Auction News
On Mar.1, Siegel Auctions completed the sale of the Gordon Eubanks specialized collection of 1869 pictorials. The 1869 pictorials includes Scott #112-122 and was the first of the US stamps to picture scenes other than portraits, though the set does follow the tradition of the times and has a portrait of Benjamin Franklin as the low value. The Gordon Eubanks sale included some great rarities. Following are some examples from the sale that I found particularly interesting.
Scott #113, with the Three-Leaf Clover fancy cancel of Waterbury Conn., VF catalog $95, realized $2200. Note that this stamp is a sound very fine copy. The 23 times premium over Scott is due entirely to the rarity of the Waterbury cancel.
Scott #119, catalog value of $275, realized $400. Siegel characterized this stamp as extremely fine with small corner crease. Despite the corner crease this stamp realized a 1.5X premium over Scott.
Scott #122, one of two known blocks of six and the only one with full OG, estimate $200-300K, realized $150K somewhat below estimate despite the fact that this block is considered one of the real gems of philately.
The Eubanks sale also featured inverts. On the 1869 pictorials, the vignette and the center portion of the design were printed in two steps and on 119-121 there are rare and highly desired examples where the center portion of the design is inverted with respect to the vignette. Following are the three sold in the Eubanks auction.
Scott #119b with a catalog value of $20K, realized $110K. According to the Siegel census, there are only 93 known 119b’s and this, with the star fancy cancel and completely sound, is considered the finest, realizing a 5.5X premium over catalog.
Scott #120b with a catalog value of $35K, realized $85K. According to the Siegel census there are 89 known 120b’s and this is the finest, realizing a 2.5X premium.
Scott #121b with a catalog value of $110K, realized $55k. The Sigel census shows that there are 45 known 121b’s. This one is VF but has a small margin repair that reduced the realization.
Some great stamps that got very high prices.
