Gross to sell Scandinavian stamps for charity

According to a press release that appears on the News-Antique.com website, "Renowned Wall Street bond manager, Bill Gross, will offer the Scandinavia portion of his extensive, international stamp collection in a public auction conservatively estimated to bring over $1 million. All proceeds from the collection’s sale will be donated by Sue and Bill Gross to the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, according to Charles Shreve, President of Spink Shreves Galleries of New York City and Dallas..."

The collection has 110 rare and even several one-of-a-kind 19th and early 20th century Scandinavian stamps. It includes an unusual printing 152 years ago of Finland's first postage stamps (shown above) with adjoining images that are upside down to each other, a peculiar placement known as tête-bêche.

Shreve is quoted as saying, "It's one of the most famous philatelic rarities of the world. It's a mint condition block of four stamps containing two pair of 10 kopek denomination stamps, the first stamps of Finland from 1856. One pair within the block is inverted to other pair. This impressive tête-bêche block is the finest of only three known, and has graced many of the world's most famous collections."

The auction takes place May 16 in New York.

For more information, click here.