2016-11-11 Fri

The Bougainville collection of the Falkland Islands containing rare stamps from the 1920s and 1930s and its dependencies in the Antarctic region were sold in London at the Grosvenor Philatelic Auctions on 22nd September.

New Queen Victoria stamps were printed for the Falklands in May 1891, but all of it was lost when the German liner Neko sank on 21st July on its way to the islands.

The stamps were reprinted with different shades. The proof sheets, one of each denomination were with the printers Bradbury Wilkinson. They are the only examples that exist in their original shades.

Imprint blocks of eight 1891 ½-penny in deep blue-green and the 2½d in a sublime shade of very pale, chalky ultramarine were sold for £7,000.

A master-die proof of the King Edward VII high denominations in bright blue, with the denomination yet to be added, sold for $10,850. The design was used on 3-shilling gray-green and 5s dull red after the completion of the design.

War stamps issued by British colonies were produced by overprinting special words onto existing definitives. This was mostly done locally to save time and money.

Current ½d, 1d and 1sh stamps of King George V for Falklands were printed this way. One sheet of the 1d received a double overprint accidently. The unique top-right corner margin block of four was sold for $14,800.