Siegel Offering The Edward Morton US Collection In April

There is a difference between how the collection may or may not have been formed and the collection itself. The collection IS impressive.

Although this thread got derailed a bit, it did start as an announcement for the sale of The Morton Collection. Now that Siegel has posted the catalog online, what are everybody's thoughts?

Easy does it, folks. Let's play nice in our philatelic sandbox.

I am a bit surprised given the somewhat hyperbolic descriptive language that Siegel teased the sale with. Yes, the centering and condition of the stamps is outstanding. I guess that I expected more stamps that had the "wow" factor as far as rarity goes and perhaps more depth? Still and all it is a heck of an accomplishment.

I agree with your take.

There are, however, some rarer varieties and/or stamps mixed in which are nice to see. The selection of #1's, including colors and cancellations is pretty nice.

I also appreciate that there are some nice early covers present.

I am not a fan of the #5 despite its assigned grade. I don't especially like that positions 6 and 8 (#5a) had to be sacrificed to create a "Jumbo" #5. That's two less rare stamps for collectors.

I totally agree about the #5.

The strip wasn't bad appearing, either. The designs of all stamps were mostly all there to see, and it was pretty.

It has been desecrated sometime since the 2007 rarities sale.

https://siegelauctions.com/lot_grd....emailflag=on

My reaction to looking at #5 in the catalog was the same as txstamp and reedededge. Why in the world would anyone cut up the neighboring stamps? The strip was way more appealing. The stamp is now an artificially created faultless jumbo. Sad.

I think there are a number of very beautiful stamps in the collection, at least in the area I collect. Many have previously brought well over SMQ at auction. It will be interesting to see if these prices hold up.

The strip sold for $170K and now the single is estimated at $100 - 150K. If the artificial jumbos start selling for less than a strip, that will be the best way to stop people from mutilating multiples in the future.

Totally agree! But sadly, by the time the market bears this out, much of the damage will already have been done.

Then we can enjoy the challenge of finding the missing stamps to reconstruct the original strip.

....Unless the necessary missing pieces needed to "reconstruct" have been cut in half to create a center jumbo.

Morton day @ Siegel. I just might overpay bunches today so I can take that bath in 20 years#128538;. I've learned that the exceptional stamps rarely decrease in value. Cheers

You mean like the #5 that didn't sell? Made me happy, I despise vandalism.

I agree with revcollector. Almost all of the imperforate One-Cent 1851 singles look like they had been cut from multiples in order to create phony large margins.