Uncut Sheets Of 1960 Red And Blue 7 Cent Airmail Stamps

Hello, everybody!

My father just gave my son two uncut sheets of 100 red 7-cent airmail stamps and two sheets of 100 blue 7-cent airmail stamps. The stamps don't have any dates on them, but some Google searching leads me to believe they are from 1960.

Just trying to figure out whether these have much value over face and whether the fact that they are uncut sheets of 100 adds anything to the value.

I've looked around on ebay a bit and have seen some single examples for sale, as well as some 6 stamp panes, and they seem to sell for anywhere from 25 cents each to $2 each. But I haven't found any examples of full sheets for sale anywhere.

Any info would be appreciated!

Sorry.....face at best

Anyone shipping stiff envelopes can use a strip of 3x 7c stamps to pay the 21c non-machinable surcharge.

I know I do.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Thanks, guys! I'm a regular over at the coin forum but don't get here very often.

After posting, I found an online stamp store selling these stamps for $0.45-0.50 per stamp with no premium for uncut sheets of 100. So, yeah, not worth that much I guess. I have no idea why my father was holding onto these, since most of the other stamps he gave us do have significant value to them. Right now I'm going through a bunch of "revenue" stamps from the 1860s-70s, some of which are apparently worth $500-1000 apiece.

I'm not planning on selling anything right now. My dad gave these to hold onto for my 10-year-old son to (hopefully) help pay for his college when the time comes. So I'll probably be holding onto all of them for at least another 7-8 years.

Thanks again for the help, and I'm sure I'll be back as I run into additional mysteries.

Barry, The sheet has a small part in the history of American modern art. In the 1950s and 1960s, Lichtenstein, Johns, Warhol and others were all experimenting in NY. In early 1962, just before Warhol painted his now famous Campbell Soup can series, he paints stamps - this red airmail sheet in particular. I'm pretty sure the LA Museum of Modern Art has Warhol's original of the red airmail sheet, but it is not on display. Here is a little history excerpt for your son:

EARLY 1962: ANDY WARHOL PAINTS STAMPS.

According to the most recent biography of Andy Warhol, Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol, "shortly after the first soup can paintings and immediately before the dollar bill paintings, Warhol made two series of stamp paintings: S&H Green Stamps... and Airmail Stamps. The earliest of these were made in January 1962, using designs carved into art gum erasers... Using the engraved art gum erasers as stamps, he made monoprint impressions on canvas and paper with acrylic paint." (SC90) The authors, however, do not indicate the source of the January 1962 date, which is not footnoted. Art writer David Bourdon did not recall seeing any S&H Green Stamp paintings when he first visited Warhol's studio in March 1962. (RN130)

According to The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné Vol. 1: Paintings and Sculpture 1961-1963, "A contact sheet by Edward Wallowitch shows an S&H Green Stamp work on paper and Red Airmail Stamps among exposures of related works from the period, including a Ferus-type Campbell's Soup Can (Tomato) and Dance Diagram, as well as the photographic source of Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Vegetable Beef). This sheet places these works in the first months of 1962 and shows that the stamped paintings were begun before all the Campbell's paintings were completed." (RN103)

The catalogue raisonné also notes that solubility tests of the green paint in an S&H Green Stamps painting and the red paint on the gum eraser used to make the Airmail Stamp paintings "have shown that both were painted with acrylic emulsions" which "indicates that both series mark a decisive shift on Warhol's part from casein to acrylic colours that occurs in early 1962." (RN103)

Thank you!

Here is Warhol's painting of the airmail stamp sheet. Kind of cool to think a sheet of stamps were a key influence in what is arguably one of the most recognized types of art in the world - Warhol's repetitive patterns of real images: soup, Elvis, Marilyn...

http://c300221.r21.cf1.rackcdn.com/...030180_b.jpg

Those sound like booklet panes, which are considered different by collectors than sheet stamps.

for a limited time you can use 7 of them to mail a letter - 49c