SAINT LUCIA
1986 ROYAL WEDDING of PRINCE ANDREW and SARAH FERGUSON STAMP ISSUES

Information and Reference of What was Found in the Format Archive and Elsewhere

Varieties and Proofs

Would YOU store YOUR specialized 1986 Royal Wedding Uncut Press Sheets this way?

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2015 are on the market. They have the correct perf size!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered 1986 Royal Wedding Forgeries.
The 1986 Royal Wedding stamps issued for Saint Lucia have an interesting twist as the souvenir sheet for the set was never issued. The theorized reasoning behind this is that the Saint Lucia postal authorities rejected it on the grounds that the perforations cut into the face of Prince Andrew. Also as one can see the country name also is imprinted on the Prince's face. To the royal family this would be considered disrespectful. In any regards the country of Saint Lucia never issued the souvenir sheet to the public.

Some stamp dealers and collectors at present time want to call this souvenir sheet "unauthorized" or "bogus" trying to downgrade its legitimacy in the collecting community. For their information many times stamps have been authorized to print and have been produced on a productive scale by the printer BEFORE being rejected by the postal authorities of a given country. This may be done as an oversight by the postal authority of said country when approving the master proofs for full production. It has happened MANY times throughout history with many stamps. A wrong spelling of a name or word. A wrong picture. A flaw and so on. A good example is the U.S. Legends of the West pane which made it all the way to the postal offices and even a few were used before the U.S. postal authorities realized the picture of Bill Pickett was a picture of his cousin and not him, thus causing the postal service to recall the whole printing. Who was responsible for allowing it to be produced to the extent it was before it was recalled? The printing company? Afraid not! As you can see this souvenir sheet basically went through the same process.
Unauthorized? No. Bogus? No. Rejected or recalled? Yes.

So, what did the Format Printers do with this souvenir sheet which they had already produced along with all the issues for this series for eighteen countries? Of course, they saved them for resale as an unissued stamp to try to make some of the revenue back from printing them. You see, printing postage stamps is NOT free and printing a full run and then having it rejected and NOT paid for is not good business sense. In my opinion I do not blame them one bit.

Next I present the story about the tete-beches. It is an interesting story.

THE STORY

This part of the presentation is repeated on all the Eastern Hemisphere pages, so you can skip to the reprint section if you have already read this part.

The story began back in 1991 with the sale of the Format International Security Printers Archive due to the bankruptcy proceedings which caused the liquidation of the companies assets including the archive. At the time the trials against the company and affiliated companies and owners for the said fraudulent reprinting and production of varieties which was proven to be found not guilty of all charges was also happening. The British Metropolitan Police made numerous raids on the companies including raiding the printing company and confiscating anything that looked like stamp errors. They took several tons of philatelic material including progressive color proofs, specimen overprinted, imperforate proofs, on and on from the companies and the archive. Mainly involving the countries involved in the trials including Tuvalu and the islands, St. Vincent and dependencies, St. Lucia, Nevis, etc;.

The materials left in the archive were sold via Christie's/Robson Lowe in private treaties and several public auctions with the final auction being made in 1995. One of the major buyers of the archive was Mr. Kasimir Bileski, a famous stamp dealer in Canada. In his purchases he acquired the majority of uncut press sheets from all the countries involved in the 1986 Royal Wedding Omnibus Series. He became fascinated by the tete-beche formation of the sheets and began a heavy research into what they were for and what existed. He studied them among hundred's of other studies for around 16 years before his passing. In the sale of the archive several other dealers obtained some of the sheets and Mr. Bileski for years tried and did in fact locate and purchase most of them from them to reunite with his own.

I have produced a PDF file with Different Bileski Write-ups on the 1986 Royal Wedding Tete-beches. Most have never been seen publicly. You can download and read them here.

The Bileski Documents on the 1986 Royal Wedding Tete-beches

It is interesting here to note that during all this time it was unknown about the existence of the materials that were confiscated for the trials of the printer of which included a large quantity of the uncut press sheets and such of the Omnibus Series in many forms. I wish to note the exciting news at this point that not very many (if at all) uncut press sheets of the normal issued stamp pairs from the islands of Tuvalu were confiscated!

