Some Neat Things In Linn's Stamp News The Past Few Issues

StampAlarm

And I mean some really neat stuff.

Nov 6th issue had a story about a unreleased stamp from Germany depicting Audrey Hepburn. Right before it's release one of Hepburn's sons objected. Hepburn is pictured with a long cigarette holder in her mouth. I don't know if that caused the objection. Deutsche Post ordered all the stamps destroyed. Three panes of 10 had already been sent to the Finance Ministry and apparently used. Three cancelled example have surface. The last one , which was damaged by a canceling machine was recently auctioned for $84,000. The prices for the other two were $72,000 and $200,000. The Hepburn stamp was suppose to be part of a movie star set released on Oct. 11, 2001

This one is fun. Nov. 20. Unissued Yellow hat strip of four discovered in stamp show mix. This is the H stamp that was to be issued for postcard rate. It is now listed on eBay at $32,000 or best offer. eBay listing no. 250042604161

And this one just came today. Nov. 27. Found in child's stamp album, Queensland rarity tops $35,000. It's a pair of Scott 111A. The denomination (6) was omitted in the top 2 corners.

I wonder how much stuff we have all passed over.



Jerry

edueku

Woulda Coulda Shoulda, I live in close proximity to the area in Indiana where the H stamps were/are being found. Would be great to know the Real story of how an unreleased(or whatever you wanna call it) stamp keeps showing up used as any stamp on common mail usages. I am a subscriber to Linns but wonder how these stamps ended up being where they are being discovered now(mixtures etc.). Wow, many years from now a stamp scholar (if they still exist then) will reveal a theory. Hope some will be around to care then.

StampAlarm

That's one of the 1st things I thought of. How did all these H stamps get out. Edueka, did you read about the no-die-cuts 10C American Clock stamps being found in a U.S. stamp mixture by someone in India? I had AirplaneNut make a icon picture of this stamp to use sometime. Too bad he didn't find what the guy in India found!



Jerry

edueku

Actually yeah I saw the no die cuts you're speaking of. Every time I see what might be a non-philatelic covers with errors on them how many ignorant people actually return stamp errors for correct stamps at the post office not realizing for 7 or 8 bucks they're handing back potentially THOUSANDS of dollars. I have read about people actually doing this too. I have actually thought of putting an add in the Greencastle IN paper with a picture of the H hat stamp to see if anybody has some on X-mas cards or the like. It is highly likely that someone has some examples as people tend to save postcards and the stamps were intended for the postcard rate. I have a large batch (30) of EFOstamped envelopes U642(the embossed type made by the USPS) that I sent to Linn's for an article a few years ago. They are obviously a run of envelopes as you can see the design steadily go awry. Linn's said they were only "freaks" because there were traces of all the colors under HIGH magnification(literally specks) So value wise I have no idea what they might be worth now although I did pay a good chunk of money for them at the time. I don't think they would be worth sending for certs though unless the APS might allow them all to be sent as a "set" of some sort and even then they would probably still be considered freaks. It seems EFO's on embossed envelopes are not really worht a great deal even though some the example's from this batch are pretty striking in appearance. Well I guess that was a little off of the subject but anyway, EFO's are an interesting segment of the hobby. Linn's is a great publication, I have been a subscriber for about 8 years, as well as The American Philatelist. They are THE two best publications for the hobby in general. The SMQ is also responsible IMO for bringing a lot of money back into the hobby which is usually a positive (other than the early 80's boomand bust but that was based on ungraded material and thus unjustiable inflated prices) Grading is here to stay.