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Glen Stephens
Stamp Rarity Corner
This page features worldwide rare, unusual, and one-of-a-kind items of special interest. It is one of Australia's MOST visited stamp dealer web pages. Check EVERY day, because as you can see - new items are regularly added - sometimes each day, and the sold ones removed. Many large dealers buy from here regularly. Click the spinning world globe above to see this page EVERY time you open your computer!
So that I can show you the items in great detail in high resolution, some of the images may take a minute or three to load up if you have slow dial-up connection. I apologize for this, but it's worth waiting for!
A note about payment on these: Yes, these lots are expensive, but
"Lay-By" is available; E-mail, Phone, or Fax me to discuss it.
I do NOT rip you off like auctions and add 15-20% to my prices.
A $1,000 stamp is $1,000 - not $1,200.
For the Order Form, click here. To read instructions on ordering, click here.
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Every credit card shown is accepted
WITHOUT fee. Earn Frequent Flier points
while buying at bargain prices! ALL prices are in weak Ozzie Dollars.
I charge NO nasty, nasty "Buyer's Commission" on stamps
like nearly every "Auction" does.
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Brand New Stanley Gibbons 2010 "Stamps Of The World" 5 massive vols in COLOUR: HALF PRICE! Save $320 off ret NOW: Complete set of volumes 1-5, covering EVERY country A-Z. Many more photos here - www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=18880 All miniature sheets are now included. FIVE massive books the size of Sydney phone books! Shipped to you in a white storage box. Retail is $A650. My price is HALF retail or $A330 a set plus post. Yes they are pricey because this is a VERY heavy carton, and stock needs to come from the UK. Seeing they are now in colour, on Brite-White paper stock, you will not need to update for 10 years, so for $33 a year to keep up with stamp listings is a pretty cheap deal really. And even in 10 years, a set of these will readily sell for $100-150 or more! There are near FIVE THOUSAND huge pages, and a HALF MILLION stamps all priced here. $A45 air shipping WORLDWIDE! $A330 |
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GB 1867 10/- Greyish Green Queen Victoria, at 5% of SG!: A stamp missing from near every collection. A facially quite decent copy of this 143 year old stamp for any album, at only 5% of SG price. Repaired corner, SG 128, £2,800 = $A5,000. Only 5% of SG! $A250 |
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Aust KGV 3d Blue *INVERTED WATERMARK* Superb Used: Small Multi, perf 14, simply perfect centering, perfs and freshness. Cancelled with the lightest cancel you will ever see on these! (Lower perfs are all intact .. 1 has a speck of postmark ink on it.) Perf ‘OS’ and you can see it is the scarcer Type B. ACSC 106aa $175 for normal used. Be hard to source a better copy. $A175 |
Australia 1970 “Definitives” PO Pack:
The *Gorilla* .. the scarcest PO pack by several miles, as it cost a
FORTUNE back then. I see one each few years or so. The $4 alone was
EIGHTY times the 5c letter rate, i.e. a $48 stamp alone, on today’s
60c rate. So the pack was WAY over $A100 type buying price in today’s
money. ASC P7 - $450 and seldom seen. Fresh and un-opened.
$A300
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1932 1d Green KGV Head, Overprinted “OS”:
MUH Quarter sheet of 30 [VI/31-60], with John Ash Imprint. ACSC
#82(OS) Couple of age spots that are seemingly inevitable on these.
Part sheets almost never seen these days. Perfect album page size piece.
$A200
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PNG 1994 Emergency Surcharges *TRIPLE* overprint:
5t
on 35t Musical Bow marginal block of four, showing shift in surcharge
making a triple overprint! Full details on this fascinating and
primitive issue is here –
www.glenstephens.com/overprints.html - I am the primary world
source for all these issues, and have never seen this one before. A
sensational modern printing error. These are scarce anyway - $A60 a
stamp as normals. Even the DOUBLE surcharges on the 1960 Postage Dues
are $1,000s each. A classic block to pop away for the
future.
$A750

Australia - 2008 “The Rocks Sydney” 55c Self Adhesive, Completely
*IMPERFORATE*! SG
#3062 variety, on a clearly commercial envelope to Heidelberg Delivery
Centre, with light commercial machine cancel, and the pink sorting bars
at lower corners. Looks to be from the left of a booklet pane, with
wide margins all sides. Never seen this imperforate reported or offered
before, and on cover from any other era you could add a ZERO to
this price! Indeed a 1990s 45c fully imperforate Definitive on
commercial cover was sold at Public auction late July 2010, for $A1,900.