My interest in the series began in about 1998 when in my dealings with Mr. Bileski, he sent me a "bonus gift" in one of my purchases of a set of the tete-beche pairs from all of the countries involved. I followed his research and after his passing have carried it on to today. It has been a fun study and has advanced far beyond Mr. Bileski's study of the series.

After Mr. Bileski's passing, his estate was put up for auction in many different lots over a couple of years via R. Maresch Auction House. In several large lots over this time the materials from the Format Printers Archive were placed for auction. At this time I had not been dealing with Mr. Bileski for years and did not know of his passing. Several of the earlier sold lots were purchased by Mr. Karl Marquis, owner of KMPhilately. KMP broke the large lots into smaller random lots and began sales on their internet auction sales. THIS is when I discovered what had happened. I feverishly bid on many of the lots including the ones with the tete-beches and won most of them, but lost a few also. I reorganized them and reunited them and began the count. Over several years I have found the other buyers who were my competitors and purchased much and received the counts of what they have or had. The counts hold true with the documents written by Robson Lowe and Mr. Bileski my friends!

I have since taken the research even further! I have acquired the police evidence stock held in the police warehouse until 2008 on the Saint Lucia side! In the stock were hundreds of the press sheets still intact and much more cut for storage. Of these all the varieties as in the second issues, silver and gold overprints, Specimen overprinted, missing value, imperforates, progressives. A wonderful find!
With this stock I have been able to gain the evidence needed to come up with the quantities produced for all varieties on the eastern hemisphere side of the series!

REPRINTS

I have found there to be two printing of the 1st series for all countries.
With Saint Lucia one cannot define the difference well by the inscriptions as they are similar with Tuvalu issues as in they are black.
With Saint Lucia the reprints are similar with the Tuvalu issues. The originals have deeper toning than the reprints.
Following are the comparisons.


Note the darker toning on the originals.
The hair is darker on the originals.


Again note the darker toning. Complexion much darker on the originals.


Note the bluish hue of the shirt collar on the original.


Note the deeper toning of the face on the originals. Again a much deeper bluish hue on the originals.

An interesting note on these. The imperforate pairs with missing values and the silver overprinted second issue pairs are from the original printing, whereas the perforated missing value pairs and specimen and gold overprinted pairs are from the reprints.

On this page we will try to break down quantities that exist to try to establish a value for the material. All varieties come from the uncut press sheets and the saved print runs. These numbers may change as more information becomes available.

An interesting note is that like the issues which have Princess Diana pictured, the $2 issue from Saint Lucia is one of the rare stamps that pictures Nancy Reagan the wife of President Reagan. Thus it appears that the $2 uncut press sheets have been broken more extensively.

Section 1 will deal with the single stamp issues and section 2 will deal with the souvenir sheet.

PRICING IS FOR VARIETIES FROM UNCUT PRESS SHEETS, NOT NORMAL ISSUED STAMPS

SECTION 1

THE PERFORATED VARIETIES

Normal gutter varieties etc.

Based on the configuration of the uncut press sheets we will base quantities on the Bileski method of cutting or breaking the sheets. Also included in the equations will be the fact of how many intact sheets still exist.

Please note that once the stamps are separated from the large selvage or gutter and or the tete-beches are separated they cannot be distinguished from the normal issued stamps or that they did not come from booklet panes.

FROM NORMAL PERFORATED UNCUT PRESS SHEETS

NORMAL PERFORATED GUTTER PAIRS

NORMAL PERFORATED LARGE SELVAGE STAMP PAIRS

Through my findings from emailed accounts and stocks purchased from the police evidence stock I have finally been able to come out with the quantitative figures of what was produced for the series in general. For all normal issued 1st and 2nd issues of the 1986 Royal Wedding stamp issues printed by the Format Printers, 300 press sheets of 80 stamps were produced. For the smaller island issues 150 were produced. Thus 12,000 stamp pairs were produced of each value for the main countries and 6,000 stamp pairs produced for the islands and dependencies.

I found in the police evidence stock:
At present 19 uncut press sheets of the 80c value still exist. 13+ more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 7 uncut press sheets of the $2 value still exist. 16+ more sheets have been broken into gutters etc. Basing on 300 sheets being produced of each value we can calculate that 5 x 300 = 1500 of these gutter pairs could exist. The same number of tete-beche blocks could exist.

