NEVIS LEADERS OF THE WORLD AUTOMOBILES AND TRAINS STAMP ISSUES AND VARIETIES

The Cars and Trains Stamp Issues for Nevis Produced by the Format International Security Printers

A Specialized Study of the Varieties and Quantities Produced

Would YOU store YOUR specialized stamps this way?

In 1983 Nevis joined other commonwealth countries in the production and issuance of the Leaders of the World (LOW) Automobile and Locomotive series of stamps. Between 1983 and 1986 Nevis issued 6 sets of the Automobile series and 6 sets of the Locomotives series. This page will try to clarify how many sets were issued and produced and what varieties were also produced. We will show examples of the varieties including progressive color proofs, specimen overprinted varieties, imperforates and yes the made for collector errors and where possible, genuine errors.

There was a huge controversy on the legitimacy of the production and sale of the varieties which ended up in court trials against the owners of the Format International Security Printers Ltd. and associated companies, their owners and some employees. The trials proved that the companies and owners had the sole right to reprint, and produce the varieties at their discretion for promotional programs and such despite the objections of the Tuvalu Philatelic Agency and others. A large portion of the progressives and other varieties were seized as evidence for the trials by the British Metropolitan Police and held by the same until 2008 when they were finally released back to the original owners. See the above image as an example of the cruel way the material was stored. We are lucky it survived! Representatives for Tuvalu went through the material and confiscated some for destruction but much was left and now these varieties are available to the collecting community to add to their topical and specialized collections. As for the material from St. Vincent, St. Lucia etc;, it was released back without tampering.

The valuation of the material has been grossly under valued because of the stigma produced by a few agencies, clubs and ex-employees and some dealers over the past 20+ years instilling in the collecting community the idea that there are "millions" out there hidden away in warehouses, attics etc. This is NOT the case and with the evidence I now have, we can now show this to be a huge exaggeration on the facts.

I will present each set as it was issued and show examples of some of the varieties. Either I have exact documents proving what was produced or I will use existing documentation which shows the general practices used for ordering and printing of the varieties which shows the general consensus of quantities produced and if possible...what still exists. As (and if) more information and documents are discovered, it will be added to this study for reference to collectors.

Through evaluation of the documents I have in my possession and the common practices of the printer, all sets of LOW Cars and Trains fall under the same consensus of quantities produced. We know that some issues for Nevis were reprinted once. Strong evidence that this is so for the 1st Locomotives series. The standard was the same for all that 21,000 normal sets were reprinted for the Philatelic Distribution Corporation, (PDC). General invoices and documents show that original orders for many stamp sets outside the Leaders of the World Series and including the LOW series as well ranged from 15,000 to 25,000 sets for Nevis. At that time the PDC had a set allotment printed for resale via outside stamp selling entities. The allotment was generally 2/3 of the given original orders. The calculation of 21,000 for Saint Vincent appears over and over and is an easy quantity to break down for the allotment. 21,000 went to the Saint Vincent Philatelic Bureau and 14,000 went to the PDC's outlets. So I will base on the higher figure that a total of 75,000 sets were produced for Nevis.

There is a difference with Eastern Hemisphere countries as there was also an allotment of the regular issued stamps that was added to the issues sent to the PDC. These were called "GOOD OVERS" which was a supplemental stock or extra number of sheet runs (possibly to compensate for any errors) in the main run of reprints.

At the time of original printing some Progressive color Proofs and varieties were produced. These were usually in what I call 5-stage or 6-stage sets. The 5-stage sets include the yellow and black colors combined stage. The 6-stage sets have no all colors with no inscriptions stage. The 7-stage sets are the reprints for all the series up until late 1986 when the 7-stage sets became the norm. All presentation folders have the reprints. The reasons for the reprinting were that the earlier printings were from press sheets of which very few were saved. The reprinting was done to produce limited quantities of varieties for collectors to buy at affordable prices to enhance their collections. The majority of reprints come from cut panes. Storage of press sheets, which are very large, proved to be from the earlier versions not viable and so almost all the reprints were cut into panes for ease of storage.

The standard printing was set for all reprints.

3,000 sets of 7-stage progressive color proofs.
5,000 sets of imperforate stamps.
2,000 sets of specimen overprinted stamps

In most cases 1,000 sets of imperforate specimen overprinted stamps and 3,000 sets of misperfed or missing color "errors" were also produced. Of them, most now appear to have been destroyed.

