Strong prices for Columbian, Trans-Mississippi gems at Rumsey Westpex sale: Auction Roundup

By Matthew Healey, New York Correspondent

Schuyler Rumsey held an auction in conjunction with the Westpex stamp show in San Francisco from April 29 to May 1.

One eye-catching item was a corner-margin example of the $5 Columbian stamp of 1893 (Scott 245). Lightly hinged and extremely well centered, its grading of superb-98 places it at the top of its type. It went for $18,400, including the Rumsey firm’s 15 percent buyer’s premium.

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A full sheet of the 10¢ Hardships of Emigration stamp (Scott 290, also known as “the Dead Horse” on account of its vignette) from the 1898 Trans-Mississippi series was described as the finest of three surviving sheets.

Showing margin imprints and the plate number 604 at top and bottom, the sheet is largely never-hinged except for some slivers of hinges reinforcing split perforations near the edges. It sold for $18,400.

A horizontal pair of the 1909 Washington-Franklin 10¢ coil stamp (Scott 356), well centered and with full original gum and graded XF-superb 95 by PSE, fetched $11,500.

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