Clive Harold Feigenbaum (1939 - 14 November 2007) was a colourful and controversial British businessman who was involved in a life-long series of scandals in the world of philately. Particularly notable was the sale of "gold" stamps from Staffa and his role in the collapse of attempts to list Stanley Gibbons on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1984.
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According to the biographical profile on the website of his firm Stampdile Limited, Feigenbaum started dealing in stamps as a child and had his own shop in Paddington by the age of 18.
In 1970 Feigenbaum was expelled from the trade body for stamp dealers, The Philatelic Traders Society, for selling "labels resembling stamps" without indicating that they were not genuine postage stamps.[1] In 1984 he applied for re-admission but withdrew his application before it could be considered following adverse press comment about his business affairs.
In 1971 he was charged with 14 counts of receiving and dishonestly handling stolen stamps and proofs. James A. Mackay and George Base were also charged in connection with the same matter and it was from James Mackay that Fiegenbaum had received the stolen items.[2] Feigenbaum, who had denied the charges, was cleared on the judge's direction.
Feigenbaum is believed to have been behind the issue of bogus stamps for Nagaland in the 1970s.[3]
In 1979 Feigenbaum became involved in a dispute with the U.S. Customs Service about whether 20% duty applied to 'gold' stamps of Staffa imported into the United States. The stamps were to commemorate the United States Bicentenary and were in sets of up to 13 priced at $20 each, the total retail price of the stamps being $5.2 million. Fiegenbaum argued that as Staffa had a legitimate mail service the stamps were not liable for the duty, however, the mail service at Staffa, a remote uninhabited Scottish Island, actually amounted to no more than a mail box on a jetty where letters could be mailed back to the mainland, weather permitting. As no-one lived on Staffa and visitors were invariably from the mainland in the first place, it was doubtful whether the mail service amounted to anything more than a tourist curiosity. Feigenbaum had the right to produce stamps marked Staffa in return for a fee paid to the island's owner, who operated the postal service.[4]
In 1984 Feigenbaum attempted to list Stanley Gibbons, of which he was Chairman, on the Unlisted Securities Market in London but the attempt failed after newspaper disclosures about his previous business problems.[5]
In 1985, Feigenbaum returned to 'gold' stamps with a series on the life and times of H.M. The Queen Mother supposedly from the Scottish Bernera Islands. The stamps had a face value of £10 each and were marketed as "22-carat gold-embossed stamps". The Bernera Islands in fact had a full postal service provided by Royal Mail and at a lot less than £10 per stamp.[6]
Also in 1985, Tanzania was forced to cancel the issue of poor quality stamps to commemorate the 85th birthday of H.M. The Queen Mother. The stamps had been organised by Feigenbaum but are not thought to have been approved by Clarence House. It is not likely they would have been as they contained errors and were so poorly produced that the perforations did not puncture the paper. The Crown Agents recommended their destruction.[6]
In 1986, Feigenbaum and companies he and his associates controlled, was named in litigation relating to tax shelter schemes in the United States. The companies controlled included companies registered in Liberia for tax reasons.[7][8]
In the late 1980s, Feigenbaum, as Chairman of the Philatelic Distribution Corporation was involved in a complicated legal case alleging fraud in relation to a contract with the government of Tuvalu, formerly the Gilbert & Ellice Islands, relating to the deliberate production of stamps with errors for sale to collectors at inflated prices. At one point he was jailed for contempt of court.[9][10]
Feignbaum was a former owner of the island of Easdale in the west of Scotland, for which one of his firms produced "stamps" of doubtful validity.
Outside stamps, Feigenbaum was a keen rugby and cricket player. He was a past Chairman of the Belmont & Edgware Cricket Club, a Jewish cricket club in Hertfordshire, England.