Yes, it's an envelope, or cover, as philatelists pick to call them. There is nothing inside. And it doesn't have a stamp - at least, not in the present clarity of the word.
What it does have is a palm stamp with the difference ''Free/Norfolk Island'' and this, in addition to the ''6th Jany 1842'' date, was sufficient for this casing to be sole for $24,000 at a Prestige Philately auction in Melbourne final month.
That might have been a bargain. The pre-sale guess was $25,000.
This pouch is described in the catalg as ''a great monument and a of the many critical covers not only of Norfolk Island but of the New South Wales pre-stamp period''. Only two others from this time are recorded.
Welcome to the superb world of postal history, where void envelopes sell for as ample as a medium-size car. This piece was the prominence of a condensed but poignant Norfolk Island gathering sole by the Garrard family, inclusive a few that have not been seen for half a century.
Early final month would appear similar to an unfavorable time to sell stamps. At the time, several universal financial markets were beneath hazard of disintegrating. Yet the Garrard gathering did truly well, with a 90 per cent authorization rate and complete sales of $134,000, only partial of the guess of $143,000. Only 9 lots remained unsold. The Garrards were delighted.
Gary Watson of Prestige reports that whilst he beheld a few of the approaching players went AWOL, it was often business as usual. Norfolk Island ! is a ren ouned philatelic niche and the standard suspects were there, perplexing to expand gaps in their own collections.
Watson says the principal change in new times is that about 65 per cent of the lots are sole to local collectors. Two-thirds of a leading gathering would usually go abroad but the swap rate means Australians are ''not being battered to a pap by abroad bidders'', as he puts it.
About 75 per cent of behest at status auctions is right away completed online. A live audio river is granted for widespread and abroad bidders.
Those shopping stamp. at this chosen turn add a few determined agents, behest on interest of customers who wish to add rarities such as the Norfolk Island casing to their investment portfolios. These agents are good wll known to auction houses and run with discretion.
Another prominence of the Garrard sale was the 1843 casing (this a still had the e-mail inside) with the almost-as-rare ''Paid At Norfolk Island'' palm stamp. The e-mail had been sent to Scotland by a infantryman formed on the island. The casing and e-mail sole for $17,000, prudish of the $20,000 estimate.
Actual stamp. moreover sold. A set of 5 blocks of unmounted Norfolk Island stamps in not similar colours sole for $26,000 (they had been estimated at $30,000).
These are the only complete set of blocks well known and were described in the catalog as ''the undisputed climax wealth of Australian territories stamps''.
Another array of 5 stamps, ready for use in 1940 but not issued, sole for $7000, good on top of the guess of $5000.
Rare stamps are value ample more than their weight in gold.
They are often claimed to be the many costly artificial things on a value-per-weight basis. Generally nominated as the many profitable in the world is the Treskilling Yellow, a colour errr of a Swedish stamp detected in an integument in 1886.
It sole for more than $US2 million in 1996, then once again for somewhat more final year, nonetheless Watson is distrustful about this outcome since the buyers, an purported investment consortium, were not identified.
He says the highest cost paid for a singular stamp at a of his Melbourne auctions is about $200,000.