Raritan's much anticipated telephone and internet only auction concluded at the weekend (March 4-5). The auction contained 1,486 lots of rare Worldwide Stamps and Postal History with emphasis of USA Freaks and Errors, China, Eastern and Western Europe; comprehensive Russian area material, including the Oddbjoern Iglebaek Collection Of Ukraine and property of 29 other owners.

Three lots stood out in the highly successful sale.

2c Red Revenue stamp block (Click to enlarge)

A 1947, Jubilee of Moscow, 2r and 3r multicoloured, se-tenant gutter sheet of 20, contains two blocks of ten of each denomination. There is a nice perforation error at the top right corner, and the whole has full original gum, has never been hinged, is in very fine condition and is very rare. It brought $23,000.

From the Zemstvo section, a Nolinsk 1867 stamp, 2k black, printed on yellow paper, of type 3 with manuscript cancellation, is fresh, very fine and rare. It was formally a part of the Markovich, Mertens collection and was offered with a Dr. Greis certificate. It too brought $23,000.

However, as expensive as both of these put together was a 1897, small surcharge 2c on 3c Red Revenue Chinese stamp with a side margin block of 20. It contains one stamp with an inverted ''s'' in ''cents'' and two stamps with a comma instead of a period after ''cents''.

With full original gum, the never hinged, very fine and scarce multiple sold for $47,500.