Rare Stamps & Postal History of the World

1919 First Aerial Post England-Australia, the so-called Ross-Smith vignette in dark blue, sheetlet with margins all around, never hinged, post office fresh, tiny natural inclusion specks, v.f., with handstamped guarantee mark (G.B. Tourpin, London). According to Eustis, 576 examples of the vignette were printed, of these 125 were destroyed and another 364 were used on mail; of the remaining 87 mint examples about 20 had their margins removed in anticipation of being used on mails and a further 25 (ca) are held in institutional collections around the world, leaving only 42 or so sheetlets available to private collectors, this copy being especially nice and without any creases and stains which normally plague this sheetlet
Estimate: $10000