Lot 347

Mid-20th C. US Postage Stamps - Mint Commemorative Lot

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Lot 347
Mid-20th C. US Postage Stamps - Mint Commemorative Lot

Mid-20th C. US Postage Stamps - Mint Commemorative Lot

Estimate: $300 - $450

Starting Bid: $150

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT (In Progress)
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

North America, United States, ca. 1946–1952 CE. A glassine envelope spills a small hoard of mint United States postage stamps, their gummed backs and crisp perforations untouched by the postmark. Foremost is the violet three-cent California Gold Centennial of 1948, its vignette of Sutter's Mill at Coloma commemorating the 1848 strike that loosed the Argonaut rush. Beside it lie a green Plains issue and a pale blue three-cent commemorative dated 1946, the cluster bound together by the quiet tidiness of a mid-century collector. Printed by intaglio in the engraver's fine line, each miniature offers a national vignette compressed into a rectangle scarcely larger than a thumbnail. Such lots, set aside unused and never licked to an envelope, preserve the philatelic enthusiasm of postwar America, when commemorative series chronicled centennials, statehood anniversaries, and the iconography of a confident republic. Size of largest: 1.625" W x 1" H (4.1 cm W x 2.5 cm H).

The featured violet stamp is Scott No. 954, the California Gold Centennial issue released in 1948 to mark the hundredth anniversary of James W. Marshall's gold discovery at Sutter's Mill. Its three-cent denomination reflects the standard first-class domestic letter rate of the era, the workhorse value for the flood of commemoratives the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced through the 1940s and 1950s.

Provenance: private Sheffield, Massachusetts, USA collection

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Item # 200678

  • Condition: Excellent. All are in excellent overall condition.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000