Sale 1027 — The Natalee Grace Collection of Used U.S. Stamps, Part Two: 1869 to Pan-American Issues
Sale Date — Wednesday, 19 September, 2012
Category — Columbian Issue (Scott 230-245)
4c Columbian, Error of Color (233a). Beautiful centering with Jumbo margins, intense color in the darker of the two shades, with three-leafs variety at right, bold strike of duplex datestamp and oval grid numeral cancelEXTREMELY FINE. THIS IS THE ONLY SOUND AND CENTERED USED COPY OF THIS ERROR IN EXISTENCE. THIS IS BY FAR THE FINEST USED EXAMPLE OF THE 4-CENT COLUMBIAN ERROR OF COLOR. ONLY TWELVE USED EXAMPLES HAVE BEEN CERTIFIED AS GENUINE. ONE OF THE GREAT RARITIES OF USED UNITED STATES PHILATELY AND OF THE POPULAR COLUMBIAN ISSUE.
The 4c Columbian color error was caused by the use of a wrong batch of ink, and spectrographic analysis has shown that the blue inks of the 4c error and 1c Columbian have the same components. Stamps from at least three panes reached collectors, and the few cancelled examples indicate that stamps used by the public came from at least one additional pane. It is likely that a number of full sheets were printed using the wrong ink, and most of the stamps have simply been lost to philately.
Our census of used Scott 233a, illustrated at left and available at http://www.siegelauctions.com/dynamic/census/233a/233a.pdf , contains 13 stamps which at one time have been certified as genuine used examples. One was originally certified as Deep Ultramarine and subsequently received a certificate as the genuine Blue error of color. Another was originally certified as the genuine error of color and received a recent certificate as the Dark Ultramarine sub-shade. The copy offered here is the only one confirmed as sound. Census Nos. 4 and 7 may be sound but have not been seen in many years. Even if they are sound, neither has choice centering. Only the stamp offered here is sound and centered.
Census No. 233a-CAN-01. With 1999 and 2009 P.S.E. certificates (VF-XF 85 Jumbo). This is the only graded used example of this issue. Scott Catalogue notes that "No. 233a used is valued with small faults, as almost all examples come thus."
