We are delighted to send you our latest Stamp, Coin & Postal History catalogue, full of wonderful material for your consideration.

Once again, thanks to our many vendors for providing us with such interesting a valuable material.

As usual, the sale starts with a range of coins and banknotes. We expect a lot of attention will be paid to the mixed lots (Lots 12 – 16 and 54 – 66) as well as the more unusual foreign gold coins (Lots 74 – 77), for example.

The Australian Commonwealth stamps and postal history section is particularly strong. Don’t miss the collections (Lots 109 – 118), the Roo/Colonial mixed franking cover (Lot 124), the 4d Roo on cover (Lot 129), the 5d Roo covers (Lots 131-33) and especially, the £2 1^st Watermark SPECIMEN with DOUBLE OVERPRINT, ONE INVERTED. We’re also very pleased to offer the newly discovered used 2d CA Monogram block (Lot 137). The KGV Heads feature a fine range of 1d Red items (Lots 164 – 178 and 190 – 193) and also include the UNIQUE grouping of 4d COLOUR TRIALS (Lots 182 – 88) acquired from the spectacular Arthur Gray Collection. Aspiring KGV Exhibitors should not miss this opportunity!

Other interesting and unusual Australian items include the registered 6d Engraved Kookaburra cover (Lot 199) – a beauty! (Lot 216) is a superb marginal block of 4 of the 1965 5d Christmas with the “Blue omitted” variety – a great item for the QE2 collector and the Christmas thematic collector alike. There is more than $8000 in postage on offer (Lots 231 -241) not to mention superb and important material on offer in the Australian Aerophilatelic section. Don’t miss the Norman Brearley flown advertising postcard (Lot 261), one of only 6 known; the mixed franking Ross Smith cover which joined the flight in Mesopotamia (Lot 266) – a strikingly beautiful rarity; the equally exceptional Ross Smith vignette on a postcard from Basra (Lot 267) nor the superb unmounted mint Ross Smith vignette (Lot 268). I can’t think of three better Ross Smith items.

This is the centenary of our national airline, Qantas, so it’s appropriate that we are able to offer you a rare example of the mail carried by Qantas on it’s first airmail delivery flights in 1922 (Lot 278), this being one of only three recorded to a foreign recipient. The ever-popular Charles Kingsford Smith is also well represented in this sale but perhaps the most important cover (Lot 288) is the example collected en route at Fiji (one of only six) and carried to Australia on the last leg of the World Record flight across the Pacific in 1928.  In a wonderful “accident”, the “Southern Cross”, in which Kingsford Smith made this epic flight, is beautifully represented in the collection of “Last Flight” material assembled and offered in this sale (Lot 302).

We are particularly honoured that Bernie Beston, well known to philatelists all over the world, has chosen Leski Auctions for the sale of his magnificent collection of Queensland Postal Stationery (Lots 323 – 469). We have been greatly assisted in our presentation of this collection by Bernie’s thorough research and informative write-ups. We hope the availability of this remarkable collection, which incorporates many unique or extreme rarities, will inspire new collectors to broaden their collecting horizons and start something new. You can start here with the best!

Bernie is a qualified National, FIAP and FIP Juror. Internationally he is qualified to judge Postal Stationery, Revenues, Thematics and Maximaphily. He has also judged Traditional, Postal History, Aerophilately, Youth and Literature at FIP Exhibitions. Bernie has judged at two SP Exhibitions. He has judged all classes at FIAP Exhibitions. He is a former President, Secretary and International Officer of the Australian Philatelic Federation; former Vice-President of FIAP; and is currently a Vice President of the Federation Internationale de Philatelie (FIP). At the NY2016 World Exhibition, New York he was the FIP Exhibition consultant.

In recognition of his contribution to Organized Philately he was appointed as Fellow of Australian Philately; and has served on three occasions as Judge Assessor (Australia Judges are re assessed on a regular basis). In addition, Australian National Judges must continue to exhibit successfully at last every three years to retain their accreditation. He was first elected to the FIP Board as a Director at the FIP Congress in Lisbon, Portugal in 2010. Bernie was elected new FIP President at the FIP Congress held in Bangkok on the 2nd of December 2018.

We hope the current lockdown is successful in stopping the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 in Melbourne and Victoria because this catalogue really requires (and deserves!) some personal attention. There is a large range of bulging albums and boxes (Lots 538 – 591), mostly offered “as is” from an ex-dealer’s stock. There are also some very useful collections and accumulations of individual countries, Canada (Lot 599), China (Lots 603-4), Denmark (Lot 608), Germany (Lot 615), Great Britain (Lots 618 – 622), Israel (Lot 636), Surinam (Lot 650), Pitcairn (Lot 722), Rhodesia (Lot 726) and South Africa (Lot 739 – 742), for example. You will also find a particularly strong range of British Commonwealth SPECIMENS in this sale, rarely seen in this quantity or quality. Lots 670-71 and Lots 729 – 738 illustrate this perfectly.

We look forward to hearing from you with your bids, questions or comments.