It doesn’t look like very much, but an 1868 one-cent stamp could become the most valuable single American stamp ever sold in June.
The incredibly rare Z Grill is the treasure of William H Gross’s collection, one of the greatest in history.
The stamp carries an estimate of $4 million to $5 million, so could double the $2 million paid for an Inverted Jenny last November.
The value of this nondescript stamp, with a Benjamin Franklin portrait, is in its “Z Grill”.
The grills are tiny, textured prints impressed into the paper on the front of a stamp. They were designed to make it harder to remove the inked cancellation stamp that showed a stamp had been used.
The idea didn’t last long, and stamps with these grills are now extremely valuable.
A number of styles of grill were used, the Zs are the rarest.
This stamp is believed to be one of just two in existence. The other is permanently owned by the New York Public Library.
It was donated to them in 1925, and the Z Grills have long been sought after.
This stamp can be traced as far back as 1977, when it was sold for $90,000. In 1986 it made $418,000, and Gross bought it from Robert Zoellner for $935,000 in 1998.
William H Gross has one of the most significant collections in modern philately.
Siegel director Charles Shreve told artnet: “People have been waiting for this sale for years.”
“It’s the most significant rare stamp auction in decades.
“The two-day sale without question will realize more than any stamp auction ever.”
Estimates for the sale put the value of this part of the collection potentially as high as $20 million.
Gross has been selling his collections since 2007. He started selling his unique American collection in 2018. According to Siegel director Shreve, once he had purchased the Z Grill he lost interest in a collection he considered completed.
The sales take place over two days in New York on June 14th and 15th.
