Harmer-Schau auction at Orcoexpo show Jan. 11-13

By Michael Baadke

Harmer-Schau Auction Galleries of Petaluma, Calif., will conduct a public auction in three sessions Jan. 11-13.

The auction is taking place at the Hotel Fullerton and Conference Center, 1500 S. Raymond Drive, in Fullerton, Calif., during the annual Orcoexpo stamp show at that location.

The sale offers United States, British and worldwide stamps and postal history, U.S. revenue stamps, hundreds of collections and more.

Featured among the U.S. items is a rare variety of the 1870 15¢ orange Daniel Webster stamp with I grill (Scott 141A) with full original gum.

The stamp is described as unused with “blue ink in the perf tips at top left,” and accompanied by a 2018 certificate from Professional Stamp Experts.

The unused stamp is valued at $16,500 in the 2019 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamp and Covers, with the value in italics, denoting an item that can be difficult to value accurately.

Harmer-Schau provides an estimate of $10,000 to $13,000, with an opening bid of $5,750.

Error collectors will find more than a few items of interest, such as a full pane of 100 stamps from 1916 including two of the 5¢ carmine George Washington error (Scott 467)among the normal 2¢ Washington stamps (463).

This double error is more frequently seen within blocks of 12 with the two error stamps positioned vertically in the center. Less often is the full pane on offer.

This example has a section of selvage detached from the upper right corner and also has pencil notations in the upper selvage.

With an estimate of $900 to $1,000, it opens at $575.

A much more recent error on offer is a full pane of 16 of the U.S. 2018 Dragons issue with misplaced die cuts resulting in an imperforate horizontal strip of four (Scott 5310b).

The auction also includes a single lot containing three vertical strips of five of the 1995 32¢ Recreational Sports stamps. Each strip represents one of the three Scott-listed errors for this issue: the imperforate stamps (Scott 2965b); the yellow-omitted stamps (2965c); and the yellow, blue and magenta omitted stamps (2965d).

The combined values for these errors in the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog totals $4,950. The three strips are offered together by Harmer-Schau with an estimate of $1,500 to $1,800 and an opening bid set at $950.

Worldwide individual stamp lots and postal history are presented during the first auction session, highlighted by “better China, France, Germany, quality condition Canada, classic Ceylon, and New Zealand with Chalon Heads,” according to the auction firm.

Auction lots can be viewed at www.harmerschau.com, with online bidding options available. The sale can be accessed on the Stamp Auction Network website as well. For more information, contact Harmer-Schau Auction Galleries Inc., 1333 N. McDowell Blvd., Suite B, Petaluma, CA 94954.

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