In the introduction to the catalog prepared for each sale, Siegel president Scott Trepel revealed his 35-year friendship with the anonymous collector whom he calls “Dragonfly.”

An example of the extremely rare U.S. 1851 1¢ blue Benjamin Franklin type I stamp is part of the franking on a striking bronze floral valentine cover mailed from Deep River, Conn., to Westbrook, Conn.

Two lots in Bonhams’ auction of costumes and props from The Crown are framed digital prints of stamp essays featured in the show.

European countries represented in the sale include Austria, Germany and colonies, Italy and colonies, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Portugal and colonies, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

What makes this $5 Columbian strip of four all the more remarkable is the pristine state of its mint, never-hinged gum.

During the leadoff session on the morning of Jan. 9, Cherrystone will offer an unused block of 10 of the Argentina 1899 5-peso orange and black Allegory of Liberty with the vignette inverted.

One of the centerpieces of the Barlow collection of U.S. machine cancels is a postcard bearing a marvelous strike of the Seattle, Wash., Exposition Station cancel featuring a stylized U.S. flag and “Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition” on the flag’s stripes.

The opening lot is a March 30, 1858, folded letter franked with a vertical bisect of the 2-real yellow green Hidalgo used as a 1r stamp that was mailed from Fresnillo to Zacatecas.

The eight-day auction series will feature 12 separate catalogs.

The final price of $2,006,000 is the highest ever paid for a single U.S. stamp.

The Fiji 1878 2-penny ultramarine Queen Victoria error of color in the collection is the only one of the four documented examples available to collectors.

The Jenny Invert up for bids is mint, never-hinged and comes from the ninth position in the fifth row of the original pane of 100 purchased by William T. Robey on May 14, 1918.

Just four Cotton Reel stamps, three 12¢ (including the one in the Cherrystone auction) and one 8¢, are recorded unused.

All three sales offer bidders myriad opportunities to add remarkable stamps and postal history to their collections.

The three Hindenburg crash covers will be offered one after the other on the third day of the auction, Friday, Oct. 13.

The sale opens with imperf coils from the era of the 1954-73 Liberty series.

Epting, Sullivan and Baumgardner come from another storied philatelic auction firm, H.R. Harmer, also based in New York City.

The eye-catching cover is front and center on the cover of Cherrystone’s catalog for the auction.

The sale contains 1,383 lots representing the property of 29 owners.

A scarce perforation variety from the Nylander Washington-Franklin holdings is a used example of the 1914 2¢ rose red type I George Washington stamp with gauge 12-by-10 perforations.