New Caledonie & St. Pierre - A Pleasant Surprise

I have 4 plate blocks from 1971, 2 each from New Caledonie (Scott # 393 & 394) and Saint Pierre (Scott #417 & 418). What is strange to me is that they both have the same images of a man on each of them and yet they are from those 2 different countries. In fact, the stamps look almost identical in design except for a bit of color variation.

I have a lot of stuff from 1970 and 1971 that my father purchased as corner blocks from post offices in Canada, Italy, Australia, etc and most of it being from that period is not worth much at all. So after a while I stopped even looking up prices for some this stuff knowing that the value for most of it is minimal.

What is surprising is that these stamps from 1971 are valued from $8 up to $27 per stamp in Scott. I was shocked. I wonder what makes them worth a lot more than minimum vale when yet they are so new?

I was also surprised that there are no images of any of these stamps in Scott at all. Luckily my father had noted down the Scott numbers when he bought them or I would have never been able to find them at all. I wonder why Scott does not carry images of them as well?

Are these the stamps you are refering to....





Images courtesy of Freestampcatalogue.com

Steve

Yes, those is they :)

If you look in the front of a Scott catalogue there is a section that is called Common Design Types (or similar).

These are stamps that have been issued with the same design for multiple colonies or the like. At the time these countries or dependencies were considered colonies and the design was used for many.

French colonies and Great Britain commonwealth colonies mostly I think.

As for being worth more, it is the relatively small number of stamps printed for, usually, small areas. This doesn't stop countries now-a-days but back then things were more civilized and not as commercialized.

Interesting Puzzler, thanks. That all makes good sense. Still interesting that they seem rare enough to have a decent value/demand. Cheers. Marc

Thanks for showing them Mark, I do not see many "modern" stamps from those areas..i always remember New Caledonia as my Uncle John used to mention he was there for a while during WW2 .

marcbkk don't not be too concerned about "catalog values" you will need the cheapos to complete a collection...i have traded stamps with people who wanted "large stamps only" which is a shame because many of my better stamps are medium and small sized !

Thanks philb. I appreciate the advice. By the way, I have a few bits and pieces from New Caledonia and most of them are worth something. I guess that territory in general did not print in such high volume and even the newer stuff is somewhat rare.

Many of the French area islands have traditionally been a favorite of French area collectors and have good healthy premiums -- see for example, French Oceania/Polynesia.

Most France+area had been pretty stagnant for the past decade, but has suddenly come alive again. There are pretty good increases almost across the board for French area stamps in the 2011 Scott catalog.

i do have some favorite in my collection and this French Polynesia c47a catalog $125.00 is one of them !

i purchased a milk crate of almost empty scott internationals at a small town auction for $58 dollars the the French Poly sheet was loose between the French Polynesia pages Karma ? the person who owned it never even bothered to mount it..a good thing ! its still mint never hinged....i am sure others have stories of finds they would like to share !

Marc,

These were issued to commemorate the 1 yr anniversary of DeGaulle's death (1890-1970) by the following nations:
Afars & Issas
Comoro Islands
France
French Polynesia
French Southern and Antarctic Territories
New Caledonia
Reunion
St. Pierre & Miquelon
Wallis & Futuna Islands

Thanks Gaff. That explains why so many countries have the same looking issues. In fact, when I was browsing through the New Caledonie & St. Pierre in Scott's I was surprised how many looked similar in general.

Kim - You are right about French Polynesia. I have a couple of small plate blocks from 1958 (C25 & C26) and I was surprised how much each of the stamps on the blocks are worth. Some of the stamps are quite pretty as well.

Puzzler mentioned the value of the New Caledonie & St. Pierre being higher because possibly of the small colony/low number of printed issues factor, which I am sure is true. But to be honest, I was just going through some other stuff from lots of little GB island territories that I have from the early seventies as well and most of it isn't worth anything by comparison. Or maybe it is just that particular issue that is worth a bit more than others from those territories in general. I am not sure.