As we reported, Spink is holding an auction of rare stamps of China in Hong Kong on Sunday. Equal top billing has been given to a complete sheet of 80 8f stamps from 1980 which picture a monkey in honour of the Year of the Monkey for up to the equivalent of $52,000.
Usually, the thing with valuable stamps is that they are quite rare. So you wouldn't expect examples of a genuine rarity to come up for sale in the same month.
Yet extraordinarily, auctioneers Philip Weiss are selling a sheet of the same stamps for an online sale which - a 'Post Office Fresh' sheet. Philatelists will immediately notice differences in markings, not to mention numbering, between the two sheets.
 Year of the Monkey stamp sheet |
The estimate for the Philip Weiss sheet is $45,000-55,000, though it already appears to have bids narrowly exceeding this range.
The sale provides a fascinating comparison between the power of an online auction and a live auction, where the latter is taking place in the stamps' country of origin.
