2016-07-05 Tue

The World Stamp Show-NY 2016 which began late May and went on till early June got a thunderous response.

The highlights on 29th May were the William H. Gross collection of Hawaii, and the second part of the Steven Walske collection of mails sent between the United States and France. The Gross collection comprised of rarities from the earliest “Missionary” issues of 1851 till the 1893 provisional-government overprint errors. The 1820 cover was possibly the first letter to arrive back in the United States from missionaries of Sandwich Islands. The cover was sold for an impressive $29,900 which included the buyer’s fee. All the proceeds from the sale were offered as charity to the Hawaii Foodbank and the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, etc.

30th May was a special day for interesting and rare U.S. and Confederate postmasters’ provisionals from around the world. On 31st May the highest-graded example of the Inverted Jenny and other U.S. rarities were sold. On 1st June a U.S. and other international rare stamps, including U.S. Official issues collected by Robert L. Markovits were auctioned. On 2nd June an Alfred J. Capurro collection of international and mint stamps were offered. June 3rd was about the award-winning Erivan Haub collection of U.S. and Confederate postmasters’ provisionals.

A high quality 5¢ Missionary, with a small “n” in “Cents” was one of its kind out of the total 12 total known examples. The stamp sold for $46,000. Three covers with these stamps were sold ranging from $51,750 to $97,750.

A 1857 cover with five provisional “5” manuscript surcharge on the 13¢ King Kamehameha III issue, along with four U.S. 10¢ stamps of 1855 (14, 15) and a 12¢ of 1851 (17) sold for $253,000.

A cover with a single 1857 Hawaii 5¢ provisional and U.S. 10¢ stamp which was sent to a missionary in “Oroomiah, Persia” sold for $138,000.

The winning bids were shared between 12 buyers and the total sale was $1,813,000 with the buyer’s premiums.

Mails that were sent between the United States and France from 1840 after the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1875 had very complex frankings and markings. The collection had a 1853 cover sent from Paris to Groton, Mass., via New York, bearing six of the 1-franc value from the Ceres cherry-red design of 1849 along with a pair of 25-centime President Louis Napoleon stamps. Most of these early stamps were handmade. The cover left France as a quintuple-rate letter but the American postage considered it with a quadruple rate. The large “20” stamped on the cover meant that 20¢ was due: Since letters in those times were not fully prepaid every country collected its share of the postage. The cover was sold for $34,500 with premium.

The 19th century Tete-beche or “head-to-tail” pairs have one of the stamps upside-down. The Ceres issue was an error when one impression in a printing plate was repaired and replaced inverted. An 1850 cover with such a special pair of the 1fr dark carmine, sent to New York on the steamer Arctic sold for $63,250.

A letter carried to Philadelphia through Liverpool with a strip of three of the rare dull vermilion shade of the 1fr Ceres sold for $97,750. This stamp was used during 1849 for 4 months to prepay letters overseas. Just five such covers sent outside France and one to the United States exist today.