Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

ONE OF THE RAREST OF ALL UNITED STATES STAMPS. ONLY FIVE DISCOVERED, OF WHICH THIS SINGLE AND A PAIR REMAIN AVAILABLE TO COLLECTORS.

In a letter to Eugene Costales, dated March 22, 1962, Elliott Perry provides an accurate account of the discovery of the five Franklin Carrier Special Printing stamps on White Paper, Perforated 12.

Perry (in typical style, taking aim at Philip Ward) describes the cache of Continental Special Printings in strips of five, which included the 1c to 90c 1875 (except the 2c Vermilion and 5c Taylor): "John Klemann got the batch... The whole lot came from Steel's widow [Charles F. Steel, National and Continental Bank Note Co. employee]. Evidently when the special prints were made Steel kept a strip of five of each, with few exceptions [note added in Perry's hand, including block 3c 1869 imperf with NBNCo. cancellation. I suppose the remainder of the Franklins were destroyed as the five in the Steel lot which Ackerman didn't buy in 1918 are all that are known to me. I think John K. [Klemann] sold a single to Luff and one to Needham, and there is one in the Miller collection, which may or may not be the Needham copy."

We have made an exhaustive investigation and have determined the following:

-- A pair and single from the original strip were sold to Edward H. R. Green, but were left in the mixed Reprint lot when his collection was sold (acquired by Philip Ward and so noted in his Mekeel's column, Oct. 4, 1957),

-- The ex-Green pair remains intact, it was in the Lilly and Sheriff collections sold by our firm in 1967 and 1986 (Sale 665), respectively,

-- The ex-Green single is the stamp offered here, which was offered in the Hollowbush sale (John A. Fox, Jul. 8, 1966),

-- The single sold to Benjamin K. Miller remains in the New York Public Library,

-- The single sold to John Luff remains in Luff Reference Collection at The Philatelic Foundation,

-- Despite reference to six stamps in the Steel lot by Ward (repeated by others), there were only five, as Perry states and as sale records show.

Ex Green and Hollowbush (Image)