Valuable, rare stamps up for auction Oct. 3
Estimates for the individual items in the October 3 rare stamp auction hosted by Siegel Auctions range from $5,000 to $1 million.
NEW YORK — On October 3, 2018, Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries (Siegel) will hold the first in a series of four sales of William H. Gross’s incomparable United States stamp collection, returning to the market the largest and most valuable private collection of U.S. stamps in the world. The stamp auction is expected to break the $9.1 million, single-day record for the highest grossing stamp auction set in 2007. The October 2018 auction will return to the market items not available for decades and cultivate a new generation of stamp collectors as stewards of these iconic treasures. Estimates for the individual items in this historic auction range from $5,000 to $1 million.
“Bill Gross has been an ardent advocate of stamp collecting, both through his own collection and through his support of the philatelic community itself,” said Siegel Auction Galleries President Scott R. Trepel. “The auction of the Gross U.S. collection provides an unprecedented opportunity for collectors from around the world to strengthen their holdings with rarities that have seldom been available on the market.”
Many of the iconic stamp rarities in Gross’s collection (valued in the tens of millions of dollars) were discovered before World War I. The first auction will feature approximately 150 items, with hundreds more to be sold at the three subsequent auctions.
“I have had the privilege and enjoyment of acquiring many of America’s most iconic stamp rarities over the past 25 years or so,” said Gross. “During that time, I have always thought I was a temporary curator of these treasures and that one day, others should have the opportunity, honor, and responsibility of becoming the new collectors.”
About collector William H. Gross
A prominent bond investor, William H. Gross was the second person, after Robert Zoellner in the 1990s, to form a complete collection of 19th-century United States postage stamps.
In 2013, Gross provided The Smithsonian National Postal Museum with a $10 million gift to create the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, the largest stamp gallery in the world. The 12,000 square-foot gallery dramatically increased exhibition space and public access to collections. It displays rare philatelic treasures such as the 1918 “Inverted Jenny” airmail stamp, and hundreds of pullout frames, containing more than 20,000 objects that provide opportunities for visitors to view noteworthy stamps that have never before been on public display.
For more information about the auction company and its upcoming sales, visit siegelauctions.com.
