Pony Express Stamp Collection Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 2nd 2009 at 6:01PM

Although in this time of instant messaging and email on our phones we are far removed from the ideas of waiting for a letter, the Pony Express still fascinates many people. The Pony Express only operated 19 months from April 3, 1860 to October 26, 1861 but it remains iconic part of Wild West history. One of only three known surviving envelopes postmarked on the first day of Pony Express service in 1860 is among the Pony Express mail and postage stamps that will be offered in a public auction in New York City and online on December 5, 2009 by Siegel Auction Galleries. The multi-million dollar collection is owned by retired Hawaii business executive, Thurston Twigg-Smith, 88, former publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.

"This is the most important private collection of noteworthy Pony Express material ever offered in a public auction," said Scott R. Trepel, President of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc. of New York in a press release. There are 32 Pony Express-postmarked envelopes in the auction, along with dozens of examples of single stamps and multiple blocks of Pony Express postage issued by Wells Fargo & Co. He estimates the collection will sell for $2.5 million or more.

Thurston Twigg-Smith was the publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser from 1961 to 1993 and began collecting stamps at the age of eight in 1929. His favorite item in the collection is one of only two known surviving Pony Express letters that originated from Hawaii. It is valued today at $500,000 or more, it's an envelope with a rare $4 denomination Wells Fargo Pony Express stamp and addresses written in pencil that carried documents from the U.S. Consulate in Oahu, Hawaii to the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, DC. in August 1861.

UPDATE: This auction brought in $4 million, far above the high estimate of $2.5 million.

Tags: philatelist, philately, pony express, PonyExpress, stamps