$A500![]()


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1913 £2 Kangaroo First Watermark, overprinted “Specimen”:
Very fresh MVLH, with repair at base. Unusually deep vivid colours.
Normally $800 looking anything like this. SG 16. Only 2169 ever sold
(versus 240,000 of the non overprinted!) and near all went to youngsters
in the cheapie packs these were sold in, and most of those have been
lost to philately in the ensuing 100 years. $A300

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Save $3,625 UNDER FACE VALUE
on mint sheets TODAY!
I
bought an estate lot of Aust
and AAT mint sheet from
1980s to very latter 90s.
Clean fresh lot it looks
like. The FACE value is
$10,625. I do not use this
kind of stuff on my mail so
smarter to sell it absurdly
cheap to someone who does.
Or someone who will break
it down into $1000 face lots
at a much higher % of face
than this! You could do
VERY well offering sheets of
prettier things on ebay etc
... many would sell for well
above face I am sure. 99%
of these stamps are around
the 25c to $1.20 type face
values I’d guess from when
counting them up, so
fabulously useful values.
Plenty of
stuff in the $1 - $1.50
range to use for parcels,
and lots of combos to make
up 60c letter rate. All are
100% legal for post use.
All in a giant black mint
sheet file. Goes right up to
late 1990s, so a LOT of
stuff in here retails double
face or so, and it is quite
scarce. Many Postmasters
will swap over say 4 sheets
of 50c for a sheet of $2
etc. The photo shows me
roughly fanning them out –
the pile was inches thick!
Price on this lot only is
for “cash’ – i.e. bank
transfer, money order,
cheque. Credit cards add
2%. Paypal NOT accepted on
this. Buy at
$A7,000 cash
Victoria - 1901 3d Slate-Green
"Stamp Duty" Design - Block of 9:
First issued in this colour June 20 1901, and fully valid for POSTAGE
use. (3d paid the Registration rate.) It was declared INVALID for
postal use around a week later, on June 30, 1901, so it was I
understand, THE shortest lived stamp issue this country has ever had!
MOST attractive as you can see, with unusually good centering. Very
fresh, and all but one are unhinged mint, Original gum arabic.
SG 362. ACSC cat V10 - $450+ for hinged singles. This is an
AUSTRALIAN stamp, not a
“State” stamp! If this was a 1913 3d Roo block 9, you could near add a
zero to this price! $375

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Kangaroo 1928 1/- Pale Green, Watermark Sideways - genuine *POSTAL
USED* – one of 4 recorded:
A strange stamp. The late Simon Dunkerley told me he had seen FOUR
genuine postally used stamps in his lifetime of this. Why? As
collectors and dealers rapidly bought the few sheets of sideways
watermarks that were found, sold them to dealers, and they were broken
up. I’ve seen large mint blocks on offer to this day. However
virtually none were sold at PO’s, hence little real mail use. They are
much more than 10 times scarcer used than mint.
Many fake
“bottle top” cancels are applied however – be super careful. This one
turned up in a glassine of duplicates where it had lain unsighted for 80
years in France until I bought it. A 100% obvious “Late Fee –
Spencer Street Melbourne” careless postal cancel. Off centred - as
are all copies of this, as the paper sheet was not square of course.
Clean and fresh and free of any faults. SG 40ab £400. ACSC 33a $1,000 in
the now ancient Roos volume. One of FIVE Australian stamps with
sideways watermark. Simon was quoted as pushing back then for a $1,500
Catalogue value. As astute buy for someone!
$A625
GB
1840 2d Mulready Envelope:
These of course are 1000 times scarcer than the 2d blue stamps issued
the same day, but you’d never know from the SG current £400 silly
prices! It is VERY first thing in Gibbons .. listed even before the 1d
Black! The world’s first stamped postal stationary. Almost never seen
out here. Stereo a203. A few very minor blemishes as always on
something this fragile that is 170 years old, and very good buying at
$A325
I've handled only a few
sets 4 in the past 25
years, and nearly all
those were hinged
- and have even
handled a few no gum due
to toning or heavy
hinges being soaked
off. Most sets were
bought as gifts for
young collectors as the
"Specimen" set only cost
£1. I was given a set
in 1964 by an uncle, and
proudly affixed them all
into my little album -
each with a large,
yellow, vigorously
licked hinge! I've even
bought collections where
kids have LICKED these
sets into albums, as of
course they all had gum
on the back. The 10/-
Cream with the heavy
font overprint (15mm) is
rare – Cat $1,500
alone. £2 is the
scarcer lower right
positioning.