Most all specimen overprinted stamps, imperforate stamps and errors were all printed at the time of reprinting as allowed by the "reprint agreement". Therefore all of them have finite numbers. With Tuvalu it was agreed to allow them to confiscate what they deemed as errors. Progressive color proofs are not errors but they confiscated and destroyed many of them before they could be saved. Most all imperforate specimen overprinted sets and quite a few imperforates and even some of the normal specimen overprinted sets were also taken. I do not know why they did not take all of them but theorize that because the evidence taken was so large, I am talking about many thousands of panes, that they just simply missed them. The evidence was just thrown into police evidence bags with no regard to the philatelic preservation what so ever! Thus sorting through the material was quite difficult. Again view the example shown at the top of the page. Try sorting through several hundred of those!

A NOTE ON THE SAINT VINCENT VARIETIES

For Saint Vincent it appears all material was retained and given back to the owner. Sadly because of poor storage damage did occur to some. Most was not damaged severely luckily so we have them today. Based on documents, the St. Lucia holding and purchases from the Saint Vincent holding we can solidly affirm quantities even though the Saint Vincent/Nevis side was auctioned off in bulk and subsequently placed into random lots and scattered around the world! Many of the progressive color proofs on the Saint Vincent side may never be reunited with their counterparts because of the way they were sold off for quick sales. I on the other hand, have done the work, organizing and counting all the Saint Lucia and Tuvalu side and it will be sold in an organized and knowledgeable manner.
I wish to note that certain series from Saint Vincent have two different specimen overprints. This shows us that a limited number of one version of the overprint were printed in the original printing which usually ranged 1,000 of which 565 were sent to the U.P.U. The reprints are of another version of the overprint. This appears to have happened only in a few cases. More research is needed here.

A NOTE ON THE MADE FOR COLLECTOR ERRORS

I have obtained some of the progressive color proof panes involved in the making of the errors. It really was a quite simple process of splitting a color into two different panes and then not running one of the panes through the full printing process thus creating the error of missing color. This technique was a little bit more advanced than the method of just not using a full color in the process and produced some interesting novelty errors such as pink trains etc.
For Nevis it appears only the older method of just not running a full color was used. Please see the 1986 series. I have found them to be the only series for Nevis that have made for collector errors.

The production of made for collector errors for the LOW Automobiles and Locomotives series was not as massively produced as some articles and rumors would like you to believe. Yes, if you study the documents you can see that the four values on the uncut press sheets were ordered but with the release of the Saint Vincent and Nevis side of the police evidence we are now finding that apparently only one value was actually saved from the big sheet runs in most cases. There are a couple series from the 1986 sets from some of the Eastern Hemisphere countries that appear all four values or most of them at least were saved. We base this on what has been found available on the internet. As far as the misperfed or shifted perf varieties, very few are on the market leading us to believe most were destroyed. One of the purposes of these pages is to show the numbers produced so if at any time in the future any new ones appear, collectors like you and me will know that they are not great rarities and one should not pay out a lot of money for them. $3-5.00 is all they are worth and only as a novelty or as an interesting addition to a collection.

I would also like to note that evidence shows that stamps with missing denominations and or country names are not made for collector errors at all! They had a purpose. Again in error they were added to the over exaggerated numbers of "errors" or "funnies" as some call them calculated by the articles and rumors spread to the collecting community.

I have created a special page with tables of links showing examples of the various progressive panes used to create the stamps. The links will take you to pages showing the progressive color proof panes and a closeup image of specific values from the different series to help collectors define which proof belongs to which series and value.

View the SPECIALIZED Nevis Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives Progressive Color Proofs Page here.
LET'S GET STARTED!

1st Series Railway Locomotives issued November 10, 1983


75,000 sets of the normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.



The number of presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only these values are available on the market at this time.



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general printing practices. The seven stage sets are appearing on the market now as the police evidence stock has been randomly sold.
Many partial sets are appearing. At present it appears all values were in the Saint Vincent Holding.

The 55c and three of the $1.00 values have been found in five stage sets from other sources.
Noting that the yellow and black are combined on one stage which is an older method used for progressive color proofs. please see image below.


The four values were all printed on one press sheet. The other four $1.00 values have also been found with color variances. these are deeper toning in the blue and red. They have been found in six stage (no final colors without inscriptions stage) sets. All four values were also printed on one press sheet. Because of this variation to the progressive color proof sets it proves the seven stage sets are reprints. The first being the 5 and 6 stage sets and then the 7 stage sets.
As the market shows the 5 and 6 stage sets are extremely rare thus not many must have been retained.

