Sale No: 170
Lot No: 1
Symbol: *B
Cat No: C3a
Sign up for the Provenance Catalog (here.)
|
#C3a, 24c Carmine rose and blue, Center Inverted, positions 45-46 and 55-56, being the block of four with vertical and horizontal guide lines crossing at the center, beautiful centering, with the left pair being especially choice, disturbed original gum, which it has away been since in Col. Green's possession, very fine; 1991 and 2019 PF certificates. The 1918 Twenty Four Cent Inverted Jenny is one of the most recognized and coveted rarities in all of philately. In fact it is one of the few stamps that is readily recognized by non philatelists. Its legendary status began the moment the stamp was issued in May, 1918, when William T. Robey purchased the entire error sheet of 100 at the New York Avenue Post Office window in Washington D.C. - May 14th - just one day after the stamp was issued. Within one week Robey sold the sheet for $15,000.00 to the well-known Philadelphia stamp dealer Eugene Klein (an impressive return on his initial $24.00 investment). Shortly thereafter Mr. Klein sold the sheet to the renowned, yet eccentric collector, Col. Edward H.R. Green for $20,000.00 (Whose mother was the notorious "Witch of Wall Street"). Col. Green asked Klein to break up the sheet for him into singles and blocks, then instructed him to sell all but the few key position blocks. What is puzzling is how, given the immediate attention created by a spectacular new error, so many of the stamps from the sheet have been poorly handled and stored over the years. In fact, there are still examples whose whereabouts are unknown and possibly lost to philately. A great many of the known copies have varying degrees of faults and some even have lost all of their original gum. Improper hinging has caused a significant number of the faults, often thinning or creasing the stamps, one even got sucked up in a vacuum cleaner and nineteen have straight edges. Even Col. Green did not take great care of his prize. It has been speculated that one may have fallen into a trash can besides his desk.This magnificent and unique centerline position block from the original sheet of 100 is clearly ranked as one of the greatest items in world philately not only in terms of its unique status but also for its tremendous eye-appeal. In the 24th Col. Green sale conducted by Eugene Costales in 1946 it sold to dealer Y. Souren for $22,000.00, who in turn sold it to John Stilwell. It was described as being the "gem" of the entire Green collection. Upon Stilwell's passing it was next presented on the front cover of the first ever Robert A. Siegel Rarities of the World auction in 1964, where it sold to the Weill brothers for $67,000.00. Its next public appearance was in a 1991 Christies auction where it sold for $550,000.00 against a then catalog value of $575,000.00. It has not been offered in public auction since that time, but it has been sold privately a number of times. It was exhibited at AMERIPEX 1986 by the Weill brothers. It has been owned by Benjamin D. Phillips twice, Arthur J. Kobacker and of course William Gross.Offered with a very modest opening bid of $1,000,000.00 (Image)
CV. $2,100,000.00
|
Opening US$ 1,450,000.00
Sold...US$ 1,450,000.00
Closed..Sep-27-2019, 13:03:43 EST
Sold For 1450000
|
