Scarce U.S. variety in July 13-14 auction from Stanley Gibbons

By Michael Baadke

Stanley Gibbons has prepared a two-day auction for July 13-14 at its headquarters in London, England.

The sale offers worldwide stamps, postal history and collections, including individual lots from the Redcentre and Kimberley collections of Great Britain.

Among the worldwide stamp offerings is an unusual and scarce unused United States single stamp from the 1909 experimental printing on bluish paper, the 4¢ orange brown George Washington (Scott 360).

Stanley Gibbons describes this stamp as having a fresh large part original gum with “wonderful” color.

“Certainly one of the finest centred examples of the 80 released from the Post Office department archives,” the auction description says.

The bluish paper varieties were printed on a paper made with 35 percent rag stock rather than all wood pulp, resulting in a grayish blue appearance for the paper.

The 2021 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers values the unused stamp in very fine condition with original gum at $27,500, with that figure in italics to identify a stamp that can be challenging to value accurately.

Stanley Gibbons offers an estimate of £10,000 to £15,000, or roughly $14,000 to $21,000 in late June.

Also featured as individual lots are two of the 1856 4¢ British Guiana black on rose carmine or magenta stamps, one unused and one used on a cover addressed to London.

The British material in this auction includes a significant number of imperforate imprimatur stamps with numerous Victorian-era stamps among them.

Two catalogs, one for each day, can be viewed or downloaded with online bidding options available.

For additional information contact Stanley Gibbons Auctions, 399 Strand, London, WC2R 0LX, England.

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