Three of the world’s greatest collectable treasures will be sold at a New York auction on Tuesday.
Two of the lots are from the world of philately – the sole-surviving British Guinea 1 cent magenta stamp from 1856, which sold for a world record £5.7 million in 2014.
Discovered by a 12-year-old Scottish schoolboy among his uncle’s letters in 1873, this is the most famous and valuable stamp in the world.
The second philatelic item is a block of four of the United States airmail 24c stamp, with its central engraving of an aeroplane spectacularly printed upside down.
But wait, there’s more…
Known as the ‘Inverted Jenny,’ this lot sold for £3.2 million in 2014, making it the most valuable item in US philately.
The third lot is the USA 1933 ‘Double Eagle’ 20-dollar gold coin, the only example in private hands. This last changed hands for £5 million in 2002.
What connects the three items is Stuart Weitzman, the 79-year-old American luxury shoes entrepreneur who had set his heart on collecting the greatest rarities in the areas of stamps and coins and used his millions to buy the trio of treasures.
Weitzman was determined to take them out of private hands and to place them on public view. And, since purchasing the items, the British Guinea stamp has been on show in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, while the Inverted Jenny block has been loaned to the New York Historical Society Museum & Library.
The trio has a combined estimate of $37 million (£26.6 million) and the proceeds of this week’s sale, to be staged by Sotheby’s in New York, will be donated by Mr Weitzman to charities.