ACSC $2,000.
$A1,000
NWPI 1915/6 £1 Brown and Blue Kangaroo:
A BEAUTY .. hard to improve on this little gem. SG 99 (Type C
overprint) Superb used and fresh, with a light genuine Rabaul cds.
Great perfs and centering as you can see.
$A500
Germany 1931 'Graf Zeppelin' - Polar Flight 4 Mark brown, FU:
Always a popular stamp - sought after by both German and Zeppelin
collectors. Clean FU with no back faults or hinge remains to hide thins
or creases etc. Nice “bite” to the cancel – a lot of “used” fakes
exist, created from rubber cancels etc. Top value of this scarce set.
Mi #458, 900 Euros. SG #471 Cat £950 = $A1750. A BARGAIN at around a
QUARTER Gibbons! - $A475
New South Wales
1866-74 Stamp Duty, 2nd series superb MUH Plate Proof:
Spectacular condition for 140 years old. Fresh, flat MUH original
gum, on the slightly blued security paper, with the “NSW” watermark
in centre. Faint natural gum bend mentioned for 100% accuracy, but a
beauty you’ll never improve on.
$A200
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1963/65 Pre-Decimal
Navigator "SPECIMENS"
set 4 – the 10/- being
Rare 15mm, heavy
overprint:
Fresh
MUH original gum. ACSC
$2,000. When you do
see a set, you can
BET 1 or 2 are
woefully badly centred -
this quartet have
exceptional centring for
these and excellent
perfs as you can see. An
enormously under-rated
and under-valued set.
Easily the smallest
PO issue of anything
Australian since WW2.
New ACSC research shows
only 3,480 sets of
4 were ever supplied by
Note Printing Branch to
the Post Office, and
many believe not all
those were sold before
the Decimal issue of Feb
1966, and were later
destroyed. Guaranteed
original gum and
guaranteed genuine.

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South Australia 1855 1d Dark Green *SG #1* FU pair: The sought after Perkins Bacon first English printing. Clean and fresh, and free of hinges and gunk - or the thins and creases and toning so often found. Deep strong colour. Shows the image misalignment on plate well! SG #1 £900. The left hand unit alone with massive margins at right is worth this on its own! $A600 |
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Kangaroo 1916 2/- Brown *INVERTED* Watermark: A very rare stamp. 3rd watermark, clean FU with inverted watermark. Has a wonderfully neat light cancel - leaving the Kangaroo image totally clear. Cancelled at Sydney GPO. Clean and fresh and free of hinges and gunk. ACSC 37a - outdated price is $750. I was talking with the late Simon Dunkerley in recent years, who concurred that attractive used copies are near unheard of on this invert. Most of the few used recorded have ugly parcel cancels and/or are damaged due to heavy parcel use during WWI. As an example, the only used copy in Gray sale had short perfs and a missing corner. Perfect perfs and centering, with a faint corner crease mentioned for accuracy only. As nice a looking used example as would exist. $A650 |
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"Aeropex 94" - the special 1944 KGVI 7d Aerogram/Airletter reprint: Very unusual lot I bought off Bill Hornadge - never seen them before. Flat and pristine 70c Aerograms. 50 x mint as shown, and 69 of same design with the scarce and special Adelaide plane design FDI cancel - also flat and unfolded. Can't have been many done! ASC cat A120 - $1,455. 119 items. This is scarcest used Australian aerogram since 1971. Be perfect for dealer to re-sell as 50 sets of both mint and FU, with some used spares left over. My cost is around 10% of Cat, and only about twice face from 13 years back, and back then they more than likely cost way over face anyway! $A125 |
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1913 1/- First Watermark Emerald Kangaroo with *Inverted Watermark* and POSTALLY used: This is a curious stamp. Near all the CTO specimen pack copies have Inverted Watermark, and are not hard to locate. HOWEVER the ACSC makes a special note that POSTALLY used is “Very scarce” and is rated at $400+. FU examples are $500 stamps. This has a neat “Wannon Victoria” cds cancel, with near perfect centering, and is a TON better looking than most postal used I have seen. These were parcel used and really got battered about in the main. ACSC ‘from $400’ .. and apart from a torn perf at right, would be as close to the best looking you’ll see. Clean and fresh used - no toning or thins. As a bonus, has an outer frame break lower left as you can see. $A275 |