The following two imaged gutter combinations were found only in the late Kasimir Bileski Estate sales.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCKS FROM THE TWO UNCUT PRESS SHEETS

DOUBLE HORIZONTAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutters and horizontal gutters imaged even rarer if not unique.
The reason being that the double pairs have been broken from them in most cases for profit by shall we say greedy sellers? Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
The creasing as seen in the images was caused because the printer folded and refolded the press sheets for storage in the archive. They never thought that they would ever be seen by the public or be sold to collectors.
These particular sets are part of two collections made by Mr. Bileski which contains all the pieces from one uncut press sheet in each collection. He broke them in such a way so a collector could present them in an album. This was done at a time when uncut press sheets were only just beginning to be sold by the U.S. and Canada to collectors. At that time Mr. Bileski believed they would not "catch on" as they were too big to fit into an album and thus he broke most into collections such as the imaged collection below. Perhaps you have one of these? Or a piece from it?
Mr. Bileski was the buyer of the Nevis side of the Archive. He states that he could only make five of each of these collections. Only 5 to 10 uncut press sheets for each series were found in the archive.
Because of this the intact uncut press sheets that still exist today for ANY Leaders of the World automobiles or Locomotives series (if they exist at all) are of the utmost rarity and can be considered the rarest in the world!

UNCUT PRESS SHEET COLLECTION CREATED BY KASIMIR BILESKI

PROBABLY UNIQUE UNCUT PRESS SHEET

No gutters are available on the market for the 1st Locomotives series.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 1st Locomotives series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no errors are available on the market.

1st Series Automobiles issued July 25, 1984

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 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 Automobiles 1st Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.All values exist in this form.



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general original printing practices. These are appearing on the market now as the police evidence stock is being randomly sold.
Many partial sets are appearing. At present only the 5c, 15c, 35c, and 55c values were made available in this form from the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding. It is doubtful the other values will ever appear.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCKS FROM THE TWO UNCUT PRESS SHEETS

VERTICAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter blocks imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 1st Automobiles series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no SPECIMEN overprinted nor errors are available on the market.

2nd Series Automobiles issued October 23, 1984


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.
The reprinting invoice has a variance. 35,000 sets of these were reprinted.
This is probably because of popularity of several automobiles depicted on the stamps namely the Volkswagen Bug.
The total quantity still falls in range on our high figure calculation.



5,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to reprinting invoice. No imperforate specimen overprinted sets seen on the market at present.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to reprinting invoice.



The number of these that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only these values are available on the market at this time.



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to reprinting invoice. All values exist this way. These are appearing on the market now as the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding has been randomly sold.
Many partial sets are appearing.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCK FROM THE UNCUT PRESS SHEET

DOUBLE HORIZONTAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter block and horizontal gutter pairs imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 2nd Automobiles series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no imperforate SPECIMEN overprinted nor errors are available on the market.

2nd Series Railway Locomotives issued October 29, 1984
Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 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 Locomotives 2nd Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate specimen overprinted sets seen on the market at present.



5,000 imperforate sets produced as limited printing according to general reprinting practices.

All values have been found in five stage progressive color proof sets.
Note that the yellow and black are combined on one stage which is an older method used for progressive color proofs. please see image below.


Because of this variation to the older progressive color proof sets it proves that seven stage sets are reprints. The first being the 5 stage sets and then the 7 stage sets.
As the market shows the 5 stage sets are extremely rare. This is because they came from press sheets of which few were saved.
At present I have found no evidence of 7-stage sets existing. This means they were either not reprinted or that the reprint packets of panes were lost, destroyed or are still being held somewhere.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCK FROM THE UNCUT PRESS SHEET

VERTICAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter block imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 2nd Locomotives series.
It is probable that they were produced but they may be destroyed.
At this time, no imperforate specimen overprinted nor errors are available on the market.

3rd Series Automobiles issued February 20, 1985
Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 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 Automobiles 3rd Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate specimen overprinted sets seen on the market at present.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.



The number of presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only these values are available on the market at this time.



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general original printing practices. All values exist this way.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCKS FROM THE TWO UNCUT PRESS SHEETS

DOUBLE HORIZONTAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter blocks and horizontal gutter pairs imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 3rd Automobiles series.
At this time, no imperforate specimen overprinted nor errors are available on the market.

3rd Series Railway Locomotives issued April 26, 1985

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 are on the market. They are imperforates!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Locomotives 3rd Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to the general reprint practices. No imperforate specimen overprinted sets seen on the market at present.



5,000 imperforate sets produced as limited printing according to general reprint practices.



The number of presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only the $2.00 value is available on the market at this time.



