Canada's philatelic faux pas - St. Lawrence Seaway Invert

Randy Boswell of CanWest News Service reports in the Edmonton Journal, "Canada's philatelic faux pas worth a boatload of nickels."

According to Boswell, "The most embarrassing stamp snafu in Canadian history is set to go under the spotlight at a landmark auction in Britain, where an extremely rare, unused quartet of the famous "Seaway invert" -- a 1959 five-cent issue featuring an upside-down image celebrating the friendship between Canada and United States -- is expected to fetch more than $60,000."

"The block of four being sold by Sotheby's in May belonged to the late Sir Gawaine Baillie, a British aristocrat and 1960s motorsports celebrity who amassed one of the world's most valuable stamp collections before his death in 2003," writes Boswell.

According to the article, "Baillie's collection is being liquidated in a record-smashing series of 10 sales that began in 2004, including one New York auction last year that saw a single, ultra-rare example of Canada's most famous stamp -- the 'Twelve-Penny Black' of 1851 -- purchased for nearly $250,000, double the predicted price."

Click here to read the entire article.

For more photos and information on the "Seaway Inverts," click here.