Wednesday 30 November 2016

Pages 86-87 v

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24-Bavaria, 1849, tete-beche pair in block of 12; Atlanticus.
25- British Guiana, 1852, block of four; Stolow, New York.
26- Egypt, 1926, block of four from sheet of 25 (price quoted is for all 25); ex-King Farouk.



24. Bavaria, 1849, tête-bêche pair in block of 12
Sc1 SG2
The Philatelic Foundation has published a 1991 paper on this issue which notes that there are three known t-b pairs, including two blocks of 12. They refer to these blocks as The Boker Tête-Bêche (invert in pos 1 on the fourth row) and the Ferrari-Lichtenstein Tête-Bêche (invert in pos 1 of the second row). The example in LIFE is the latter and the paper states that it was due to be sold in October 1991. (The third pair "has been in Switzerland in the collection of Johannes Elster for several decades and has not been shown publicly since the 1930's").

Scott (2007) describes the Sc1 as black and Sc1a as deep black with a t-b pair at $125,000.
Gibbons (2011) has SG1 black and Sc2 as grey-black, listing a t-b pair of Sc2 as £90,000, noting that all known examples are in larger blocks.

25. British Guiana, 1852, block of four
Sc6 SG9
An image of this item is proving elusive, although Christies has the following, "cover 1852 (1 Jan.) 1c. black on magenta block of four tied by "DEMERARA" double-arc d.s. (dated 7 August 1855) on reverse of 1855 (6 Aug.) entire letter from Mahaica to Georgetown, the face panel shows two strikes of "B G/E 5 C" c.d.s.; the block with very light horizontal fold between. One of the major rarities of British Guiana philately. Friedl Certificate (1979)", no image. That lot (sale 5392, lot 2013) sold for $60,620.
Scott (2007) prices the individual stamps as $10k/$5k mint and used.
Gibbons (2004) at £8k/£4.

26. Egypt, 1926, block of four from sheet of 25
Sc124 SG144
The original stamps were for the 58th birthday of King Fuad, overprinted in December 1926 for the inauguration of Port Fuad, situated opposite Port Said. Individual stamps are priced by Scott at $1400/$875.
There should be a formula for estimating the value of blocks based on the price of a single stamp, but until that is invented, the calculation is simply $1,400 * 25.

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