I took a flyer on a shoebox lot of stamps and covers, based on a few world covers I saw that piqued my curiosity. If I have identified things properly, I think that two of them might actually be worth more than just nominal value.
There were a few U.S. FDCs (bleagh!) and a few semimodern world covers, a couple of common New Zealand Health covers, but here are the ones that caught my fancy. Some are obviously philatelic.
I don't think that any of the above three are worth anything, just interesting. The last two, on the other hand I think might have some value.
First is a cover from St. Helena with the 1935 Silver Jubilee set, which is a decent set in its own right (US$30 or so), but it's also a first day cover. There are a couple of examples of this set on registered mail covers with completed
ebay results in the US$50-70 range, but none that are FDCs.
Of added interest (to me at least), is the embossed seal on the reverse, from The Eastern Telegraph Company.
Lastly is a cover that, while condition isn't the greatest, appears to be fairly scarce...
In 1932, Wolfgang von Gronau conducted an around-the-world flight in a Donier seaplane called the "Gronland-Wal" (Greenland Whale). Covers were flown on the various legs of the trip.
http://www.wingnet.org/rtw/RTW002I.HTMVideo of the plane:
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/r...-flying-boatThe cover I found is from the Shanghai to Manilla leg of the journey. All the records I've found on these covers put them in the US$200-500 range.
Sure, it's a little bit munged, but how many are there? Not bad for being buried in the bottom of a shoebox...
Posted 05/30/2013 9:46 pm
