Corinphila auction house from Switzerland will be offering several interesting postage stamps and other philatelic material on sale from 11th to 17th June in Zurich. One of the highlights is an 1857 Lombardy-Venetia cover mailed from Milan to Vicenza franked with an extremely rare set of stamps. These stamps were issued for the kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia within the Austrian empire from 1850 to the 1860s. The earliest ones were printed in sheets of 60 in 8 rows and 8 columns. Four positions show a St. Andrew’s cross which is like a simple big printed X so that 60 stamps could be printed in a sheet rather than 64.

It is very rare to find covers franked with stamps belonging to the St. Andrew’s cross position. The set of stamps includes one 10-centesimo black with two complete St. Andrew’s Crosses to the right. Two extra 10c black stamps and one 15c bright red stamps were also used on the cover to complete the payment. It is the only 10c stamp with sideways St. Andrew’s crosses on a cover and probably the largest combination of St. Andrew’s crosses with 10c stamps. The item is being offered at a starting bid of 100,000 Swiss francs.

Another fascinating offering is an unused single 1-peso Zeppelin First Flight stamp of Argentina issued in 1930 with inverted overprint. Only 100 such stamps were printed, and it is being offered at a starting bid of 220fr. An unused and a cancelled example of 2-penny mauve (lilac) Swan stamp of Western Australia issued in 1879 with an error of colour are being offered at a starting bid of 5,000fr each. An unused horizontal strip of four deep full blue Plate 1 variety of 2-penny stamps featuring Queen Victoria in the shade is being offered at a starting bid of 60,000fr.

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Image Courtesy: Corinphila Auctions