Stamps & Covers Public Auction 364

1936 KEVIII 2d red wmk Crown CofA UNISSUED due to his abdication. One full sheet was presented to the Governor of Victoria when he visited the printer on the occasion of the printing of the new stamps. But when the decision was made not to issue KEVIII stamps all the remaining sheets were then officially destroyed (and not a single example was even left in archives) & all proofs, dies & plates were also destroyed. The Governor was then asked by the printer to return the sheet which he did, with the exception of the blk of 6 removed from the LL cnr of the sheet, which he had sent to William, Baron Vestey in England, so the printer did not press the point (and the rest of the sheet was then officially destroyed also). Vestey's grandson offered the blk of 6 in 2014 through auction in London, where it sold for £240,000. A single from it was then sold at a 2015 Melbourne auction for almost $173,000. Comes with copies of correspondence between the printer & the Governor regarding the return of the stamps. VF fresh MNH. A great rarity of Australian philately (P)