Lot 307 Great Britain - Horizontal Numeral London District Branch Office Duplex Cancels SC#3 1d Red Brown 1841-1854 1d Imperf Penny Red Issue, #53, 57, 64, 67, 70, 74 (See Description), 7 Ungraded Used Singles, Estimated Value $15

7 ungraded used examples of the 1d red brown from the 1841-1854 1d Imperf Penny Red Issue, #53, 57, 64, 67, 70, 74 (see description). #53 (London Chief Office) was in use in October 1850, and is rated as very rare. #57 (London Chief Office) was in use from August 1851 to September 1853 and is rated as rare. #64 (London Chief Office) was in use from July 1847 to April 1849. It is rated as not common. #67 (London Chief Office) was in use from June 1844 to April 1847 and is rated as common. This cancel is represented on two different shades. #70 (London Chief Office) was in use from May 1844 to February 1847 and is rated as not common. #74 (London Chief Office) was in use from June 1852 to March 1853 and is rated as very rare. Ratings are taken from London Postal History Group's 1981 paper on 1840-1857 District Post Office Cancellations. Our estimates are based on these ratings. 2022 Scott Classic Cat $227.5. Our estimate of the value based on the condition is $15.

The information about the cancellations for this week's auction is taken from two sources, both of which are available on the Royal Philatelic Society of London's website. The first publication is titled: Barred Numeral Cancellations of London, by John Parmenter. The second is titled: Inland Office Cancellations 1844-1868, The Horizontal Diamonds, by Brian Smith. Because the emphasis this week is on the cancellations, rather than the stamps, some stamps may have faults that are not specifically identified where we give the overall grade of the lot as either "ungraded" or "VG and below" or any grade below fine. Where we are grading stamps as fine or better, and in many cases VG, we will try to mention specific condition issues. It was common practice in the late 1800's to make streamers out of penny reds, so pinholes are a common occurrence with the used stamps. Corner or diagonal creases are the next most common fault. Our estimates reflect these issues though, with most of our estimates being in the $1 range for common cancels, $2 for uncommon cancels, $3 for difficult cancels, $4 for scarce cancels and $5-$10 for very scarce to very rare. For posterity we do mention the Scott and Gibbons catalogue values, but these generally only apply in instances where the stamps grade at least VG, and in most cases fine. So, most of the values we state are estimates based either on the cancellations, the condition, or both. For fine stamps we use 50% of the Scott or Gibbons values in our estimates, and 25% for VG, and 12% for good.