Collection: Current Weekly Auction - Closing Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 11:30 pm Atlantic Time

 Welcome to our weekly unreserved auction!  This week, we offer a general selection of pre-1952 British Commonwealth and Worldwide, and then we have part 1 of our Sock-On-The Nose Cancels, being British Commonwealth From Queen Victoria and King Edward VII.

These stamps have been saved up by us over the last few years and represent the very best of the used material that we come across. While most of it is VF, the emphasis when we put cancels aside is the strike itself. So, sometimes we will put aside a stamp that has a beautiful cancel, but where the stamp itself has a small fault. Generally, at this point, while such faults do detract somewhat, the impact is not as significant as it would be for a basic stamp that is not being collected for its cancel. 

The scarcity of SON cancels is due mainly to the size of the cancels relative to the stamps of the period, but also due to postal regulations which did not generally encourage placement of the cancel on the middle of the stamp. Quite often the CDS or barred numeral is part of a duplex cancel, and even though the regulations generally called for the obliterator to be centrally applied, it seldom is, or if it is, it is so heavy as to completely deface the stamp. Finding a stamp that is cancelled clearly, but with a feather touch, leaving the design clear is one of philately's great treasures. 

Here you will find those types of stamps, as well as stamps of one colony used in another, or a plethora of small town or village cancellations, which we have identified. A word about values: in many cases the value of the cancel will exceed the value of the stamp, and in this case we use estimates to arrive at the value. Even the most common QV or EVII stamp from this period with a SON cancel will be worth a minimum of $1, for the most common capital city, with most smaller towns or villages being worth $5-10 each. If you look on Michael Hamilton's site (he is a cancel specialist) you will get a good idea for retail values of these cancels. 

Lots marked with a "(C)" next to the lot number, or in the title are on consignment. Accordingly a 15% buyer's premium will apply to those lots only. 

There are 323 lots this week. 

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