philately

Most rare stamps are sold on their own but a version one of the world's most recognizable misprinted postage stamp, the "Inverted Jenny" was once put in a locket. The glass locket with a gold rim was created as a gift for the President of the Texas Midland Railroad, Col. Ned Green to give to his wife. It contains the Inverted Jenny back to back with an example of a correctly printed 1918 24-cent airmail stamp. Mabel Green kept it until she died in 1950. The locket will be part of a public auction of rare stamps at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City on December 12 being held by Heritage Auctions. It has a pre-auction estimate of $200,000 or more.

The only known examples of the Inverted Jenny error came from an original sheet of 100 stamps purchased at a Washington, DC post office in 1918. According to Harvey Bennett, Director of Philately at Heritage Auctions, Col. Green bought the entire sheet from a dealer for $20,000, and began selling off individual stamps and small blocks. He had one of the stamps made into the locket for his wife.

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.

We've seen PIMCO founder Bill Gross sells off some of his philatelic treasures for a good cause before, now he's at it again, selling a portion of his stamp collection to benefit a Smithsonian museum. Next month, Gross, who I've dubbed the Philanthropic Philatelist, will sell off two portions of his extensive stamp collection to raise funds for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Estimated to bring $3 million. many of the 214 Civil War-era Confederate States and early Canadian postage stamps are one-of-a-kind or the finest known.

The auction will be conducted by Spink Shreves Galleries in New York City and online, November 19, 2009. All proceeds of the sale will be donated by Gross and his wife, Sue, to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, DC. Items include a unique 1861 Confederate postage stamp from Mount Lebanon, Louisiana that is the world's only known stamp misprinted with a mirror image of the intended design. In 1999 Gross paid a record $385,000 for the stamp that is still affixed to the envelope on which it was mailed nearly 150 years ago. A mint condition 1851 Canadian 12 pence denomination black stamp depicting a young Queen Victoria of England is estimated to sell for $150,000 or more.

Gross has pledged $8 million to create a 12,000 square-foot gallery in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's planned, new street level facility in Washington, DC and proceeds from this auction will be part of that donation. "With all sale proceeds being given to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, I hope that all collectors will aggressively participate in these two auctions, not only to add wonderful rarities to their collections, but to help ensure that future generations of collectors will be created and introduced to the hobby we all enjoy," said Gross.

UPDATE: This sale brought in $3.2 million.

When it comes to certain collectibles, the error is worth more than the perfect copy. Tomorrow an auction puts over 3,000 mistakes up for sale. A stamp collection gathered by a Pittsburgh stockbroker, the late Robert H. Cunliffe may bring in more than $4 million. Dallas-based Spink Shreves Galleries is auctioning off the collection on June 18 and 19 at the Spink Shreves New York City Auction Galleries. Charles Shreve, president of Spink Shreves Galleries says that it is the most comprehensive collection of inverted centers and printings ever created.

Inversion occur when there are several different colors printed on a stamp in different press runs. Most of the time these printing switches go off without a hitch but everyone in a while a sheet gets flipped upside-down between press runs and that's when the magic happens. These rare inversions become instant collector's items.

Cunliffe's collection includes an "inverted Jenny," perhaps the most famous of the inversions. The U.S. stamp from 1918 features an upside-down biplane. We've seen some inverted Jenny stamps sell for nearly a million dollars but this one is expected to bring of at least $125,000 to $150,000. Shown above is a strip of four U.S. stamps from 1901 featuring an upside-down electric automobile which may sell for over $300,000.

[Thanks, Lana]