This week, a large number of rare US stamps are waiting their turn to ascend the stage in New York for the Michael I Caspar Fall 2010 sale with 1,250 lots on offer in all.
The range of the sale is impressive, with the lots on offer including everything from the first regular issues and ranging through banknote issues and coil stamps to federal duck stamps.
Divided into two sections, the sale will feature a small, select offering of the finest certified and/or graded material by PSE for Part One (177 lots).
Material will be offered from several all time finest PSE registry sets, most of which has never before been available at auction (other than a few well-known pedigreed items). Highlights of Part One will feature numerous finest knowns, and material from the Scarsdale, Zoellner and Hethering collections will be up for grabs.
Part Two will feature a wide array of new material which hasn't seen the light of day in a long time, and will conclude with an offering of covers, newly emergent from a private collection.
The two most exciting lots are probably two Columbian stamps:
 50c Columbian stamp |
Firstly, a 50c Slate blue, Columbian (never hinged and with original gum) is a bottom margin single with genuinely exceptional centring. With deep colour, detailed impression and jumbo margins, it is a thing of beauty.
The PSE most recently rated it in 2007 at XF 90J, but the auctioneer seems positively offended by this judgment (we're inclined to agree), countering that "This is the most remarkable 50c. Columbian I have ever seen." It is listed at $11,000 and already carries a bid of $8,000.
However a $2 Brown Red Columbian (mint, never-hinged) is set to upstage even this. Boasting an extraordinary impression which reveals every intricate detail of this most handsome stamp, the exceptionally rare piece also has precise centring and rich colour.
 $2 Columbian stamp |
The auctioneer has confidently listed the XF-Superb 95 graded stamp at $57,700, and it seems to be re-paying that confidence as bids have already reach $42,500.
The auction takes place in Ithaca, and concludes this weekend: September 24-25.
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