The David Golden Collection of Hawaiian Stamps and Postal History continued...

FINE APPEARANCE. THE 1863 2-CENT BLACK FIFTH-SETTING NUMERAL ISSUE ON BLUISH GRAY PAPER IS PERHAPS THE RAREST OF ALL NUMERAL ISSUES ON COVER. A SEARCH OF MAJOR NAME SALES FAILED TO LOCATE EVEN ONE OTHER COVER.

A search of major name sale catalogues, including Tows, Adm. Harris, Crocker, Caspary, Ishikawa, Honolulu Advertiser, Pietsch, Aall and Twigg-Smith, failed to produce another example of the Fifth-Setting 2c on Bluish Gray paper (Scott 18) on cover.

Ex Burrus (sold as No. 16 in Burrus sale) (Image)

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A PRESENTABLE EXAMPLE OF THE SO-CALLED "GESVRET" 1863 2-CENT BLACK NUMERAL ON THICK BLUISH GRAY PAPER FROM PLATE 5-Bx. ONLY SEVEN COPIES, UNUSED OR USED, HAVE BEEN REPORTED.

According to the Westerberg book, the existence of this Numeral printing first came to light in 1902. Three copies were discovered by Mr. E. Gesvret, who assigned it to a new plate. Both Gesvret and Westerberg agreed that this stamp has more in common typographically with Scott No. 17, the Dark Blue numeral, than it does either of the Black Numerals -- Scott Nos. 18 or 20.

The example offered here was first discovered in 1959. It is accompanied by two notes from Fred Westerberg to Mr. Golden in 1962 describing his analysis, which is that they are sufficiently different from other listings but that there are not enough in existence to qualify for a major Scott Catalogue number.

Accompanied by photo of three other recorded examples, from Positions 3, 6 and 7. (Image)

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