Both the original and reprinted Hanukkah booklet issued by Canada Post this November sold for $134 yesterday as part of the weekly auction hosted by All Nations Stamp and Coin.
The following lot of Auction #1137—Lot 61—offered an original Hanukkah first-day cover, which realized $220, more than doubling its pre-sale estimate of $100.
In All Nations’ previous weekly auction, held Dec. 2, both the original and reprinted Hanukkah booklet were offered as Lot 75. Together, they brought $99 after a pre-sale estimate of $60.
HANUKKAH ‘DESIGN ISSUE’
The day after being unveiled in Toronto, and only one day before it was slated to go on sale across the country, the Hanukkah issue was removed from display and returned to head office because of what Canada Post called “a design issue” with the stamp booklet and first-day cover.
An original booklet (top) and reprinted booklet (bottom) also realized $99 at the Vancouver-based auctioneer’s Dec. 2 sale. (Photo by All Nations)
Initially slated for release on Nov. 14 as a booklet of 10 stamps, the Hanukkah stamp was unveiled on Nov. 12 at the Starry Nights event held at the Toronto Reference Library’s Bram and Bluma Appel Salon. However, according to a Canada Post memo sent to all dealer post offices on Nov. 13, entitled “IMPORTANT: Stop selling Hanukkah stamp products immediately,” the booklet (product code “414066111”) and official first-day cover (product code “414066131”) were ordered to be “immediately removed from display and returned.”
“These products are not to be sold to customers and they are also no longer available through mail order or online,” reads the memo, which also explains “the reprinted version” of the stamp booklets and OFDC would “be back on sale in the next coming weeks.” The products were to be returned no later than Nov. 22.
Post offices were also requested to remove the November 2017 issue of Details magazine, which featured the original Hanukkah products on page 10.
CANADA POST RESPONSE
Canada Post officials would not provide specific details on the “design issue” but clarified it was not an issue with the stamp but the actual booklet and OFDC.
“There were no issues with the text or any misspelling,” added Canada Post media relations manager Phil Legault. “To resolve the design issue, we reprinted the booklet and the first-day cover.”
One of the major design differences noted by Canadian Stamp News is on the booklet cover; the original booklet depicts the Star of David while the reprinted booklet depicts the left-side arms of the menorah (the star has been removed).
For more information about the reprinted Hanukkah booklets, click here.
Lot 106 realized $2,420 after spirited bidding from a collection in Canada as well as the U.S.
AUCTION 1136
Auction #1136 also saw numerous bidders on Lot 106, an eight-stamp set issued by the People’s Republic of China in celebration of Mei Lan Fang (Scott #620-627). With two live phone bidders from Canada and the U.S., this lot eventually hammered down for $2,420, more than doubling its original estimate of $1,000.
Brian Grant Duff, owner and auctioneer of the Vancouver-based auction house, said the “market continues to be strong for better material.”