The Alan Geisler Collection of United States and Possessions Stamps continued...

VERY FINE APPEARING ORIGINAL-GUM EXAMPLE OF THE 1857 3-CENT TYPE I.

With 2006 P.F. certificate (Image)

VERY FINE APPEARANCE. AN EXTREMELY RARE 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 in better condition than most.

With 1992 P.S.E. certificate (Image)

FINE APPEARING ORIGINAL-GUM EXAMPLE OF THE 1857 5-CENT RED BROWN.

With 1984 P.F. certificate (Image)

FINE APPEARANCE. A RARE ORIGINAL-GUM EXAMPLE OF THE 1857 5-CENT INDIAN RED ISSUE. THIS IS ONE OF THE RAREST ORIGINAL-GUM STAMPS IN UNITED STATES PHILATELY -- ONLY FOUR INDIAN RED STAMPS WITH ANY AMOUNT OF GUM ARE CONTAINED IN OUR RECORDS.

Our search of old auction catalogues and the records of the Philatelic Foundation yielded only ten unused examples of Scott 28A. Of these, only four have been described as having any gum whatsoever. These are: 1) Offered in the C. A. Brown Collection by Harmer, Rooke & Co. in 1941 where described as "full original gum", it was offered in the 1968 Rarities sale and again as part of the A. T. Seymour Collection (Siegel Sale 373, Apr. 23, 1970, lot 35) where described as "large part original gum" and in our Sale 895 (lot 102, realized $75,000 hammer), 2) the "Ambassador" copy (Siegel Sale 300, Apr. 27, 1966, lot 45A), described as part original gum, also ex Argentum (Siegel Sale 807, Feb. 23, 1999, lot 76) where described as "unused (traces of gum)", 3) the Caspary/Lilly copy, described in both catalogues as full original gum but with light horizontal crease, and 4) the example offered here.

With 1996 P.F. certificate (Image)