Newfoundland 1857 1-Shilling Scarlet-Vermilion

A colony's first stamps

Newfoundland waited a long time for postage stamps. Great Britain issued the world's first adhesive stamp in 1840, but Newfoundland did not issue its own until 1857. Before 1809 mail to and from the island moved by private arrangement, usually with sea captains, and even domestic letters traveled mostly by boat because there were so few roads. The colony's first postmaster, the St. John's watchmaker and jeweler Simon Solomon, was appointed on October 24, 1809.

When stamps finally came, they were printed by Perkins, Bacon & Co. of London. The first set appeared on January 1, 1857: eight values from one penny to one shilling, with a 2-pence value following on February 15, 1857. The stamps were imperforate. They were printed with a space between them and had to be cut apart with scissors or a knife.

The prices were in sterling, the currency Newfoundland used at the time: twelve pence to the shilling. The colony changed its stamps to decimal currency in the 1860s, so the pence values had a short working life. Newfoundland went on issuing its own stamps until it joined Canada in 1949.

Flowers of three kingdoms

The first Newfoundland stamps were built around the floral emblems of the three kingdoms: the rose for England, the shamrock for Ireland and the thistle for Scotland. Each value had its own frame. Collectors group the shilling with the 'Rose' designs, a family that also includes the halfpenny, 2-pence, 4-pence, 6-pence and 8-pence values. A blooming flower sits in the center. The oval frame around it is inscribed for St. John's, Newfoundland, with 'POSTAGE' and 'ONE SHILLING' below and the value in numerals in the upper corners.

Six values of the set were printed in the same scarlet vermilion. They are the 2d, 4d, 6d, 6½d, 8d and 1s. The shilling was printed in the smallest quantity. One first-issue reference gives approximate issue figures of 70,000 for the penny, 16,000 for the 3-pence green triangle, and only about 2,000 each for the 6½-pence and the shilling.

Telling the 1857 shilling from its later relatives takes care. The same denomination was printed again in 1860 in orange and in 1861-62 in rose. Specialists separate the printings by color, by the thickness of the wove paper and by whether the paper shows a mesh. The 1857 stamps are on thick, porous wove paper with mesh. A 2015 report on a used 1857 copy stressed the 'thick white wove paper with mesh' of a used 1857 copy.

Condition is the other test. One 2009 auction description called a copy with large, even margins 'most uncharacteristic of this value,' because so many examples were cut close. A census of recorded unused copies lists the usual faults: creases, small tears, thins, a filled pinhole, a scissor cut in a margin, soiling and oxidized color. Only 16 of the 29 unused copies in that census are classed as sound.

Expert certificates are part of every serious copy's identity. The unused copies in the census carry certificates from the Royal Philatelic Society London, the British Philatelic Association and the Philatelic Foundation, among others, some dating back to the 1930s and 1950s.

Through the great collections

Because each unused copy is recorded individually, collectors can follow most of them through the twentieth century's great collections. Two of the copies with original gum carry the name of the collector Philipp von Ferrary. One of them also passed through the Chapin collection. The other went through the collection of Maurice Burrus.

Other copies passed through the collections of Alfred H. Caspary (sold in 1956), Charles Lathrop Pack (whose collection was sold in December 1944), Josiah K. Lilly (offered in May 1968) and the Dale-Lichtenstein collection. In May 1968, two copies with very different gum and condition sold from the E. Carey Fox collection within the same sale for $1,100 and $2,300.

Prices for the stamp stayed in four figures through the 1990s. Copies sold for $1,600 in May 1996 and for $2,600 and $2,200 in October 1996, when the Henry S. Schneider collection of British America was dispersed. A copy without gum sold for $2,400 in September 2000.

The great jump came on November 19, 2009, with the William H. Gross collection of British North America. The ex-Ferrary, ex-Chapin copy was described as 'one of the few completely sound original gum examples' and carried a pre-sale estimate of $25,000. It sold for $50,000. In the same sale a used copy described as among the finest known, ex-Caspary, sold for $10,000. A used horizontal pair, called 'one of the gems of Newfoundland philately' when it was sold from the Dale-Lichtenstein collection in May 1969, sold for $18,000 for the two stamps.

Prices since then have moved around. The ex-Ferrary, ex-Burrus copy sold for $16,000 in January 2011 and for $20,000 that August, against an estimate of $35,000. In January 2014 a copy from the Dauer collection was promoted before the sale as a '$45,000-valued' rarity. The census records it, an unused copy without gum and with a pressed horizontal crease, as realizing $17,000 at auction in New York. The Gross copy came back in October 2021 and sold for $21,000, less than half its 2009 price. In February 2019 a copy with original gum from the 'Highlands' collection sold in Canada for 50,000 Canadian dollars.

The colony's key stamp

The shilling is the hardest stamp to find in Newfoundland's first issue, and specialists treat it as the key to the colony's classic stamps. A 2019 report called the 1-shilling scarlet vermilion of 1857 the rarest and most expensive stamp of Newfoundland. A 2015 report called it 'a key stamp of 19th-century Newfoundland.'

