at the catalogues.

Prestige Auctions Melbourne in 2014 had a “Lionheart” Auction with some mega price Kangaroos top value blocks 4 that ended up with court orders, injunctions, and withdrawn lots at last moment a few years back.  A really dreadful, nasty mess, and Brierley was an innocent party in it.  Full details here - some familiar names - an essential read -  tinyurl.com/1Kino so clearly very many tens of millions have been sold so far.

NZ born Brierley, 84, was Chairman and/or Director of numerous very prominent companies in Australia and New Zealand and overseas, including Stanley Gibbons London.  He was arrested as he was about to board a plane to Fiji in December 2019.  He had been selected for questioning by Australian Border Force officers. His hand luggage was searched, and the subject material was discovered in the outbound examination rooms.

Police allege they found more than 200,000 images and 500 videos on Brierley's laptop, and electronic storage devices, that depicted child abuse material.  Court documents said this material allegedly showed "young girls aged between approximately two years to 15 years in sexually suggestive poses."   A later Police search of his $30 million harbourside Wunulla Road, Point Piper mansion, where his neighbours include former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, found thousands more images.

One admitted offence by Brierley in the Downing Centre Local Court related to photographs of girls, aged as young as two years, in sexually suggestive poses, while another concerned a data storage device found at his home that contained 1,615 images of child abuse material.  Some of the images had been downloaded the night before they were discovered by authorities at the airport, with Brierley telling Police he had looked at them for "recreation".

On May 28, 2021, the official Summary of Facts for the case was released by court officials in Sydney.  In that summary, Ron Brierley told Police officers quizzing him over a cache of images of naked children that he had saved to several devices, that the pictures were in his view, "all perfectly okay" and that he had downloaded them because he thought they "looked interesting".

Brierley was knighted in NZ for service to Business - mainly via his feared corporate raider Brierley Investments Limited especially in the madcap 1980s era - once the largest company in New Zealand with shares owned by 160,000 citizens there, who did well.  Brierley was a notable alumnus of Wellington College, where a theatre was named after him.  The school began scrubbing its grounds of his name and connections after his guilty pleas on April 1, 2021 in Sydney.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced this May that Brierley, after he had pleaded guilty in Court to the possession of child sexual abuse material on April 1, had relinquished his Knighthood.  N.Z. Officials wrote to Brierley on April 6, telling him he had 30 days to provide any information that he considered relevant, before the Prime Minister made her decision on it.

Ms Ardern told NZ Media that if Brierley had not voluntarily relinquished his Knighthood, it would have been stripped from him by her Goverment.  Ardern said regardless of anyone’s other achievements, if they were guilty of possessing images which portrayed young children being sexually abused that: "undoubtedly completely rewrites your history.  Undoubtedly.  I'm very clear - had he not done so, the Knighthood would have been removed. The Queen has been informed."

"I think it's a sad day for the children of New Zealand and, indeed, the world, when someone is found guilty of possessing such horrendous images," Ardern said.  She added that it was only right that there are "significant consequences" for that. “As a country, New Zealand has to reject anyone who thinks this is okay. This means he’s no longer allowed to use the title of “Sir” and he has been asked to return his insignia”. PM Ardern was quoted as saying.

Brierley had Cricket as another very keen passion, along with stamp collecting.  He is shown nearby, second from right, meeting with Queen Elizabeth II in Britain, with fellow members of the non-profit Australia “Crusaders” cricket group, and has donated generously to some other Cricket organisations, which of course has created for them, very thorny issues due to the current Court admissions of guilt. 

New Zealand Herald senior reporter David Fisher has stated Cricket Wellington is one of the organisations working out what to do with donated Brierley money.  A $1 million donation from Sir Ron Brierley is sitting in the cricket charity's bank account, while trustees of the organisation figure out what to do with the shamed businessman's philanthropy.  Cricket Wellington replaced Brierley as their long standing Patron, soon after he was charged, and are now looking at his Life Member status.

Fisher says some think of the donations as tainted, while others believe his convictions shouldn’t detract from the good he has done in his past for the Cricket Club.  Fisher said Wellington College had removed signage outlining their links to the multi-millionaire, immediately after his guilty pleas. The school said it had taken down all signage with Brierley’s name on them, which includes a theatre and sports field.

