Topping off the Feldman auction highlights was a “Missing Virgin,” a spectacular and seldom-seen error from among the early issues of the British Virgin Islands.

A 5¢ Hawaii Missionary (Scott 2), one of the legendary 1851-52 first issues made by white missionaries living in what were then called the Sandwich Islands, was offered as a handsome example of the mere 39 used survivors.

The standout item, depicted on the front cover of Linn’s issue of Dec. 14 previewing the sale, was an 1875 Special Printing of the $2 Department of State Official stamp.

Schuyler Rumsey held three sales of United States classic and Western postal history and private die medicine stamps on Dec. 11-12 in San Francisco. The Western postal history sale included abundant covers documenting the private couriers and express companies that carried mail in the pioneer days of the western United States.

Cherrystone Auction Galleries held a sale of worldwide stamps and covers on Jan. 12-13 at its offices in New York. Two scarce early stamps of Poland were among the highlights.

An 1882 cover sent from Bangkok to London was franked with Straits Settlements 2¢ bister brown and 8¢ orange Queen Victoria stamps (Scott 40, 49) tied with a rare oval “British Consulate Bangkok” marking rather than the normal Bangkok circular datestamp. Though somewhat rumpled, this recently discovered cover, one of just a handful known, brought more than $25,000.

Among British Empire stamps in the Feldman sale, top realizations went to a couple of early provisional stamps of Bermuda and a rare Official stamp of India.

David Feldman in Geneva offered a sale of British Empire on Dec. 11 that included the second part of the Tatiana collection, with some famous gems as well as humbler items that simply tell a great story. Standing out was one of the most famous and spectacular pieces of British postal history in existence.

On Feb. 19 and 20, Eastern Auctions will offer a worldwide sale with classic used British Commonwealth, British North America and Canada stamps and postal history (including Western Canadian postal history), and specialized Australia, with key values of the Kangaroo issue featuring rare varieties.

The Spink auction firm will present its Philatelic Collector’s Series sale Jan. 27-28 at its offices in London. The sale will offer 1,365 lots of stamps, proofs, postal history, and worldwide philatelic material from Great Britain, the British Commonwealth, and elsewhere. One intriguing item up for sale is an 1863 mourning cover mailed from Ireland Island, Bermuda, to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, struck with a previously unrecorded “American-style” circular datestamp from Jan. 22 reading “Paid at Ireland Island Bermuda.”

The Feb. 2-4 Flagship sale by Daniel F. Kelleher Auctions will feature stamps and postal history of the United States, including revenues and U.S. possessions, plus British Commonwealth and other countries worldwide. A highlight of this sale is an 1851 cover from Buckeystown, Md., addressed to Johnsonville, Ohio, and franked with a strip of three of the 1851 1¢ blue Benjamin Franklin stamp.

The firm of Daniel F. Kelleher held its Flagship sale of U.S. and worldwide material Dec. 8-10 in Danbury, Conn.

Cherrystone Philatelic Auctioneers offered “Rare Stamps and Postal History of the World” Dec. 1-2 in New York.