3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. According to the request for reprints shown on the main introduction page for LOW car and trains this set was reprinted in 1988. The reprints are 7-stage color proof sets. Not a lot is offered out there at the time of this writing, but I did find the 1851 Comet 7-stage set offered by France International Stamp Auctions at a steep price thus showing they exist.

All values have also been found in six stage sets.
Because of this variation to the progressive color proof sets it is evidence that the seven stage sets are reprints. The first being the 6-stage sets and then the 7-stage sets. The 6-stage sets coming from press sheets which few were saved and the 7-stage sets coming from the cut pane packs.
The set I have does not have large selvage so it is difficult to define as coming from press sheets. Basically the colors will vary from the 7-stage sets which is the case for other sets.



250 limited edition sets of progressive color proof presentation folders produced according to original printing practices. I found this set available on the market.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCK FROM THE UNCUT PRESS SHEET

VERTICAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter block imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 3rd Locomotives series.
It is possible that they were produced but at present no others are known on the market.
At this time, no imperforate specimen overprinted nor errors are available on the market.

4th Series Railway Locomotives issued July 26, 1985

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2016 are on the market. They are imperforates and perforated issues!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Locomotives 4th Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general printing practices.



5,000 imperforate sets produced as limited printing according to general printing practices. All values exist this way.



The number of presentation cards that exist is unknown. They can be considered very low in numbers thus putting them in the category of rare. Only the 30c and 75c values is available on the market at this time.

3,000 sets of progressive color proofs produced according to general reprinting practices. According to the request for reprints shown on the main introduction page for LOW car and trains this set was reprinted in 1988. The reprints are 7-stage color proof sets. At present there is no evidence as to their existence on the market. The possibility of the packs being lost or destroyed is very real! Should anyone have any evidence of their existence, please feel free to contact me on it.
As it stands at present, should they somehow "appear" please use caution should the seller ask a large sum of money for them since it is possible the seller is holding all of the packs and not revealing true numbers that exist.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 4th Locomotive series.
At present no progressive color proofs, imperforate specimen overprints, gutters nor errors are available on the market.
Should they exist? Only time will tell.

4th Series Automobiles issued October 4, 1985


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general reprinting practices. No imperforate specimen overprinted sets seen on the market at present.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.

A 4th series Fake $2.00 Proof Presentation Card


A progressive color proof presentation card I found available on the market. These were produced by the Hermann E. Seiger Stamp Company based in Germany.

A 4th series Fake 75c Proof Presentation Card

Front Cover of a 4th series Fake Proof Presentation Card


They are not official presentation folders and had nothing to do with the Format Printers. Note they are not signed.
This stamp dealer had no authority to approve or disapprove anything in regards to these stamps.
This stamp dealer produced these during the time that the stamps were becoming quite popular to collect. I consider these to be fake produced folders clearly made to profit from unsuspecting collectors at the time. The proofs are authentic but the folders are not!
Because of the design of the folders implying they are official presentation folders having the color chart with printed approvals (the "ok") on them and such clearly mimicking the official folders these clearly show intent to deceive by this dealer. Therefore I would suggest that buyers be wary of purchasing these type of collectibles from this company.
And as for them being one of the largest stamp dealers "in the world"...well I guess fooling collectors with items like this is possibly how they gained that status. Threaten if you like...the proof is in the pudding.
The 75c and $2.00 values I have found.....so far. No progressives as sets found showing the possibility that this company acquired all that existed at the time.

It is interesting how such things appear to be "swept under the rug" by these large dealers and fine members of the PTS isn't it? Try to Google any of these and you will find there is no references to them at all...until now.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCK FROM THE UNCUT PRESS SHEET

DOUBLE HORIZONTAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter block and horizontal gutter pairs imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 4th Automobiles series.
At this time, no imperforate SPECIMEN overprints, progressive color proofs (other than the one set on card) nor errors are available on the market.

5th Series Railway Locomotives issued January 30, 1986

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2016 are on the market. They are imperforates and perforated issues!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Locomotives 5th Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general printing practices.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general printing practices.



At present I have found the progressive color proofs only in the six stage form. They are from the press sheets and thus are very rare. At present the only evidence that this series was reprinted is the availability of imperforate sets, specimen overprinted sets and missing color errors.
Should anyone have any evidence of their existence, please feel free to contact me on it.
As it stands at present, should they somehow "appear" please use caution should the seller ask a large sum of money for them since it is possible the seller is holding all of the packs and not revealing true numbers that exist.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCK FROM THE UNCUT PRESS SHEET

DOUBLE HORIZONTAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter block and horizontal gutter pairs imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.