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1930 Kingsford Smith 3d blue, overprinted “OS” - with Certificate: Probably 90% of these on the market mint are forged, and fully 99% offered on ebay are forged in my view. The underlying stamp is retail $3. Beautifully centred MVLH …. indeed it looked MUH to me on first inspection. Comes complete with 2009 Photo Certificate of Genuineness – “Genuine in all respects”. ASC 137 Cat $325 as hinged without Cert. $A350 |
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Solomon Island 1907 “Large Canes” set of 7 imperforate Plate Proofs: A scarce and popular set that I have not seen offered for years. Clean and fresh with bright colours, and crisp razor sharp impressions. Cheaper than buying a mint set of the 7 issued stamps! $A300 |
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GB 1884 10/- Queen Victoria, lovely centred used Cat £475 for $A250! : Clean and fresh, and totally free of thins and creases or hinge remains or problems on reverse. These stamps were used on very heavy parcels, and thus invariably are badly mangled as a result! Excellent perfs. Central “Registered, Lombard Street” (London) cds, as often encountered on these. Centering is often appalling. SG 183 £475 (and they say add 50% to that for well centred!) for just: $A250 |
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GB Superb FDC Coll 1980-2001 comp. (285) SG £1,540 - $A650: Lovely Estate lot in 2 x Maroon Royal Mail FDC albums (Retail $50 each) and the balance were still in mailing envelopes, from the Bureau in Edinburgh! All removed by me this week for the first time. Cat values up to £35 each FDC, with Defins Sets up to £5 a set. You are buying 285 First Day covers! More photos at - www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=15981 - A STEAL at just over $2 each – the nice albums are FREE! - $A650 |
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1936 MALAYA Negri Sembilan “Specimen” two top value stamps: The $2 value is very lightly hinged, and the $5 value appears to be unhinged. Stanley Gibbons lists the Specimen set at £400, and they are very rare and seldom seen. They were distributed to UPU countries and not many of these set has “leaked” onto the market from that source in the past 75 years. 100% guaranteed genuine perfins, and both have original gum. Most attractive and well priced at - $A175 |
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Australia Postage Dues 1953 Watermarked 5/- top value: In used blocks 10 of each shade. Two x amazing fresh, matched full gum blocks 10, in each of the 2 distinctive SG and ACSC shades. FACE value of these was £5. Very light crisp 1950s cancels. (20) Juzwin $150. Postally used blocks are THE hottest thing in Australian philately – see my current column - www.glenstephens.com/snmay10.html - Can you believe a top val, 57 y.o. for $7 each? $A150 the lot. |
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NSW 1860 Imperfs used in QUEENSLAND: Until the issue of the first Queensland stamps in 1860, NSW stamps were used up in the Moreton Bay district. The only way to determine which ones, is via the cancels. “95” was the numeral allocated then to Brisbane (on the 6d “Registered”) and the “Brisbane JY 11- 60 – QUEENSLAND” is self explanatory. The latter with a date slug error .. the “60” being inserted in error ABOVE the month/date as you can see. Clean and fresh. The ‘Registered’ with quite massive margins 2 sides, with positions of 2 adjacent stamps. The other 6d scissor snipped into at left. SG 91 and 103 £205 + cancel premium. $A150 |
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Taiwan 1962 "Savings Stamps" Set 3: Bought these this week. Fresh MUH with a stock descriptor card in with them from SG London for £60 retail, from 1997. No idea of real catalogue value - I do note a set 3 sold on ebay this month for $A215 – www.tinyurl.com/Taiwan1-3 - all dealers have it on their “BUY” list - $A150 |
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SG Windsor ‘Elite’ GB albums at $250 under retail! Bound in rich red buckram 22-ring binders, with lavish gold blocking on the front and spine, and come with matching dual-volume hard slipcases. More pix here - www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=19559 Regarded as the most
comprehensive Great Britain albums money can buy... with all pages from
the 1840 "1d Black" - up to 2000. If you collect top quality GB your
