Our meeting rooms here at Alveston House Hotel have hosted a varied selection of seminars and conferences over the years but yesterday was a real treat.

Hampton Court based company – Scotia Philately booked one of our conference suites for a rather unusual reason.

During the day a  number of people arrived at the hotel armed with plastic carrier bags?  We were intrigued…so went to investigate.

What we found was quite amazing.  There is a wealth of collectors out there who had brought along items for valuation.  Just like having our very own Antiques Roadshow!

Scotia mainly deal with paper based valuations i.e. Stamp collections, bank notes, letters etc.

1d black and 2d blue

Amongst the treasures yesterday was a very exciting find.  A letter posted from Labrador on the east coast of Canada in 1801.  The letter had been shipped to Liverpool via Quebec and forwarded on to Scotland.  All of the post marks were clearly visable and the letter was still in good condition; apparently a very scarce find.

As well as the letter we also had many rare stamps.  Books containing the famous 1d black, and 2d blue were brought in and presented to valuers Colin Harding and Robert Hepworth.  If still on a letter and used on the date of issue – 6th May 1840 – the 1d black is worth a staggering £45-£50,000.   If not on a letter and not the first date of issue this reduces to £100.  Sadly nobody appeared with a £45,000 stamp this time!

We look forward to welcoming Scotia back to the hotel in future but if you would like to know more in the meantime you can visit the website at www.scotiaphilately.com.