2017-06-09 Fri

Two modern yet rare unissued German stamps will be auctioned by the Christoph Gaertner firm in Germany between 20th and 23rd June.

A 60-pfennig+30-pfennig Olympic Games semipostal stamp printed in 1980 was supposed to be issued. It was withdrawn at the last moment when West Germany boycotted the Summer Games in Moscow to protest against the Soviet military action in Afghanistan. Some of these stamps were used accidentally on mail and later found by collectors. This nicely postmarked stamp has an initial bid of €20,000.

Similarly, a German semipostal set celebrating film stars was supposed to be released in 2001. The set included a €1.10+€0.50 stamp featuring Audrey Hepburn. It was withdrawn after Hepburn estate had some problems with it. Some of them were mistakenly used on mails. Apart from that, a single mint pane of 10 stamps was auctioned by the estate in 2010 for charity. The lower right margin single from this pane will be offered at the auction with a starting bid of €100,000.