This is not the case though as evidence shows that many of the tete-beches have been separated with no regard to their rarity. I found many broken sheets separated from the middle of the tete-bech pairs. Many separated from the gutters thus destroying the gutters. This has greatly decreased the number of tete-beches in both forms that can still exist. Looking back on the history of their sales in the market few are offered and when they are the owner usually only has one or a couple. This shows that very few have been saved intact.

In my acquisitions of the Bileski estate I have managed to reunite a major portion of the tete-beches he created of the 1st issue. For some countries almost 100%! For Saint Lucia around 50%!
I have recovered practically all of the tete-beche blocks and pairs of the $2 value!

Referencing from the Robson Lowe count of sheets found in the archive and the additional sheets recovered from the police evidence stock I can assure you that the tete-beches and gutters are rare!

The known to exist count for Saint Lucia:

Approximately 100 tete-beche gutter blocks and 100 straight-up gutter blocks of both values exist. Around 70 to 80 of tete-beche blocks. Around 70 to 80 of tete-beche pairs.

I personally have recovered from the Bileski side
The $2 value
63 tete-beche gutter blocks
63 straight up gutter blocks
78 tete-beche blocks
65 tete-beche pairs
For the 80c value
63 tete-beche gutter blocks
61 straight up gutter blocks
30 tete-beche blocks
65 tete-beche pairs

As far as large selvage stamps go, 10 pairs can exist from each sheet, 5 from each side, thus 1500 pairs. Not a lot with the millions of collectors out there.

Pricing should run $12-15.00 for intact gutter pairs either tete-beche or not.
Tete-beche pairs $4-5.00 and blocks at $8-10.00.
Stamp pairs or singles with the LARGE selvage should run at double catalog values. Noting the $2 value has Nancy Reagan (President Ronald Reagan's wife) on it makes this stamp pair more in demand thus a premium can be expected.
Intact uncut press sheets are in the extreme rare category now.

NORMAL PERFORATED TETE-BECHE BLOCKS

NORMAL PERFORATED TETE-BECHE GUTTER PAIRS

NORMAL PERFORATED "SPECIMEN" OVERPRINTED STAMPS FROM UNCUT PRESS SHEETS

The above imaged format exist for the SPECIMEN overprinted stamps as well. There are two versions of the SPECIMEN overprint. The first being larger letters in italic in silver and the second being smaller block capital lettered in silver.
I can find very few examples on the market with the large overprint. None were in the police evidence stock.

SPECIMEN OVERPRINT VARIETIES

LARGE ITALIC SILVER SPECIMEN OVERPRINTS

SMALL BLOCK CAPITALS SILVER SPECIMEN OVERPRINT ON 80c VALUE

SMALL BLOCK CAPITALS SILVER SPECIMEN OVERPRINT ON $2 VALUE

Documentation and evidence show that:
At present 52 uncut press sheets of the 80c value still exist. 8 more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 27 uncut press sheets of the $2 value still exist. 5 more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
Research shows that these are from a later printing and because of the larger number of uncut press sheets we can safely assert 75 sheets total were produced making 3,000 sets of pairs.

Here we must then calculate that for the smaller overprinted stamps that they are 4 times rarer than the normal perforated gutter pairs etc. above.
Therefore pricing should be at least $15-20.00 for intact gutter pairs either tete-beche or not.
Tete-beche pairs $6-7.00 and blocks at $12-15.00.
Stamp pairs or singles with the LARGE selvage should run at triple catalog values.

PERFORATED 2ND ISSUE VARIETIES

80c Value with Silver Overprint

$2 Value with Silver Overprint

80c Value with Gold Overprint

$2 Value with Gold Overprint

The 2nd issue had both silver and gold overprints. Neither were ever issued. Instead a new style was issued.

Documentation and evidence show that:
At present 52 uncut press sheets of the 80c value with Silver overprint still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 71 uncut press sheets of the $2 value with silver overprint still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 19 uncut press sheets of the 80c value with Gold overprint still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 27 uncut press sheets of the $2 value with Gold overprint still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.

Research shows that we can safely presume 100 sheets of the Silver overprinted were made of each value thus producing 4,000 sets of pairs.
Here we must then calculate the same pricing for the SILVER overprinted stamps as the normal perforated SPECIMEN overprinted gutter pairs etc. above.
Intact uncut press sheets are in the rare category now.

