Sale 1227 — Outstanding United States Stamps and Gold Coins
Sale Date — Monday-Friday, 19-23 October, 2020
Category — 1861-66 Issue (Scott 56-78)
90c Blue, First Design (62). Original gum, choice centering with well-balanced margins, deep shade and proof-like impression, slightly rounded corner at top left not mentioned on either accompanying certificate, tiny thin spot at top centerEXTREMELY FINE APPEARANCE. THE SECOND RAREST STAMP OF THE 1861 FIRST DESIGNS AND COLORS. ONLY EIGHT EXAMPLES OF THE 90-CENT FIRST DESIGN WITH ORIGINAL GUM ARE RECORDED. A BEAUTIFUL AND EXTREMELY RARE CLASSIC STAMP.
Our census of Scott 62, available at https://siegelauctions.com/census/us/scott/62 , contains 22 examples, including one copy in the Miller Collection at the New York Public Library and another copy certified as a privately-perforated No. 62a, which comes from a set in the Col. Green sale that was signed by John Luff (we believe this stamp to be genuine). Another has been certified as genuine with a trial cancel. Excluding the NYPL copy and the ex-Green stamp just noted, only eight examples of the 90c First Design are available with original gum. Of these eight, only three are sound. The example offered here, with a tiny thin spot, has one of the least noticeable faults of the remaining five original-gum stamps.
Census no. 62-OG-03. Ex "Bayou" and Wingate. With 1955 and 2001 P.F. certificates, the former not mentioning the tiny thin spot.
