Sale 1024 — The Natalee Grace Collection of Used Stamps of the United States, Part One: 1847-1868 Issues
Sale Date — Thursday, 7 June, 2012
Category — 1847 Issue Corner Copies (Scott 1-2)
5c Red Brown (1). Position 91L1 with huge bottom left corner sheet margins, 11mm at left and 12-1/2mm at bottom, large margins other sides, brilliant color, neat strike of red grid cancel, trivial corner crease at bottom left of sheet marginEXTREMELY FINE GEM. AN OUTSTANDING CORNER-MARGIN COPY OF THE 5-CENT 1847 ISSUE. EXTREMELY RARE WITH SUCH LARGE SHEET MARGINS, ESPECIALLY IN SOUND CONDITION. THIS IS EASILY ONE OF THE FINEST USED EXAMPLES OF THE 5-CENT 1847 ISSUE IN EXISTENCE.
For a variety of reasons, very few examples of the 5c 1847 Issue with corner sheet margins exist. To begin, only four outer corner positions on the full plate of 200 and four additional positions from the interior columns (separated by a gutter) could produce stamps with corner sheet margins. When the stamps were affixed to letters or envelopes, the sheet margins were often trimmed off, presumably to make the stamp fit on the envelope without covering up the address. Corner-margin stamps surviving from this small original supply are very rare, regardless of condition.
Of the dozen or so full-size sheet-margin copies we have located, most seem to have flaws either in the sheet margin close to the stamp or in the stamp itself. Two circumstances of production and use are logical causes for these flaws. First, during production the stamps' proximity to the edge of the sheet left them prone to creasing, pre-printing paperfolds or other handling flaws during the printing, gumming and distribution process. Second, during the normal course of use the large size of corner-margin stamps makes them more susceptible to flaws caused by handling. Everyone -- from the postal clerk selling the stamp, to the correspondent affixing the stamp, to the collectors who used fingers or tongs to move the stamp -- presented the potential for damage.
The example offered here, with bright color, a neat red cancel that leaves the design clearly visible, and only a trivial corner crease in the sheet margin, is one of the finest corner-margin copies of the 5c 1847 extant.
Ex Dick ("DeLuxe" Collection, Siegel Sale 189, April 19, 1956). With 1989 P.F. certificate.