All values of the 5th series locomotives exist with missing blue error. They are made for collector stamps errors.
The numbers of these that exist is unknown. Printing practices would make the production at 3,000 sets of all four values of which I have seen them for sale on the market. No imperforate versions have been seen.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 5th Locomotive series.

5th Series Automobiles issued January 30, 1986


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



2,000 specimen overprinted sets produced according to general printing practices. No imperforate specimen overprinted sets seen on the market at present.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general printing practices.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCK FROM THE UNCUT PRESS SHEET

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter block imaged was available on the internet. It is unknown if the four high values cross gutter exists. This one shows how the extra two values from six value sets were sometimes placed in combinations with other values of other countries on the same press sheet.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

The 75c, $1.00, $1.50 and $3.00 values are known to exist with yellow missing. The 60c value with red missing exists.
They are made for collector stamps. General printing practices produced 3,000 of each pair.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 5th Automobiles series.
At this time, no imperforate specimen overprinted, progressive color proofs nor gutter pairs are available on the market.

6th Series Automobiles issued August 15, 1986
Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 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 Automobiles 6th Series Forgeries.


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



5,000 imperforate sets produced according to general reprinting practices.



3,000 sets produced according to general printing practices.
At present only the $1.75 value can be found in the form of sets not in presentation folders.

A 6th series Fake $1.75 Proof Presentation Card


I have found yet more of these progressive color proof presentation cards produced by the Hermann E. Seiger Stamp Company based in Germany.

Again I stress they are not official presentation folders and had nothing to do with the Format Printers. Noting they are not signed.
This stamp dealer had no authority to approve or disapprove anything in regards to these stamps.

A 6th series Fake $3.00 Proof Presentation Card


The status on the other values is unknown at this time.
The $1.75 and $3.00 values I have found.....so far. No progressives as sets found except the $1.75 showing the possibility that this company acquired all that existed at the time.


At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 6th Automobiles series.
At this time, no specimen overprinted, gutter pairs nor errors are available on the market.

6th Series Railway Locomotives issued October 1, 1986


75,000 sets of normal perforated issues were produced.



At present I have found the four high value progressive color proofs only in the 6-stage form. They are from the press sheets of which few were saved. The four lower values I have found in the 7-stage form. I rarely see anything offered in regards to these for this series showing they must be rare.
It was at this time that the 7-stage color proof sets became the standard form. Due to the low availability in theory I would suggest that it is highly probable that the 7-stage sets for this series were also cut from press sheets.

CROSS GUTTER BLOCKS FROM THE TWO UNCUT PRESS SHEETS

VERTICAL GUTTER PAIRS

The number of these that exist is unknown but should be considered extremely rare. The Cross gutter blocks imaged even rarer if not unique.
Images taken from pieces in the Bileski press sheet collections.
Full uncut press sheets can be considered the rarest of all as most have been broken for gutters such as these.
Appears that none are available on the market.

At present there is no evidence that any other varieties exist for the 6th Locomotive series.
It is rather odd that offerings for specimen overprinted sets and imperforate sets seem not to exist. They are either still held somewhere or are lost or destroyed. Perhaps someday they will appear.

As of June 3, 2012 only the 1st series Locomotives varieties were made available from the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding sold on eBay.
For several of the values some of the colors were not retained. All have been sold out.
Several other sources have some of the other series and/or some values from series.
Only the 5c, 15c, 35c, and 55c values of the 1st series and the complete 2nd series automobiles were offered from the Saint Vincent/Nevis holding. Again, all are sold out now. Other series and/or some values from other series are available elsewhere at this time. Many imperforates and SPECIMEN overprinted stamps are also only found from other sources.

This concludes our study of the varieties produced for the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives series issued by Nevis. I hope that this clarifies the point that the stigma that millions were made of each issue is completely false and should be ignored by collectors and dealers of these issues. Because of a few biased and exaggerated opinions and written articles on these issues of which they have no evidence to back their claims the LOW stamp issues and varieties have been under valued and shunned by many for years. Sometimes the "experts" are not such experts as they have not completed the research needed to verify their claims.
I have, and this is for you.

Your friend and fellow collector and researcher,
JLowe

References taken from:
Stanley Gibbons Leeward Islands
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
RETURN TO TOP

All Content Copyright © 2012 Golowe's Collector Stamps, All Rights Reserved

Click here to return to last page viewed

Return to Format International Security Printers Reference Home page Here.