The original essay and proof set for the first Russian adhesive postage stamps (1854-1857) is to sell at Spink.

The nine piece lot is offered with an estimate of $400,000-500,000 in advance of the December 6 sale in New York City.

These round stamps were trailed before the release of the 1857 10 kopek 

The Russians were relatively late to introduce stamps, issuing the first adhesive stamp in 1857. Prior to that the post office experimented with these round designs (known as the Stempel issue).

In the end, the decision was made to go with rectangular stamps.

Spink describes the lot as “a unique and consequently impossible to duplicate group of proofs and essays, these being philatelic pieces of great significance in Russian philately”.

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