Canada, 1959, 5¢ St. Lawrence Seaway, Center Inverted, o.g., never hinged, gem centering within large balanced margins, bright and Post Office fresh, Extremely Fine to Superb; with 2002 P.F. certificate and 2013 P.S.E. Graded certificate (XF-Sup 95). SG No. 513a. Scott No. 387a  $10,000. ONE OF THE FINEST EXAMPLES OF THE 1959 5¢ ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY ISSUE WITH CENTER INVERTED. The stamps, issued on June 26, 1959, coincided with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway by Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The planning and production of the stamps to commemorate the event took almost as long as the construction of the Seaway itself with proposals coming forward in 1954 in the US and in 1956 in Canada. The first report of the discovery of the Seaway Inverts was when a young office boy from the Marlborough Hotel in Winnipeg purchased 30 stamps from a Post Office outlet in the Eaton store on August 20, 1959. It is believed that approximately 200 examples exist today. $0 (Image)

Canada, 1959, 5¢ St. Lawrence Seaway, Center Inverted, light machine cancel, wide margins, strong bright colors, Very Fine; with 2015 Richard Gratton certificate. SG No. 513a. Scott No. 387a  $8,000. ONE OF THE FEW USED OFF-COVER EXAMPLES OF THE 1959 5¢ ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY WITH CENTER INVERTED. There are about 200 mint Seaway Inverts in private hands. Quite a few of the Seaway Inverts were actually used by the public before they realized what they had. With only 16 examples recorded on cover, it would seem even a used example would be far rarer than mint however catalog values seem to indicate to the contrary. Complete images: View gallery or Download PDF (95KB) $0 (Image)