Show Your Exposition Sets - My 1893 Columbian Expo Collection

I enjoy the artistic detail of the Columbian issue and recently started working to acquire the full set (slowly but surely...) May have to mortgage my house to buy the missing ones though.

Face value of this set is ~$17 (in 1893) which is close to $500 adjusted for inflation! Trans-Mississippi was also quite expensive, so come time for the Pan-Am Expo, collectors asked for a cheaper issue (and got it for $0.30).

I'd love to see other people's Columbians, Trans-Mississippi, or Pan-American collections.



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Radjack, nice collection. If you search this forum you will see all the sets you are looking for. A "search" button is on every page close to where you sign in


Peter

I recently acquired this set of Columbian plate proofs on card. They're beautiful examples of the engraver's art and the colors really pop. I'm with you in saying that this is my favorite US issue.

Here are two that I like. Not sure if I will ever get the $3 - $5 but you never know.

Agreed, those proofs have great color!

Jealous of your 30c, Paddle. That's the next one I need and the prices go up so quickly after the 15c Nice $2. Great used piece.

You can always just stop with the 10 cent and 30 cent values and begin topical collecting. The former shows the first (non-allegorical) bird on a US stamp and the latter, the first dog. Got a dog on the Trans-Mississippi 50 cent as well.

I think the best kind of 1893 Columbian Expo Collection a person could build/invest in today are the high value straight edge matching sets (4 corners, top, bottom, left side, right side, middle). The population of these higher value straight edges grows smaller every month (all being reperfed); reminds of all original (as opposed to restored) collector cars where the population is constantly shrinking.

Like this example except for the higher value 1893 Columbian Expo stamps


Don

I paid $26 for the 30c because it has no gum. That was Nov 2021. It's much more orange in real life. I left all the scanner settings alone but it came out very red. The $2 looks like they soaked it overnight to get the cancels out, but it was also very reasonable.

This is my set of the regular issue. It took a lot of years to complete this page but that's what collecting is all about: a journey. The 1¢ through 50¢ are a mix of NH or LH. The dollar values all have certificates with a minimum grade of 80 (the $3 was graded at 90 by the Philatelic Foundation.) Best wishes in someday completing your Columbians.

A closer view of the higher values. The $3 is the nicest used copy I've ever seen.

Don,
There is a $5 on eBay right now with scarce genuine straight edge at top. You're right, you hardly find these anymore since almost all of them got reperfed through the ages. This one is no gum, so maybe it wasn't worth the effort (NG CV is less than used for most of the dollar values).

But I don't believe anyone would be able to create a complete set of corners like your #610 example, or even side SE's because of how the sheets were printed. Each pane will have a SE at top or bottom, but all stamps on the sheet have perfs left to right. There is perforated selvedge on the outer edges, and the two panes side-by-side are separated by perforations, not a guideline and cut (straight edge) like you see on other issues.

It anyone has evidence of a side (or corner) straight edge on a Columbian, I'd love to see it.



Images from Siegel Auction Galleries.

That full pane of the $1 Columbian is absolutely insane!

I, too, enjoy the idea of a series commemorating a national/international expo. Somehow, I've been specifically drawn the Pan Am Expo. here is my set of Pan-Ams, each from the corner of the sheet with the numerals in the corner. I suspect the two numerals, one in the vignette color and the other in the other color were designed to help prevent inverts. Perhaps they were deigned to prevent the wrong subject being printed with the wrong vignette.



After the C3a was discovered, they added the word TOP in both colors of the stamp to prevent more inverts. The timing (the C3a was printed 17 years after the Pan-Ams) doesn't make sense if they came up with the idea after the C3a, but it still sounds good to me. If they DID have the idea before the C3a, then one must ask why didn't they print the first C3's with TOP in both colors? Or, why not print '24' in both colors in the corners of the sheets of C3?

I am sure there are reasons for everything happening the way it did. All I know is that I find a set of corner copies with the #'s to be quite attractive.

Beautiful set. Love the corner margin copies. I have always been amused by the "typewriter text" in the top margins as well. I don't think I've seen that on any other series.