Different versions of blue 1 cent stamps featuring Benjamin Franklin represent the whole range of stamp collecting from stamps worth little more than pocket change  to the world famous Z-Grill - worth nearly $3m to a certain Bill Gross.

At Robert A Siegel's ongoing auction of rare United States stamps, a number of variations of the 1c blue have gone up for auction yesterday and today which were somewhere in between.

The best on offer was an imperforate 1851 blue 1c - a Type Ib in Scott's notation. This unusually fine, fresh and attractive piece was from a good position on the original, imperfect plate and displays a good view of the design and fine margins.

A clean, faint strike of a circular postmark takes nothing away from the look of the stamp, which fetched $11,250.

A little later in the auction, a Type III stamp (from 1857, with perforations), similarly attractive with a faint postmark impressed bidders sufficiently that they more than doubled its estimate of $2,750 to bring $7,500, proving its investment worth.

The sale concludes tomorrow in New York and online.