Its rarity starts with the printing order. About 2,000 were issued, the same as the 6½-pence and far fewer than the 70,000 pennies. Of those, the census records 29 unused copies, and only 16 of them are sound.

The stamp's provenance also tells the history of philately. Its owners include Ferrary, Caspary, Burrus, Lilly, Pack and Gross, and its auction records run from the 1940s to the 2020s. A collector can trace a single copy through most of the hobby's famous collections. Newfoundland stopped issuing its own stamps when it joined Canada in 1949, which makes this first set the start of a closed, 92-year run.

The numbers

Issue date

January 1, 1857

Quantity issued

About 2,000 (approximate figure)

Unused copies recorded

29 in one census: 10 with original gum, 19 without gum; 16 sound, 13 faulty

Printing

Engraved by Perkins, Bacon & Co., London

Paper

Thick porous wove with mesh, no watermark

Perforation

Imperforate

Color

Scarlet vermilion

Later printings of the value

1860 orange; 1861-62 rose

Timeline

1. Oct 24, 1809

   Simon Solomon, a St. John's watchmaker and jeweler, is appointed Newfoundland's first postmaster.

2. 1840

   Great Britain issues the world's first adhesive postage stamp. Newfoundland waits another 17 years.

3. Jan 1, 1857

   Newfoundland's first stamps are issued, printed by Perkins, Bacon & Co. in London; the 1-shilling scarlet vermilion is the top value, issued in a quantity of about 2,000.

4. Feb 15, 1857

   A 2-pence scarlet vermilion completes the first issue.

5. 1860

   The shilling is reprinted in orange on different paper, the first of the later printings collectors must tell apart from the 1857 stamp.

6. 1861

   A further shilling printing appears in rose.

7. Dec 1944

   A copy with original gum is offered with the Charles Lathrop Pack collection.

8. Oct 1956

   The Alfred H. Caspary collection is sold, including an unused copy later owned by Josiah K. Lilly.

9. Apr 1963

   A used copy from the Maurice Burrus collection is sold; it reappears at auction in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2015.

10. May 15, 1968

    The Josiah K. Lilly copy sells for $1,800.

11. May 1969

    A used horizontal pair from the Dale-Lichtenstein collection is described as 'one of the gems of Newfoundland philately.'

12. Oct 21, 1986

    Three unused copies are offered from the Robert H. Pratt collection; two sell, for £8,500 and £2,800.

13. Nov 19, 2009

    The ex-Ferrary, ex-Chapin copy from the William H. Gross collection sells for $50,000, double its estimate.

14. Jan 30, 2014

    A Dauer collection copy, promoted at a $45,000 valuation, realizes $17,000 at auction in New York.

15. Feb 20, 2015

    A used copy with a 1974 Royal Philatelic Society London certificate, ex-Burrus, is offered at auction in Halifax.

16. Feb 14, 2019

    The 'Highlands' copy with original gum sells in Canada for C$50,000.

17. Oct 20, 2021

    The former Gross copy returns to auction and sells for $21,000.

18. 1949

    Newfoundland joins Canada and stops issuing its own stamps.

The world in 1857

• Mar 6, 1857

  The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black Americans are not citizens, driving the country toward civil war.

• May 10, 1857

  The Indian Rebellion of 1857 begins when the 3rd Light Cavalry of the East India Company's army rebels at Meerut.

• Aug 5, 1857

  The first attempt to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable begins in County Kerry, Ireland. The cable was meant to land in Newfoundland, but it broke and the attempt was abandoned for the year.

• Aug 24, 1857

  The collapse of a speculative Ohio financial firm's New York branch sets off the Panic of 1857.

• Sep 20, 1857

  British forces recapture Delhi, forcing the surrender of Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal emperor.

• Oct 13, 1857

  New York banks close during the panic and do not reopen until December 12.

• Aug 16, 1858

  The first messages cross the Atlantic by cable between Ireland and Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, including Queen Victoria's greeting to President James Buchanan. The cable fails within three weeks.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Newfoundland 1857 1-Shilling Scarlet-Vermilion is number 55 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (52 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Newfoundland's first postmaster, appointed in 1809, was a watchmaker and jeweler who kept running his watch business alongside the post office.
• The same unused copy, once owned by Philipp von Ferrary, sold for $50,000 in 2009 and for $21,000 in 2021.
• One copy sold twice in 2011, seven months apart, for $16,000 and then $20,000.
• A Dauer collection copy was promoted as a '$45,000-valued' rarity before its January 2014 sale; the census records it realizing $17,000.
• A used horizontal pair of the shilling, sold in 1969 and again in 2009, has been called unique and 'one of the gems of Newfoundland philately.'
• Newfoundland's first three issues, of 1857, 1860 and 1861, were all imperforate; the sheets had to be cut apart with scissors or a knife.