AUSTRALIA RARE FDCS YEAR 2000, 2001 CELEBRATE AUSTRALIA RARE LIMITED RED CANCELS

Description

MILLENNIUM AUSTRALIA – SOME STAMPS FROM 2000 OR SO.
Sydney GPO opens on New Year Day holiday 2000.
Melbourne follows in 2001.
At 10 am on 1
st
January 2000, a part of the Sydney General Post Office was opened for over-the-counter purchases of First Day Covers with a special red postmark (cancel) over each of two similar 45 cent hologram stamps. These flashed the year between 1999 and 2000 as they were tilted in the light.
(A FDC with a black cancel had been available from 1 November 1999, but it had only one of these hologram stamps and a different cancel).
Thus, there are two almost identical FDCs, the one with the black cancel for general use and the greatly rarer one with the red cancel for those who visited the Sydney GPO on New Year Day or organised a mail order.
A year later, Australia Post organised a similar event, this time at the Melbourne GPO. This was for those whose mathematics signalled the start of the new Millennium was 1
st
January 2001. The FDC features a miniature sheet for the Centenary of Federation, when the various States combined to form the Commonwealth in 1901. This FDC has 4 stamps totalling .98 face value. Again, the black cancel is for routine collectors. The rare red cancel is hardly known to exist except by a few specialist philatelists.
Ten of these Celebrate 2000 hologram stamps were also issued on a Presentation sheet, another of the items in this auction.
It is tidy to collect a pair of the Sydney 1999-2000 FDCs, black and red cancels, for Celebrate 2000; and a pair of 2000-2001 Melbourne FDCs for the Federation Centenary, black and red. Then the Presentation sheet of the 10 MUH hologram stamps.
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I have a stock of these stamps from my past days as an avid amateur philatelist. So I can offer the lot at this auction, with these quantities:
FDC Sydney 1 Jan 2000 black cancel Celebrate Australia, quantity 49 covers.
FDC Sydney 1 Jan 2000 rare red cancel Celebrate Australia, quantity 4 covers.
FDC Sydney 1 Jan 2001 black cancel Federation, quantity 2 covers.
FDC Melbourne 1 Jan 2001 rare red cancel Federation, quantity 4 covers.
Presentation sheet of hologram stamps, one item.
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The main value is set by the number of red cancels. For Sydney, I estimate Aust each, for Melbourne I estimate Aust each for a total of 5. Add $ 100 for the rest to get an idealised auction price of 5. One does not obtain an idealised price these days. So, the lot goes up for auction at 33% of estimate, or 0.
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