Research shows that we can safely presume 50 sheets of the Gold overprinted were saved of each value thus producing 2,000 sets of pairs.
Since there are 6 times less than normals we must then price for the GOLD overprinted stamps at least twice the SILVER overprinted perforated gutter pairs etc.
Intact uncut press sheets are in the rare to extremely rare category now.

MAJOR OVERPRINT ERRORS

In the police evidence stock we have found several uncut sheets with major errors of the overprint both in Silver and Gold! These uncut sheets of course were destined to be destroyed but were confiscated as evidence before this could happen. These sheets have multiple types of errors as in inverted overprints, A' Cheval overprints and just plain messed up overprints! Here is an image of one such sheet.

Uncut Press Sheet of the 80c Value with Silver Overprint errors

The 80c Value with Silver Overprint Inverted

The 80c Value with Gold Overprint Inverted and Doubled

The 80c Value with Gold Overprint A' Cheval

These errors are true errors and thus are very valuable. Research is ongoing as to what that should be as some of the sheets have very different variations of errors meaning some pairs are unique.

THE PERFORATED 1ST ISSUE MISSING VALUE "ERROR"

The 80c Missing Value

The $2 Missing Value

A bit of bad news for sellers over inflating prices. Documentation and evidence show that:
At present 44 uncut press sheets of the 80c value with Missing Value still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 65 uncut press sheets of the $2 value with Missing Value still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.

In my study of the printing practices of the printer I have seen these type of stamps in other countries. A good example being the Guyana Reichenbachia Orchids series. Several stamps were produced with different values and the same stamp produced in this fashion as well. The value being placed at a later time. It is possible these stamps may not be made for collector errors at all but produced to be printed with new values at a later date. Perhaps in conjunction with the 2nd issue overprints. There are no documents on the production of the 1986 Royal Wedding issues so we may never know. Standard printing practices for the made for collector errors was for 3,000 of a given stamp. That would mean only 75 sheets would be made. Given evidence that a higher number of sheets were produced fall outside the normal practices of the printer. They are an interesting novelty nonetheless and a mystery still.

Evidence shows that 100 sheets were produced making 4000 sets possible. Thus the same rules should apply as the normals above as far as value.
Anyone trying to sell pairs for more than $10.00 should be shunned.

Based on these numbers and other research one should value these at around $5.00 a pair. Gutter pairs and blocks and selvage pairs should be priced same as the normals above.

This basically sums up the perforated varieties of the single stamp sets.

FROM IMPERFORATE UNCUT PRESS SHEETS

IMPERFORATE PROOFS OF THE 80c VALUE

IMPERFORATE PROOFS OF THE $2 VALUE

So far there exists imperforate color proofs including finals and imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted sheets. Also imperforate missing value errors. This totally disputes the statement in Stanley Gibbons that imperforates come from booklets.
STILL one should be aware that many imperforate booklets and panes do exist. Please visit my page on the 1986 Royal wedding Booklet Panes for more detailed information on what to look for when buying the proofs versus buying the booklet panes.

The 1986 Royal Wedding Booklets

Documentation and evidence show that:
At present 62 uncut press sheets of the imperforate 80c value still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 62 uncut press sheets of the imperforate $2 value still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
Evidence shows that 75 sheets were produced making 3000 sets possible. Thus we can see that these are 4 times rarer than the normals.

Based on these numbers and other research one should value these at around twice the price of normal perforated sets in all regards.

IMPERFORATE SPECIMEN OVERPRINTED PROOFS

IMPERFORATE SPECIMEN OVERPRINTED PROOFS OF THE 80c VALUE

IMPERFORATE SPECIMEN OVERPRINTED PROOFS OF THE $2 VALUE

Again it seems that only the small block capital lettered overprint exists.

Documentation and evidence show that:
At present 31 uncut press sheets of the imperforate 80c value with SPECIMEN Overprint still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 31 uncut press sheets of the imperforate $2 value with SPECIMEN Overprint still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
Evidence shows that 50 sheets were produced making 2000 sets possible.

Based on these numbers Gutter pairs and blocks and selvage pairs should be priced at 20% higher than the normal imperforates above.

