Submitted by aarAdmin on Wed, 03/29/2023 - 00:00
Popular former Australian Test cricketer Doug Walters baggy green cap (lot 3537) didn’t quite reach its $15,000 catalogue estimate – but nevertheless was knocked down for a credible $13,800 (including buyer’s premium) at Melbourne-based Abacus Auctions four-day March sale of stamps, postal history, coins and banknotes and sporting memorabilia.
Director Torsten Weller was pleased with the auction’s overall result of more than $1.35 million including buyers’ premiums, claiming the upturn experienced during two years of COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne is being maintained.
“The market remains buoyant and our major challenge is to find enough interesting material to meet local and international demand,” he said.
Cricket and football cards continued recent strong runs, the standout example the group of 53 1921-28 suburban football premium issue (lot 3622) in somewhat mixed condition that realised $4320 – a ten-fold increase from their $400 estimate.
On the stamp front, the ever popular Chinese 1980 “Year of the Monkey” example is a staple of most major world auctions.
However, a block of four on a 1980 airmail postcard to Queensland (lot 1704) really laid it on when the sale price of $6600 doubled the catalogue estimate of $3000.
Rare Australian stamps always perform well and the 1942 11/2d Queen Mother (lot 258) with an inverted watermark – only the second recorded example – sold for $13,800.
Lot 279, a group of 29 stamp-size photographic essays for the 1978 Horse Racing issue – estimated at $1000 – surprised everyone when fierce bidding rocketed it to nine times that value.
A Canadian vendor consigned the largest array of first day covers, offered in more than 150 lots, to appear at auction for many years – setting several new benchmarks.
Among the many outstanding pieces were two parcel tags – one (lot 601) a complete set of Commonwealth of Australia watermark high value kangaroos that reached $7800 – and the other from 1983 to Holland with a block of four of the Paintings $10 Coming Home stamps (lot 702) that changed hands for $1380.
British Africa stamps were a highlight with the southern Rhodesia collection of postmarks by the late Paul Peggie of particular note, selling for more than four times their estimates. The iconic 100-pound Rhodesian cherry red printer’s sample (lot 1607) brought an incredible $9000.
Among the coins and banknotes section was a relatively low grade aVF iconic Australian 1930 Penny (lot 3068) that sold for a solid $21,600.
Because of the impact of the Great Depression, 1930 pennies were never meant to be minted. However, it is believed that tourists visiting the Melbourne Mint at the time received special commemorative samples that then found their way into circulation.
