The New Amsterdam Collection of United States Rarities
July 10, 2019

The New Amsterdam Collection of United States Stamps sold for close to $7 Million on 10th July 2019. Hundreds of floor and internet bidders competed for just 220 lots at auction which took almost four hours to complete. With the final hammer, the New Amsterdam Collection took its rightful place among the most valuable stamp collections in philatelic history.

The New Amsterdam Collection was formed over fifty years ago, its mission to complete spaces in a newly acquired Scott National Postage Album. Most of the material was acquired through Dumont Stamp Company, an old established and respected dealership which was in midtown Manhattan in the 1970s.

Competition was intense, especially for the top items. The absolute highlights of the auction were the two 1867 "Z" Grills, each with a pre-sale estimate of $750,000. The 10c green (Washington) fetched $1,150,000 and 15c gray black (Lincoln) $1,610,000, the latter setting a record for a single United States stamp sold at auction.

Additional rare Grills realized $661,250 for a 3c "B" Grill and $172,500 for a 30c "A" Grill. Other noteworthy results include $287,500 for 1869 30c Pictorial with Inverted flags and $402,500 for 24c Inverted Jenny. A rare 2c coil pair estimated at $300,000 was hammered down at $805,000. All results include Cherrystone's 15% buyer's premium.

ImagesDescriptionCurrent Bid
Lot #196
United States 1917-29 Issues
1923 1c green, Rotary, perf. 11, unused without gum, well centered for this difficult issue with perfs clear (often found with perfs in), small paper flaw and a tiny natural inclusion at bottom, fine, with 1961 and 2019 Philatelic Foundation Certificates. One of the rarest 20th Century United States stamps in unused condition (594 is waste from a horizontal rotary printing used to make coils. At the beginning or end of a coil-stamp print run from the 170-subject rotary plates, some leading or trailing paper was produced that was too short for rolling into 500-stamp rolls. In 1919 the Bureau devised a plan to salvage this waste by perforating and cutting the sheets into panes. They were put through the 11-gauge flat-plate perforator in use at the time, giving the sheets full perforations on all sides. The existence of Scott 594 was not reported until four months after the final sheets were delivered, and the 1c Rotary perf. 11 was soon recognized as one of the rarest United States stamps. Siegel Census of unused examples of Scott 594 records only 18 (!) copies. Of these only 11 have any gum, and three of those have perforated initials of Crowell Publishing Co. of Springfield, Ohio, which some collectors regard as equivalent to a cancel. The example offered here is Census No. 594-OG-05 (Scott Catalogue notes "both unused and used are valued with perforations just touching frameline on one side") (catalogued as unused without gum)
(*)
Catalog #594
Catalog Value $35,000
Price Realized
$10,000.00

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