IMPERFORATE MISSING VALUE ERROR PROOFS

IMPERFORATE MISSING VALUE ERROR PROOFS OF THE 80c VALUE

IMPERFORATE MISSING VALUE ERROR PROOFS OF THE $2 VALUE


Documentation and evidence show that:
At present 10 uncut press sheets of the imperforate 80c value with Missing Value still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
At present 12 uncut press sheets of the imperforate $2 value with Missing Value still exist. Several more sheets have been broken into gutters etc.
This shows that at least 25 sheets were produced making 1000 sets possible. Thus these do have a rarity factor. We will base on 50 sheets.

Based on these numbers Gutter pairs and blocks and selvage pairs should be priced at 20% higher than the normal imperforates above.

PROGRESSIVE COLOR PROOFS

At present there is no evidence that progressive color proofs of the single stamp issues were saved.
Possibly all were destroyed? Possibly still in the Police Evidence stock held by the owners of the Saint Vincent side of the stock? Only time will tell if they exist.

This basically sums up the stamp varieties for the Saint Lucia 1986 Royal Wedding single stamp pair issues printed by the Format International Printers Ltd.
As new information and evidence is found it will be added to this page.


SECTION 2

THE UNISSUED SOUVENIR SHEET

Following is the rundown of what was saved in regards to the unissued souvenir sheet.

THE PERFORATED UNISSUED SOUVENIR SHEET

Sorry to say but this may shock a few sellers and buyers.

Documentation and evidence shows that:
At present at least 5,000 copies of this issue were saved. Possibly more.
This is based on the following evidence.

1.) 3,000 copies have been found in the police evidence.

2.) 400+ copies were found in the archive.

3.)These are for sale by numerous internet sellers and stamp dealers.

4.)One dealer of Format Material (mentioning no names) is selling bulk lots of 5 seeming to have many copies.

Because of these factors pricing for this souvenir sheet should run at average Scott listed pricing of $3-5.00.

Of course because of lack of knowledge, Bileski documentation which has turned out to be wrong (again), and many other factors many sellers are asking too much for them. In time as this knowledge gets out to the collecting community hopefully sellers and collectors will comply with these findings and adjust their pricing accordingly. If they do not....well we know who not to buy from yes?

THE IMPERFORATE UNISSUED SOUVENIR SHEET


Documentation and evidence shows that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 2,000 imperforate souvenir sheets were made.
Another 1,500 were produced with the progressive color proofs. We have acquired all but a few via the police evidence. The count is 3,439 of which 16 were damaged.

In accordance pricing should be around $5-10.00 each considering one cannot break them from the progressives thus limiting them to 1,984 available for sale.

THE PERFORATED AND IMPERFORATE UNISSUED SOUVENIR SHEET WITH SPECIMEN OVERPRINT


Documentation and evidence shows that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 1,000 of each were made.
I have acquired 487 imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted souvenir sheets via the police evidence.

In accordance pricing should be around $20-25.00 each considering rarity.
No perforated copies have been found at present.

THE PROGRESSIVE COLOR PROOFS OF THE UNISSUED SOUVENIR SHEET


Documentation and evidence shows that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 1,500 progressive color proof sets of the souvenir sheets were made.
I have acquired all but a few via the police evidence. The count of the final color souvenir sheet without inscriptions is 1,453 of which 6 were damaged.

In accordance pricing should be around $25.00 for each set.

A note on the above progressives:
Notice there are nine stages. The eighth stage is the black addition. Some of these sets were sold without this stage present thus they are not complete sets. We have noticed that the final color progressive is also being sold as an error as it does not have the silver inscriptions. This is not correct. It would only be an error if it was perforated. At this time there is no evidence that any made for collector errors were made for this particular souvenir sheet.

This basically sums up the stamp varieties for the Saint Lucia 1986 Royal Wedding unissued souvenir sheet. As new information and evidence is found it will be added to this page. Your friend and fellow collector and researcher,
JLowe

References taken from:
Stanley Gibbons Windward Islands and Barbados
Scott Catalog
Inventory list for the Format Archive by Robson Lowe
Documents obtained from the trial exhibits
Actual materials from the police evidence used in the trials
Online research
Documents obtained from the printers files that still exist
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