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Christmas stamps are on sale and whilst most of us will be enjoying their festive spirit, there are some who will be looking at their stamps with a magnifying glass, not licking them.
Christmas stamps are on sale and whilst most of us will be enjoying their festive spirit, there are some who will be looking at their stamps with a magnifying glass, not licking them.
Over the years there have been several Christmas stamp errors in the Channel Islands.
In 1982 Guernsey issued an 8p stamp with black omitted resulting in the loss of the queen’s head, value and inscription. That has gone from 8p to being priced at £2,750. It was first priced in the 2009 Collect Channel Islands catalogue at £2,000, that’s a 37.5% increase over the four years.
There was also a 1990 Jersey Parish Churches (2nd series) stamp with green omitted which affects the country name and Queen’s head which is currently catalogued at £1,500.
Keith Heddle, Group Investment Director at Stanley Gibbons said that between 1966 and 1973 there were Christmas errors appearing annually in the UK: ‘Mistakes do happen, and although the post offices try to limit these errors getting into circulation, they sometimes do, much to the joy of stamp collectors. If you do spot an error don’t lick it and stick it on a Christmas card envelope, condition is all important, so preserve it in as perfect state as you can. Don’t forget to keep an eye on those you receive from the UK too, a 1988 13p stamp is currently catalogued at £12,000 because of an error, a nice little Christmas gift if you can find one. ’
All the prices quoted are from the 2013 edition of the Collect Channel Islands and Isle of Man Stamps catalogue, with the latest edition for 2014 due out later this month. Stamps are increasingly being bought as investments for diversified portfolios, and the latest Stanley Gibbons’ GB250 Rarities Index has grown 244.76% since 2003, equivalent to 13.18 cumulative annual growth.
