An important, but unusual, philatelic auction is looming on the horizon in New York: The Marvin Schiller Collection of United States Mint Postal Stationery Entires & Cut Squares. Consisting of 411 lots in the first session, this is a comprehensive range of United States and possessions postal stationery.
The collection consists, as the name suggests, exclusively of stamps on covers and other stationery, whether as cut squares, (mostly full corners), air posts, mint stamped envelopes, including most of the major rarities, officials, an impressive offering of collections and others.
The top highlight of the first session is probably the 2c brown on orange, Centennial Special Printing entire from the 1874-1886 Plimpton Issue section.
 The fresh, clean 2c Brown on orange Centennial Special Printing |
Created from die 48 in size 10 with watermark number 2, this is a fresh, highly attractive example of a great postal stationery rarity. Boasting remarkable cleanness and crispness, it is an even orange colour all over.
Barring an extremely mild bend at the left, it is in near perfect condition and would make a fantastic centrepiece for a collection.
Created in two sizes, this is the bigger of the two of the special Centennials issued that this is found.
Just three examples are known of the issue (Scott #U125) with this example hailing from the collections of Close and Lilly. It is expected to sell for around $45,000 in the March 28 auction.
