Lot 83
Canal Zone 1920, 2c orange vermilion & black (47), perfectly centered. Full o.g. Extremely Fine.
Scott $3,250
A CHOICE EXAMPLE OF THE RAREST OF ALL REGULARLY ISSUED CANAL ZONE STAMPS.
Expertization: photocopy of 1974 A.P.S. Certificate for pair.
Provenance: Helme
While the printing of 200,000 copies of the 2¢ "Mt. Hope" overprint is an order of magnitude greater than that of Scott #15 (only 500), the former far more elusive. It is estimated that no more than 100 mint examples have survived, and most of them are poorly printed and/or poorly centered (19,000 were immediately destroyed for "unsatisfactory press work"). The inferior quality of the local printing apparently caused collectors of the day to shun them and local postmasters to quickly move them to the bottom of their stocks as new supplies of the 2¢ type V came in from the A.B.N.Co. (1,000,000 copies of the 2¢ type V arrived in the Canal Zone less than two weeks after the Panama Canal Press delivered their inferior supply of the 2¢ type III). For this reason it is likely that the vast majority of all the 2¢ type III sold were used for postage and that a large percentage of those unsold were still among the 629,160 2¢ stamps destroyed in 1937.
In contrast, most of the 500 #15's printed were sold to dealers or collectors and can still be accounted for.
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| Realized $4,000 |
