24 April 2013
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US stamp proofs
An array of rare US stamps and postal history, including proofs, essays and unique covers, went under the hammer recently at an auction which raised almost $2 million for two charities. ...
An array of rare US stamps and postal history, including proofs, essays and unique covers, went under the hammer recently at an auction which raised almost $2 million for two charities.
The material sold was a small part of the ‘unparalleled’ stamp collection of renowned collector and Wall Street money manager William H Gross, who has already donated millions to charities by selling rare philatelic items. The entire proceeds and additional money to bring the total to an even $2 million (approximately £1.3 million) were donated by Gross and wife, Sue, to charitable organisations Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières and the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
Highlights of the sale included sheets of fifty of the 5-cent and 10-cent 1875 reproduction plate proofs on India, which sold for $62,500 (approximately £40,600); an 1847 5-cent red brown with perfectly struck blue hollow star fancy cancel on folded letter cover with matching circular (1849) datestamp, which sold for $47,500 (approximately £30,900); and one of six recorded covers with mixed franking of Hawaiian missionary and US stamps, the only combination involving the 13-cent ‘Hawaiian Postage’ stamp, which fetched $65,000 (approximately £42,200).
Read an exclusive interview with William H Gross
For all the latest stamp and coin news and new issues, see each issue of Stamp & Coin Mart magazine.
To keep up to date with stamp news, features and interviews, make sure you sign up for the free Stamp & Coin Mart e-newsletter.
(Photo credit: Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries)
The material sold was a small part of the ‘unparalleled’ stamp collection of renowned collector and Wall Street money manager William H Gross, who has already donated millions to charities by selling rare philatelic items. The entire proceeds and additional money to bring the total to an even $2 million (approximately £1.3 million) were donated by Gross and wife, Sue, to charitable organisations Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières and the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
Highlights of the sale included sheets of fifty of the 5-cent and 10-cent 1875 reproduction plate proofs on India, which sold for $62,500 (approximately £40,600); an 1847 5-cent red brown with perfectly struck blue hollow star fancy cancel on folded letter cover with matching circular (1849) datestamp, which sold for $47,500 (approximately £30,900); and one of six recorded covers with mixed franking of Hawaiian missionary and US stamps, the only combination involving the 13-cent ‘Hawaiian Postage’ stamp, which fetched $65,000 (approximately £42,200).
Read an exclusive interview with William H Gross
For all the latest stamp and coin news and new issues, see each issue of Stamp & Coin Mart magazine.
To keep up to date with stamp news, features and interviews, make sure you sign up for the free Stamp & Coin Mart e-newsletter.
(Photo credit: Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries)
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