Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1901. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GERMAN NEW GUINEA. The German New Guinea Company. 1885-1914. AR Proof 5 Mark. Berlin mint. Dated 1894. Bird of Paradise on branch / NEU-GUINEA COMPAGNIE, 5 NEU-GUINEA MARK 1894, in wreath; A below. Jaeger 707; KM 7 (Papua New Guinea). In NGC slab, graded PF63. ($3000)

From the 1840's the island of New Guinea became the object of a three-way competition among the Netherlands, Germany, and Britain for control of this strategic territory. Bismarck annexed the north-eastern part of the island and the Bismarck archipelago in 1884, and the following year incorporated the New Guinea Company to administer the new colony. The company was unable to implement a workable plan for developing the island; the hostile climate killing settlers and imported Chinese workers on the plantations, and the purported gold fields not panning out. By 1893 the administration of the colony was turned over to the imperial government, which authorized the striking of the magnificent Bird of Paradise coinage the following year. Australian troops seized the colony in 1914 at the onset of World War I.