Danish West Indies: Gallery: Select Stamps Scott #1-4
A selection of especially attractive and interesting seldom-offered items. All are available for approval viewing. Scott numbers have been used unless otherwise mentioned.
1a [1856 3 cent Dark Carmine with Yellow Gum] Used VF+ (4 large margins) with most of full yellow gum still intact. A very nice example, with only very slight discoloration in upper right. (Keep in mind that the #1a yellow gum and #1 brown gum were official regumming because the original shipment #1b with white gum was damaged by sea water. Some minor discoloration is typical and expected.) Very fresh and bright example that will look great in any collection.
ACTUAL item.
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395.00
243366
1a [1856 3 cent Dark Carmine with Yellow Gum] Used VF (4 margins, close but clear at lower left) with virtually all of full yellow gum still intact. A very nice example, with none of the typical discoloration. (Keep in mind that the #1a yellow gum and #1 brown gum were official regumming because the original shipment #1b with white gum was damaged by sea water. Some minor discoloration is typical and expected.) That this example has virtually full gum is a little unusual, but it was properly used -- the gum did not stick very well if not heavily moistened, so stamps fairly easily popped off the envelope. Very fresh and bright example with light cancellation. Facit 2020 value SEK 3800 or about $495 (5/2021).
ACTUAL item.
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449.00
247462
Scott #1a, Facit #1b, AFA #1B [1855 3 cent Carmine with YELLOW GUM] Used with VF centering; three full to large margins and one close but clear margin. Extremely lightly canceled with small VIOLET line of a type I have not previously seen. However the yellow gum stamps are known to have more colored cancellations (I had a wonderful blue ring cancellation about ten years ago) than the other gum types. The clean and crisp Carmine color of this stamp is the original gum as they were printed -- you would never know that by looking at a Scott #1 brown gum stamp. This is a #1a: The burelage I/A (lines upper left to lower right) are visible (a 10x magnifier is always needed on these) in the lower left corner. Furthermore, the stamp has VIRTUALLY FULL GUM; it had been adhered to an envelope and was removed without soaking, leaving a very small amount of paper adhered, but mostly full YELLOW gum. An outstanding and unquestionable example of a scarce stamp!
ACTUAL item.
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389.00
400400
Scott #1a [1855 1 cent Dark Carmine, Imperforate, Yellow Gum] Used with F-VF with margins and appearance (three margins clear, one very large), but with small tear and a thin at the upper right corner (only visible from the reverse). Light, centrally struck 5-rings-with-dot mute cancellation and nice color. The yellow gum is fully intact; which is somewhat unusual, but sometimes the yellow gum did not adhere well to the covers. It is important to leave any yellow (or white) gum intact if it is present because it confirms the identity of the stamp. The yellow gum was officially applied by the St. Thomas post office after humidity or seawater [reportedly variously in the literature] damage on the trip from Denmark caused the sheets with original white gum to stick together. This is an attractive example, without any defects, but with the limited margins, it is priced very low. This is a scarce stamp. The 2024 Facit value is SEK 4500 (approx US$ 450 9/2025) and the 2026 Scott value is $375.
ACTUAL item.
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69.00
247458
2 Dark Rose [1866 3 cent rose to carmine, Imperforate] Used XF with four full to large margins and almost perfectly centered 5-ring-plus-dot cancellation. While this cancellation was in normal use at all three primary post offices at this time, nice examples, especially so complete and well-centered, are hard to find. The printing of this example is unusually crisp and detailed, obviously either an early impression or printed right after the plates were cleaned. A handsome example!
ACTUAL item.
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79.00
400401
Scott #2 [1866 3 cent Rose, Imperforate] Used with VF centering; three ample to large margins, fourth margin just clears design (this issue had small inter-stamp spacing on the plate). This example has an incredibly clear, proof-like impression; it must have been from very early in the printing! Very neat 5-ring mute cancels in upper left and upper right corners; the center dot is not visible on these strikes. Such corner-canceled examples are unusual. By regulation, these early stamps were supposed to center-canceled. Probably less than 1% of extant examples have corner cancels like this. Wonderful appearance!
ACTUAL item.
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SOLD
246728
2 PRIVATELY ROULETTED????? [1866 3 cent Rose, Imperforate?] Mint, without gum, F-VF with three margins, but with internal paper break in the back of the stamp (a lateral tear within the plane of the paper). This example appears to be rouletted, and AFA and DAKA do list two different private roulettes (4.5 and 9.5), but only in Used condition and on cover. Because it would be relatively easy to alter a normal imperforate example to look like a rouletted example, I cannot state definitively that this is a genuine private roulette -- however, I also cannot state that it is a fake roulette. This could be the real thing and if so, it would be quite rare and valuable, especially since Mint examples do not seem to have been recorded. (I obtained it in a group of DWI duplicates, not recognized for what it may be, from a collector who obtained it in a group of stamps also not recognized for what it might be.) This example may not be genuine rouletted stamp, thus it can only be offered AS-IS. Do you feel lucky?
ACTUAL item.
49.00
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400402
Scott #3 [1872 3 cent Rose, Perforated] Mint, WITHOUT GUM (typical), with F-VF centering (three margins, typical). Unusually Dark Carmine color. A very attractive example! A with-gum example of this centering would be $130. [This issue was printed on very thin paper, often resulting in the watermark shows through when against a dark background. The website image shows both dark and light backgrounds.]
ACTUAL item.
SOLD
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230855
3 Used F-VF+ with nice perforations for this issue and complete mute target cancellation.
ACTUAL item.