People continue to make money off the fur trade at Fort Vancouver.
Sure, the Hudson’s Bay Company hasn’t dealt in beaver pelts here since 1860. That’s when it left town for a friendlier business environment north of the border.
But a couple of pieces of company correspondence that originated here in 1842 have turned tidy profits for their owners in auctions over the past couple of years.
The most recent transaction featured a letter from Dr. John McLoughlin, notifying company officials that some supplies shipped to Fort Nisqually, near Tacoma, had been damaged during the voyage. It sold for $930.
Another 1842 document penned at Fort Vancouver sold for $6,000, or about $7,700 Canadian.
Dealers, institutions as well as private collectors are interested in bidding on this sort of company correspondence,said Brian Grant Duff, owner of All Nations Stamp and Coin in Vancouver, B.C.
There is “lots of interest in historic documents overall,” said Grant Duff, whose company held the auctions.
But in passing, he mentioned another category of collectable that went for some eye-catching bids: stamps catalogued as forgeries, and available as space-fillers.
The 12-pence black forgery brought $1,198 Canadian. The winning bid for the 2-cent large queen forgery was $577.50 Canadian.
As indicated, some customers buy forgeries just to fill empty spots in their collections.
“If you can’t afford the real thing, it’s the only way to fill that space,” Grant Duff said. Genuine 12-pence black stamps, with a portrait of a young Queen Victoria, have gone for six figures.
There are about 100 examples of the 12-pence black in existence, the dealer said.
But there are other reasons for buying forged stamps.
“Some people are fascinated by them. And some people buy them so they won’t get fooled,” he said, when someone tries to fleece them with a forgery.
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