Monday Morning Brief | Willam H. Gross’ Switzerland collection

Watch as Linn’s Stamp News editorial director Donna Houseman reports that William H. Gross’s Switzerland collection was sold to a private collector for approximately $4.5 million, and she also discusses Canada Post’s new stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. 

Full video transcript:

Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Brief for May 9.

In the April 18 issue of Linn’s Stamp News monthly magazine, we announced that the remarkable classic Switzerland collection belonging to American collector and award-winning exhibitor William H. Gross was to be auctioned by Siegel International during the upcoming World Stamp Show-NY 2016.

Among the fabulous items in the collection is the black-on-yellow green mint block of six of the 1843 10-centime Double Geneva stamp (Scott 2L1), the first of several stamps issued in the Geneva canton, or state, in the southwest of the Swiss confederation.

Only a few weeks following the announcement of the upcoming sale a second announcement was made by Siegel that the Switzerland collection had been sold to a private collector for approximately $4.5 million.

All proceeds from the sale will be donated by Gross and his wife Sue to the PIMCO Foundation, co-founded by Gross to help people around the world to reach their full potential by engaging, empowering and investing in communities;  The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund; Kershaw’s Challenge; and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, according to Charles Shreve of Siegel International, who brokered the sale.

Canada Post is going all out for its celebration of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. Its new Star Trek set made its debut May 5, with five commemorative stamps in nearly every imaginable format, including a prestige booklet, plus two coil stamps.

The set offers five commemorative stamps honoring characters from the original 1966 television series including actors William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock, James Doohan as Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, DeForest Kelly as Dr. Leonard McCoy, and John Colicos as Klingon Commander Kor.

The set also includes two additional stamps using lenticular printing, “a method that makes images appear in motion when viewed from different angles,” according to Canada Post. The $5 lenticular stamps are presented in a souvenir sheet of two. They feature the starship Enterprise’s transporter on one, and a glimpse of the popular episode The City on the Edge of Forever on another.

“Beam me up, Scotty.”

For the most up-to-date stamp news, visit Linns.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For Linn’s Stamp News and Scott catalogs, I’m Donna Houseman. Enjoy your week in stamps.

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