A GREAT RARITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

One of the curious things about philately is our fascination with errors and how these mishaps came about, writes Devlan Kruck as he examines an Australian oddity and the story behind it

This month’s featured stamp, the South Australia 1868 ‘3 PENCE’ on 4d deep ultramarine with the surcharge omitted, is certainly a fascinating stamp, even though we have no idea why it didn’t get its surcharge overprinted. As well as being one of the great rarity of this region and one of the famous errors of Australia, and indeed the British Empire, it is also one of only two unused examples of this error which exists in private hands, with the only other being in the Royal Philatelic Collection (which was in a horizontal pair with the lower stamp when bought by Stanley Gibbons in 1901).

There are only eleven used examples recorded of which seven are in private hands. It was first reported in the Philatelic Record in October 1879 and listed by Stanley Gibbons in 1892. Today it is catalogued by Stanley Gibbons at £50,000 unused and £55,000 used; given the number of used examples on the market, it seems that the unused catalogue value is significantly undervalued.

The last used example sold was in the Gary Diffen collection in April 2020 and realised £40,000. In fact this unused vertical pair could, and perhaps should be comparable in rarity to the famous ‘Inverted Swan’ error of Western Australia of which only seven examples, all used, remain in private hands. Stanley Gibbons gives that stamp a catalogue value of £180,000. The last example offered at auction sold for CHF 290,400 (including buyer’s premium) in the Besançon collection in 2018, which was just under £220,000 at the time.

Our South Australian oddity certainly boasts a philatelic pedigree, the provenance reading like a who’s who of the great and good philatelists of the 19th and 20th century. The top example of this rejoined pair has been in the collections of Ernest Brown, Colonel Harry Napier, John Griffiths, Barton Sparrow and Michael Blake, with the lower example coming from the Count Ferrary collection (Sale 7 lot 107), and also having been owned by Alfred H. Caspary and John R. Boker.

What is certain and less curious is that these errors do not come to market often and unused pairs are extraordinarily rarely, so it was exciting to see it make an appearance in a recent David Feldman SA auction when it featured as one of the stand-out items within their British Empire offering on 17 June. Such appearances provide the discerning philatelist with the opportunity to study the stamp and reflect on this great rarity’s illustrious provenance.

Given the number of used examples on the market, it seems that the unused catalogue value is significantly undervalued