Lot no. 345 •

There are additional 7% import fees (not tax, non deductible) that will be charged to all buyers. This includes also those buyers from outside the European Union.

2d. blue, plate 3, FA / GD, an unused block of eight, each stamp overprinted SPECIMEN, ample to large marginsall round, sheet marginal at left with imprint „Back be careful not to remove the Ce(ment)“ , GD with ‚Double Letter‘ variety, of outstanding colour and freshness. Full unmounted original gum, a truly magnificent and spectacular multiple for the Line Engraved connoisseur. Many of the surviving copies are heavily creased and/or oxidized. This block is the nicest multiple the collector could find and had the desire to own. (S.G.Cat. GBP 42.000)

Remark: The existance of the 1841, 1d. red-brown and 2d. blue handstamped SPECIMEN was first reported in THE BRITISH PHILATELIST in March 1934 when „…..quite recently a block of thirty-one of the One Penny and a block of thirty of the Two Pence, plate 3, turned up (…..) which have not hitherto been known overprinted specimen“. 
‚Specimen‘ overprinted sheets of the 1d. and 2d. have been sent on request of the Prussian, Austrian and Neapolitan Post Offices in 1849 as samples, when these countries were planing to issue first adhesive postage stamps similar as the British Post Office. Entire sheets of the 1d. red-brown, plate 88, and 2d. blue, plate 3, overprinted SPECIMEN sent to Prussia is still in the National Heritage Stamp Collection of the National Postal Museum in Berlin.

Provenance: Heinrich Köher, Wiesbaden, September 2006, lot 868
'Forrester‘ Collection (2008)