Royal Egyptian Stamp Collection

Interesting specimen from my great grandfathers collection. Looking for some information and comments on this specific stamp. Stamp once belonged to President Roosevelt. Looking forward to discussion on this :)

The stamp itself is super common and has a market value of almost nothing (Austria, probably Scott #229 / Michel #277 from 1920). If the "guarantee" holds up, the value would lie in its provenance, but what that value might be, I don't know.

Kasimir Bileski was a big-time Canadian stamp dealer in the 1950s (and many decades prior and since). His advertisements and sales promotions always seemed hyped-up, in a P.T. Barnum sort of way. He would prepare cards such as yours as a special gift or bonus to his customers, and he would offer to sell them on approval as well.

Here is an ebay lot of 7 similar cards that sold for $70.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/375040858386

Here is a group of 4 that sold on Hip Stamp for $20. This one has a similar, if not identical, stamp as yours, and also includes both sides of the promotional letter that came with the approvals that gives some more background.
https://www.hipstamp.com/listing/ro...ski/23954398

As to "President Roosevelt owned this at one time", that one is hard to verify without a backstop as having come from the Roosevelt collection. Perhaps Roosevelt owned a different copy of the identical stamp? That I would believe. It is possible that Roosevelt owned this exact stamp and I would be curious what route it took (Roosevelt to Farouk to Bileski? Farouk to Roosevelt to Bileski? Farouk to Bileski to Roosevelt to Bileski?)

An interesting piece of philatelic history, but nominal dollar value.

I agree that the stamp value is not very big ,but it is still a curious looking item. It resembles me a bit little to one of the expertised pieces of our Bulgarian expert Petko Karaivanov.
He was also a dealer and a very good specialist in his time,but in Europe.
This is a image of such piece from ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285589858212?_ul=GB

I think that there is a small typing error on the first letter g in the word guarantee. I had a friend who was working in a accounting office ,he had a typing machine and he often complained that his machine had a defect and made the same typing errors on one or two letters from the alphabet. So by just looking the inscription, I can say that for me it is written by a typing machine and not printed by other type of method as printer .The traces of wear and the wrinkles are also very convincing, that this may be a piece, from the same period .
It would be interesting if this stamp was in one time part of the Roosevelt collection. I have tried a search trough Google, for information about the Roosevelt collection but unfortunately I couldn't find anything else, which could be useful. Only a short description for the sale in 1946.

This is the blog :
https://centurystamps.com/5-of-the-...-collectors/

Probably if this stamp is proven by some other source as classic_paper pointed out in his publication, it would be attractive item for the most of the collectors.

It is implied the stamp itself is guaranteed to have been part of King Farouk's collection and that it has been owned by FDR. The image does not show any signature or other proof of this. The wording appears to be chosen to suggest but not explicitly state it is the actual stamp.

Normally, certificates come with a signature from a recognised expert and an image of the stamp. None of this is evident from the image. If, indeed, the 'Arabic guarantee' is unidentified, it may as well state someone has written in Arabic that King Farouk also owned such a stamp.

There is not enough information to say what the item, actually, is.

From Golowes website..



The "bonuses" were like the item shown here and the promotional value of him attending and purchasing auctions lots from FDR and King Farouk.

I would assume that the value would be in any demand from anyone who might be a fan of Bileski as a dealer and promoter.
Don

Edit: There was a large amount of 'dross' (FDR's term) in his material. For these common items, slapping 'From collection of FDR' does not add any significant market value.

There's one in my collection too - its all in how it is worded and interpreted.