$1.00 Black, Ty. I, II (261-261A). Bottom imprint and plate no. 76 block of six, left two stamps Type I, right four stamps Type II, original gum, small h.r. top center stamp, other five stamps Mint N.H., intense shade on bright white paper, centered slightly to top left

FINE-VERY FINE. ONE OF ONLY FOUR RECORDED ORIGINAL-GUM COMBINATION PLATE BLOCKS OF THE $1.00 1894 UNWATERMARKED BUREAU ISSUE. A MAGNIFICENT SHOWPIECE.

The $1.00 1894-95 Issue was printed in a sheet of 200 comprised of two panes of 100. The left pane and left half of the right pane were Type I, while the right half of the right pane was Type II. Imprint and plate number multiples from the right pane consist of one Type I and two Type II stamps. Combination pairs and strips, which exist only between the fifth and sixth columns, are extremely rare and desirable. Plate number strips and blocks are of even greater rarity, and only a small number of the 1894 unwatermarked issue exist. According to Bartels and Brookman, only 8,762 of the Type II were issued in total, and of these only a small fraction (about 20%) come from the positions that could yield combination pairs.

With the emergence of the block of eight offered in our 2012 Frelinghuysen sale, we record only four combination imprint and plate number blocks, and our census was confirmed by Lewis Kaufman. They are: 1) block of six, four stamps Mint N.H., ex "MLG" (Siegel sale 971, lot 1165); 2) block of six, five stamps Mint N.H., ex Bauer and Wampler, the block offered here; 3) originally a bottom imprint and plate no. block of 20 (since broken out as a plate block -- the right six stamps of this multiple were offered in Part Two of the Alan B. Whitman Collection), small separation, currently in a private collection; 4) block of eight, two stamps Mint N.H., ex Frelinghuysen (Siegel sale 1021, lot 460).

Ex Bauer and Wampler

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