stamps surely deserve the BEST album to house them in? |
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1932 1/- Large Lyre Bird Clean FDC: In 30 years of dealing this is the ONLY one I have owned or handled. Sensationally bold Feb 15 cancel .. indeed being at 3am on that 1st Day Of Issue, it may well be the earliest date slug from anywhere. Attractively addressed, and for 75 years old in lovely shape. The ASC value of $450 is absurd .... it should be around twice that. FDC's from this era for definitives were virtually unknown and collectors were just not interested. Indeed other than the 1913 1d Red Roo not a SINGLE Kangaroo stamp exists on a FDC from anywhere - which is amazing .. right up to the 1930s CofA issues. Indeed the entire KGV heads series is almost the same story. Being a bird issue simply adds to its appeal. $A400 |
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West Germany - 1951 'Posthorn' 20Pf red from booklet sheet: Vertical se-tenant strip with green "X" label (at top), Michel #S7, Cat €550 = $A1,125. Excellent perfs and centering as you can see, and guaranteed original gum. WAY under HALF Michel cat at - $A400 West Germany - 1951 'Posthorn' 6pf orange & 10pf green from booklet sheet: Se-tenant interpanneau horizontal strip of 4, separated by label with colour vertical bars & label with green "X", Michel #WZ4, Cat €550 = $A1,125. Excellent perfs and centering as you can see, and guaranteed original gum. Way under HALF Michel cat at - $A400 Buy both together (Cat a whopping €1,100, and save $100 more! $A700 |
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New Zealand PO Annual
Albums .. a carton full in mailing boxes from issue #1:
SUPERB and colourful presentation as you would expect, with all the MUH
sets inside. A few are photo’d above. Plenty of FACE value here! The
first THIRTEEN books ever, and the first of anything philatelic are
usually the best performers. |
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Hong Kong 1880 10¢ on 24¢ green Queen Victoria unused - UNDER 15% of S.G. Cat!: A very scarce stamp. Expertised 3 times on reverse. SG 27 £1,500 = $A3,500. Couple trivial little blemishes typical for anything 130 years old. A very decent buy ex estate, at WAY under 15% of Gibbons - $A400 |
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Australian 1936 Tasmania Cable set cancelled the day BEFORE issue: It is clearly machine cancelled at Perth GPO, 11.45am, March 31, 1936 so backdating is not an issue, as with many small town hand cancels. Back in this era FDC were a generally un-collected novelty. In the entire period of Kangaroo issues from 1913 to 1936 there are only two FDC's recorded - despite the myriad of face values, of changing watermarks, and even many colour changes. No collectors seemed to care. The OFFICIAL release date seems to be agreed by catalogues as April 1. Clearly this is a day BEFORE. The morning of the day before in fact. March 31, 1936 was a Tuesday. This cover is just one of 2 recorded - an identical one being owned by Frank Pauer, who has the largest Australia FDC collection in existence. A ton more discussion on this cover, and many more photos are at - www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=16457 Some genius bid $A5,125 for an apparent simple date-slug error from a small PO on a 1d green commercial cover at auction in February 2009, that had a shopping list scrawled across the back. That cover also was allegedly used the day before issue. Pre-Decimal FDC collecting is in its infancy, and if a defective 1d green “Day Before Issue” cover has just got $5,125 at public auction .. this one in great condition surely has to be a great buy at - $A750 |
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G.B. 1867 5/- Queen Victoria scarce Plate 2 well UNDER 15% of SG!: Superb used appearing example with a perfectly upright "466" numeral. And superb centering that is unheard of on these stamps that OFTEN are perfs touching 2 sides! The critical plate number 2 is totally clear of the postmark. (Plate 2 are worth 40% more than Plate 1.) Clean used. SG 127 Cat £1,100 as average used (=A$2,750) and 75% more for well centred = $A4,800. Has a tiny closed tear at right you can see if you squint at the photo! (I also have a clean average used 10/- Green in this series - SG 128 Cat £2,800 = $A7,000 for $A500.) For this attractive 5/- …. Well UNDER 15% of the normal SG price - $A350 |
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