Daniel F Kelleher, America's oldest philatelic auction house has put its first auction catalogue for 2012 online.
They aren't taking a gentle start to the year either, with an impressive 220 lots of US, British and Worldwide stamps, postal history and collections going under the hammer.
The US section is probably the strongest, as this includes first offerings from the 'Sacramento' collection of quality American singles and plate blocks and the 'Caldwell' holding of US stamps.
 The St Louis bears stamp on grey lilac paper |
Two of the highlights include:
Firstly, one of America's very oldest stamps, a St. Louis, Missouri, 5¢ black on gray lilac stamp, of type III, position 5, with two neat pen stroke cancels.
It has three nice margins, touching at the left with an especially large margin at the right, and is a deeply etched impression on fresh pleasing grey lilac paper, displaying an overall freshness that is inviting.
A pleasingly sound example of one of the rarest of all US stamps with only a handful surviving, it is expected to sell for $15,000-20,000.
 The fresh and attractive example of the famous CIA invert stamp |
Differing in almost every respect is an example of one of our favourite errors, the CIA invert. Never hinged, this is a fantastic example of this popular error, with excellent centring and brilliant fresh colour.
An extraordinary top quality rarity in extremely fine condition, it is one of only 93 sound examples which reached collectors - a similar number to that of the Inverted Jenny. It too is expected to achieve $15,000-20,000.
Daniel F Kelleher's auction takes place from January 25-27 in Connecticut.
