5c Brick Red (27). Original gum, brilliant color in the true Brick Red shade, completely sound

VERY FINE. AN EXTREMELY RARE SOUND ORIGINAL-GUM EXAMPLE OF THE 1857 5-CENT BRICK RED SHADE -- IN OUR OPINION, THE BRICK RED IS ONE OF THE RAREST STAMPS OF THE CLASSIC PERIOD IN SOUND CONDITION WITH ORIGINAL GUM.

To verify our intuition about the rarity of original-gum Brick Red stamps, we surveyed dozens of classic United States sale catalogues. We found approximately twenty stamps with original gum, allowing for duplicate offerings and excluding the one known original-gum block. Of the stamps we counted, about half had perfs touching two sides or were deeply cut into on one side. Almost two-thirds had stains or small faults. The example offered here is a true condition rarity.

As a basis for valuing this sound stamp, consider that an original-gum example with small flaws realized $30,000 hammer (full Scott value plus 15%) in the recent Siegel sale of the Alan Geisler collection (Sale 929, lot 45).

Ex Golin and McKinney. With 1978 and 2002 P.F. certificates.

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