Ron Brierley is listed as a significant donor on the State Library of NSW website in the donation level band of between $100,000 and $499,000.  Brierley appears to have been a generous donator to causes that he supported.  He is an incredibly wealthy chap worth $100s of millions, and never had spouses or children, so could support whatever cause he wished, so it is sad to read of these recent developments, that have tarnished that long legacy.

Upon sentencing, Brierley will be added to the New South Wales state Child Protection Register for at least eight years, it is reported.  He has been prohibited from international travel and was required to surrender his passport.  Brierley faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced.  Immigration experts have stated in the media that New Zealand born Brierley is not likely to be deported to NZ if his sentence is over 12 months.

He seems most unlikely to be added to the hundreds of NZ born Australian residents who have been deported from Australia to NZ for crimes committed that incur prison sentences of over 12 months - people widely known as ‘’501s’’, the character section of the Australian Migration Act that allows the cancellation of their visa.  "Brierley is an Australian citizen who cannot be placed through the deportation regime, unless they revoke his citizenship" an expert said in the NZ media.

On August 20 we shall know the sentence of the Judge to these guilty pleas.  Due process of the legal system will have ran its full course by that date, over near 2 years and many Court dates, and that is the correct path we all must follow.  That is my Birthday, and also the birthday of a sweet grandaughter who turns an innocent one year old on that same day.  I personally just do not understand any of these actions.  A very sad story, and one I wish I did not need to document. 

Brierley was on the Board of Stanley Gibbons London of course, and also owned a very sizeable chunk of that company stock as I recall - in the halcyon days when they were very profitable!  His stamp purchases were huge over many decades.  He amassed large quantities of stamps and sets that he particularly liked.  Hundreds of mint 1932 5/- Harbour Bridges, and it is believed 100s of sets of the USA 1931 Zeppelins, another favourite.  And 1906 Christchurch Exhibition sets in numerous mint blocks 4 - another curious sideline.

When Stanley Gibbons announced the sale of the unique strip of four of India 1948 Gandhi 10 Rupee Purple-Brown and Lake 'SERVICE' stamps shown nearby for a record price of £500,000 only 4 years back, the BBC News report helpfully confirmed the buyer was an Australian collector - coff!  Guess who?  A wonderful piece, and as interest on post-Independence stamp issues from India is rising all the time, a most astute buy no doubt.   Gandhi is of Rock Star status there.

Only two sheets of 50 stamps originally received the 'SERVICE' overprint, of which one remains intact in the Delhi Postal Museum.  From the issued sheet, supplied to the Governor-General's secretariat, only thirteen single examples are authoritatively recorded, including this strip of four, and a block of four in the Royal Philatelic Collection, owned by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Likewise the sale also by Stanley Gibbons of the nearby 1d red on small piece alongside a 4d Vermillion.  In mid 2012 this single example of the elusive 1858 GB “Plate 77 Penny Red” was sold by Stanley Gibbons in London for £550,000.  It was sold just two months after SG acquired it.  The stamp was described as “the finest used example in existence, inside or outside a museum” by the Stanley Gibbons Director of Great Britain Philately.

The acquisition and rapid sale of the Plate 77 stamp attracted much media attention in the UK general press, being featured on the BBC website etc. Its appearance on prime time television was heralded as, “a coup for the hobby”  in the philatelic press.  Great stuff!   A used stamp is catalogued £600,000 in the current SG, so a very valuable piece.  Excuse the terrible scan - that was the BEST that SG offered in 2012!

I have no idea if most of the Ron Brierley stamp accumulations are still extant, but sources advise me it is still extensive - these 2 key pieces illustrated here costing over £1 million have not been seen on the global market since to my knowledge, and Mr Brierley is extremely wealthy, worth several 100 million, and still keen on stamps it seems clear, and would have no pressing financial reason to divest anything.

Of the four 1d Plate 77 mint examples recorded, one is in the Royal Philatelic Collection, one is in the Tapling Collection in the British Library.  Another was in the “Raphael” collection that was stolen in 1965, and has not been seen since.  The fourth was in the famous Ferrary collection that was sold in the 1920s - the authenticity of that has never been confirmed, and again has not been seen in the Century since the auction.  So no mint are ‘buyable’.

Of the five single used copies, two damaged examples were found in the early 20th Century, neither of which has been seen on the open market for over 60 years.  A third was in the "Crocker" collection and lost in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, and a fourth example from the "Adams" collection is now in the British Library.  A fifth example was this one offered for sale by Stanley Gibbons for £550,000, understood to have been purchased by Sir Ron Brierley in 2012.