Rob1956

The 1965 Navigator collector’s pack was the last edition released to the public by the Post Office prior to decimalization, the cancelled-to-order date on the lower value stamps including the Australian Antarctic Territory and 1963 Cocos (Keeling) Island issues is September 24, 1965, nearly five months prior to decimalization. The AAT and Cocos (Keeling) Island stamps were in use at the time.

Months before the discontinuation of the pre-decimal stamps, the original £2 stamp with the overprint at the bottom right corner was found to be insufficient the quota of Collector’s Packs available to the public, and to fill the gap, a very limited new printing of the £2 stamp was released; as the Note Printing Branch was heavily in use of the photogravure press for the forthcoming decimal issues it was impossible to reprint extra stamps of the £2 overprint, as the earlier £2 overprint was printed on cream paper, and the photogravure press was printing the new decimal stamps in white paper, it was impossible to revert the press back to the old printing method, so the Note Printing Branch used the paper on hand and reprinted a small number of £2 stamps with the overprint in the middle, using the overprint design of the $2 overprint for the 1966 issue.

All remaining packs were destroyed at the introduction of the new decimal stamps, leaving what is believed to be 50 packs of the white paper £2 overprint in collector hands, most of the remaining stamps were pulled apart and either kept in albums without the cover or sold to dealers who re-sold the stamps separately, all navigator overprints were sold only in Collector’s Packs, so when a single £2 overprint on white paper is sold, you will know that a Collector’s Pack was destroyed.

There is less than 20 packs existing, and are rare to collect.

The three latter stamps are only available as part of a set and cannot be purchased separately.


Front, back and inside cover


Stamps from the 1965 Collector's Pack placed in order in a Hagner's page prior to posting


Complete re-assembled view of all stamps in the Collector's Pack


Cream paper £2 with overprint at bottom right corner and white paper £2 with overprint in middle position

 
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Rob1956

re: Last issue of the 1965 Navigator Collector's Pack

Hi Horamakhet

All early Collector Packs have the lower values cancelled-to-order and the high values stamped specimen. I normally do not collect cancelled stamps unless there is something special about them such as historical value or if the cancelled stamp is more valuable used than unused. In the case of the Collector's Pack the CTO comes with the territory.

Also, I usually never collect Collector's Packs, until I was told about the rarity of this one, so I had to obtain one, now I will be looking for the pre-decimal Collector's Pack with the £2 stamp that has the overprint at the bottom right corner.

The ACCC is suspended until further notice as a result of the SARS COVID-19 virus. I was also thinking about buying another album, I never thought about buying albums online.

Rob

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