A Lovely 1st Issue Imperforate Multiple

I saw this on ebay as one of those auction + best offer listings with about a day left and no bids, so I made an offer below the starting bid, it was countered and we came to an agreement.

This (relatively) new format of auction + offer is a case where snipers are actually at a disadvantage since the seller could come to agreement before the auction ends, as happened here.

It's a vertical block of 10 of R58a, the imperforate 50-cent Life Insurance. It is the third largest reported multiple and not listed in the Curtis Census.

What I like about it is that it comprises a full strip across the sheet from top to bottom including both top and bottom margins. There are a couple of document/storage creases (the long diagonal crease at top left is actually a preprint paper fold), but no pinholes or thins.

The seller had determined a catalogue value of 10 stamps x $45 = $450... but this is one of the the cases where multiples are quite scarce and pairs and blocks are valued much higher than simply a total of the singles. As two blocks of 4 and a pair, the catalogue value for the multiple is $2,060... quite a difference.

There aren't many 1st issue margin-to-margin multiples out there. I want to say that I have only one other example, a vertical strip of 10 5-cent part perfs.

I can't recall seeing a block like this one. Multiples with side margins that have top and bottom perhaps, and of course there are some full sheets, but never a used one cut from the middle of a sheet where the taxpayer left both margins on. Lucky for you the seller really didn't know what he had.

Hi Dan,

Congrats on yet another great item!!