Siegel sells award-winning collection of colored cancels on 1869 Pictorials

By Matthew Healey, New York Correspondent

Here is one of four recent auctions we are recapping in our latest U.S. Auction Roundup:

Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries offered U.S. stamps in New York on July 26-27, including items from a gold award-winning collection of colored cancels on the 1869 Pictorial issue.

An otherwise unexceptional example of the 30¢ ultramarine and carmine Shield, Eagle and Flags stamp of 1869 (Scott 121) stood out for one reason: It is struck with a German postmark in green, said to be one of just two or three examples of this stamp known with this eye-catching result.

This stamp is listed in the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog at $450 with a $7,500 bonus for a green cancel, and the result in the Siegel sale surpassed even that: The stamp was hammered down for $9,500, or $10,925 with the 15 percent buyer’s premium levied by Siegel on all lots.

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A beautiful group of small die proofs of the 1934 National Parks series was offered, representing seven out of the 10 stamps in the set. Apparently, just one full set of small die proofs of this issue exists elsewhere. This set brought $2,875.

Among more modern issues offered by Siegel were a couple of imperforate between errors not often seen.

A vertical pair, imperforate between, of the $1 Woodrow Wilson stamp (Scott 832f) was said to be the first example the firm has offered in almost half a century. Originating from the 1954 printing of this definitive, there are reportedly only 10 imperforate between pairs known of the $1 Wilson. 

The conjoined twins, described as a “key item” for collectors and exhibitors of the Prexies, sold for $23,000, far outstripping the pair’s $8,500 Scott U.S. Specialized catalog value.

A similar error on a much newer stamp, the 37¢ Flag stamp of 2003 with gauge-10¼ serpentine die cuts vertically (Scott 3632A), is so novel that the Scott Catalogue of Errors on U.S. Postage Stamps by Stephen R. Datz does not list it. The Scott U.S. Specialized catalog lists a different “die cutting omitted, pair” error as 3632Af, valued at $250. 

A pair of unused examples of Scott 3632A, apparently horizontally unslit between from two coils, still adhering to their backing paper, sold for $690. The Siegel firm said they were “unable to find another example offered at auction.”

Keep reading our U.S. Auction Roundup:

Looking back at top lots of Harmer-Schau’s APS Stampshow sale

Impressive St. Louis Bears cover realizes $27,600 at Cherrystone sale

$12,000 postmaster’s provisional highlights Regency-Superior’s APS Stampshow sale