2017-07-29 Sat

A public auction of US stamps was conducted on 25th and 26th July by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York. 19th- and 20th-century stamps and other philatelic delights were offered.

Unused no-gum examples of the 1847 5¢ dark brown Benjamin Franklin in the “dot in S” variety and the 10¢ black George Washington were offered for the benefit of Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

A used 1¢ Fast Lake Navigation stamp, centre inverted, from the 1901 Pan-American set, with a light machine cancel was also offered. It came with a 1967 Philatelic Foundation certificate and a 2002 certificate from Professional Stamp Experts. It had an estimated value of $25,000.

Other highlights included modern errors like three intact panes of different U.S. commemorative stamps from 1996 with missing perforations; a pane of the 2001 34¢ Lucille Ball self-adhesive commemorative with all die cutting missing; the 2013 upright $2 Jenny Invert stamp in an intact pane of six. The latter was one of 100 stamps that were purposely printed with the plane flying right side up, unlike the 2.2 million normal panes with an upside down plane.