Every week we compile list of rare stamps and covers on the market. These are some of the most interesting philatelic items that we felt are interesting enough for collectors to browse.
Rare Stamps and Covers | 2010-Current | Archives |
Lithuania 1935 Vaitkus Flight Cover Lituanica II
A scarce 1935 flight cover No 799 carried on the second transatlantic flight from New York to Kaunas by a Lithuanian-American aviator Felix Waitkus (Feliksas Vaitkus). Because of some seriously bad weather en-route, his plane Lituanica II was forced to land in Ireland near Ballinrobe. Mail bag with 998 letters was transferred to Lithuania personally by the pilot himself where each letter was postmarked at the Kaunas Central Post Office. Feliksas Vaitkus was sixth pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic.
eBay Listing – Ended: July 28, 2010. Sold: $382
1933 Lithuania Darius & Girenas flight cover Lituanica
A rare 1933 flight cover carried on the first transatlantic flight from New York to Kaunas by a Lithuanian-American aviators Steponas “Stephen” Darius (1896-1933) and Stasys “Stanley” Girenas (1894-1933).
eBay Listing – Ended: July 20, 2010. Sold: $443
1941 Lithuania Germany WWII occupation overprints
An extraordinary example of Lithuania WWII occupation philately. A full sheet of laisvas Rokiskis overprint. The full sheets of Russian definitives used for overprinting were split in two halves. The bottom ½ sheets were used to apply black overprint and top ½ sheets were put aside to use for overprinting with red ink. The process started with overprinting of the bottom ½ sheets of the 10 kop value. Multiple errors in different sheet positions were noted as the process moved along. Some time early in the overprinting of 10 kop stamps the month numeral in position 10 (type II) fell out and most of the overprint had the stamp in position 10 missing the month numeral. Next were the bottom ½ sheets of Russian 5 kop definitive. Prior to starting with the overprinting, the month numeral was replaced – that created the “vI” (Mi. type IV) variety which does not exist in the 10 kop stamp. After just a few ½ sheets of the 5 kop denomination were overprinted, the Michel type VII “Laisavs” error was noted in position 2 and corrected (making Rokiskis 1aVII stamp not listed in Michel, one of the rarest in the whole issue). The remainder of the 5 kop bottom ½ sheets were successfully overprinted and only after the 15 kop definitive was in print the position 17 “Laiavas” error was found (Michel type VIII). This misspelling error was promptly “fixed” just to produce another error in position 17 with inverted “i” in “La ? svas” (Mi type IIc). The remainder of the 15 kop issue and 50 kop issue were overprinted with this error and it once again was picked up and corrected when the 20 kop bottom ½ sheets were being overprinted. The reminder of 20 kop definitives and all of the 60 kop issue did not have any major spelling errors. After overprinting of the bottom ½ sheets with black ink and before starting applying red overprint to top ½ sheets, a few top ½ sheets in 5 kop denomination were overprinted with the corrected black overprint.
eBay Listing – Ended: July 17, 2010. Did not sell: $499
1919 Lithuania Kybartai provisional postmark
A rare provisional Kybartai postmark on Vilnius Second issue stamp (Mi 5).
eBay Listing – Ended: July 17, 2010. Did not sell: $149
1931 Lithuania ship mail
A nice cover from Klaipeda to Edinburgh via Stettin-Riga.
eBay Listing – Ended: July 10, 2010. Sold: $126
1924 Lithuania Air post no watermark variety
A rare no watermark variety of 1924 new currency air post issue (Mi 222Y). Michel catalog value 450 Euros.
eBay Listing – Ended: July 10, 2010. Sold: $202
1927 Lithuania war invalids benefit issue on a registered cover
A philatelic use cover from 1927 with overprinted war orphans issue stamps with additional surcharges for the benefit of the war invalids who fought for the independence.
eBay Listing – Ended: July 10, 2010. Sold: $124