5c Brick Red (27). Large part original gum which covers most of the back, lovely brilliant color in the distinctive Brick Red shade

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.

With 1980 and 2006 P.F. certificates

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