Oct. 29-30 Cherrystone auctions feature Maitland collection of U.S. stamps and inverted centers of the world

By Charles Snee

Cherrystone Philatelic Auctioneers will offer the Maitland collection of United States stamps and inverted centers of the world during two separate sales to be held in late October at its gallery in Teaneck, N.J.

On Oct. 29, the U.S. collection consisting of 187 lots will cross the auction block. Up for bids on Oct. 30 is the impressive 149-lot assemblage of worldwide stamps featuring inverted centers. Both sales will commence at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

Josh Buchsbayew, vice president of Cherrystone, provides brief introductions for both auctions in their respective sale catalogs.

According to Buchsbayew, the Maitland U.S. collection focuses “on items typically missing from conventional collections, most notably Re-Issues, Special Printings, rare Coils, Postage Dues and of course the Inverted Jenny.” The Jenny Invert he refers to is being offered in the Oct. 30 sale.

“The driving force behind this [U.S.] collection was the conviction that typical items can usually be acquired easily,” Buchsbayew said. “When something special comes up for sale however, the opportunity should not be missed. It might be a long wait before another comes up.”

In his overview of the Maitland collection of worldwide inverted centers, Buchsbayew points out the strong attraction that these eye-catching errors have for many collectors.

“Inverted Centers are often called the Aristocrats of Philatelic Errors,” Buchsbayew said. “In fact, nothing quite strikes the imagination among stamp collectors like Inverted Centers.”

“Aside from the upside down appearance, there is almost always a story and in many cases a ‘legend’ to be told,” Buchsbayew said. “How, where, when, how many and by whom was it discovered? Are there additional copies lurking in an attic somewhere, waiting to be found? Philatelists young and old never abandon hope of one day discovering such an error themselves.”

The U.S. collection includes most of the stamps (Scott 192-204) from the 1880 American Bank Note Co. special printing of the 1879 regular issue. Among these is an attractive example of the 6¢ dull rose Abraham Lincoln stamp (195).

In its lot description, Cherrystone draws attention to the stamp’s “beautiful pastel color” and “large, balanced margins.”

The stamp is among the 30 documented examples in Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries’ census of Scott 195. In that census, the stamp is listed as No. 195-UNC-06.

According to Siegel, the stamp realized $92,000 during Siegel’s 2009 Rarities of the World sale. That same year, Professional Stamp Experts assigned the stamp a grade of extremely fine-90, the highest grade awarded to date and the only example of Scott 195 to achieve that grade.

The stamp has resided in the collections of T. Charlton Henry, Walter Klein and the Drucker family.

In very fine condition, Scott 195 is valued at $45,000 in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers. The value is in italics to indicate an item that can be difficult to value accurately due to limited market data.

Cherrystone is offering this 1880 special printing of the 6¢ dull rose Abraham Lincoln stamp with an opening bid of $45,000.

A U.S. 1918 24¢ carmine rose and blue airmail stamp with the blue vignette of a Curtiss Jenny biplane upside down (Scott C3a), known to collectors far and wide as the Jenny Invert, is a signature highlight in the Oct. 30 sale of the Maitland collection of inverted centers of the world.

The stamp is from position 75 in the discovery pane of 100 that was purchased May 14, 1918, for its $24 face value in Washington, D.C. Cherrystone notes the stamp’s faults, which include a small tear in the upper left margin, thin spots at top and blunted perforations at right.

In this case, the stamp also was once part of the controversial McCoy block of four that was owned by Ethel McCoy, who paid $16,000 for it in 1936. The stamp originally occupied the bottom left position in the block.

Cherrystone’s lot description traces the stamp’s journey following the theft of the McCoy block at the 1955 American Philatelic Society convention in Norfolk, Va.:

“Mrs. McCoy was reimbursed $15,000 by her insurance company and the rights of the block were sold to the American Philatelic Research Library. The block was never seen again intact, but this stamp appeared in 1958 when it was offered to the Weill brothers in New Orleans. The FBI was notified but it did not meet the minimum value for them to get involved. It then resurfaced in 1977 when it was submitted to the Philatelic Foundation for expertising. This time the FBI did get involved and after its recovery and custody battle, Mrs. McCoy donated the stamp to the American Philatelic Research Library. It was sold in 1981 on behalf of APRL at the APS Convention in Atlanta by John Kaufmann to Dr. Joseph Kurtzman, who sold it through Siegel to its current owner in 2001. A wonderful stamp with a fascinating story.”

The Siegel sale Cherrystone cites was a 2001 auction of U.S. stamps, where it realized $71,500 (including the 10 percent buyer’s premium).

The McCoy block was never seen intact again following the 1955 theft.

Scott C3a in very fine condition without faults is valued at $500,000 in the Scott U.S. Specialized catalog.

Cherrystone is offering the position 75 1918 Jenny Invert with a starting bid of $90,000.

The catalogs for the Oct. 29-30 Maitland U.S. stamps and inverted centers of the world sales can be viewed and is available for download on the Cherrystone website, with online bidding options available through Cherrystone and Stamp Auction Network.

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