Kelleher describes the auction, which includes 1,500 lots, as “brimming with premium items.”

The affected lots are from a Siegel auction of India stamps and postal history that took place in May 2023. The Siegel firm has not been accused of any crime.

The total realization of $19,201,550, which includes the 18 percent buyer’s premium Siegel charges on all lots sold, is a record for a U.S. collection.

The only 1868 1¢ Benjamin Franklin stamp with a Z grill available to collectors was sold for $4.366 million. That price is a record for a single U.S. stamp.

The auction emphasizes classic-era United States stamps and postal history from the late 19th through the early 20th centuries.

Kugel’s expansive holdings were donated to the American Philatelic Society following his death.

This remarkable collection is being offered by Charles F. Shreve and Tracy L. Carey in association with Siegel.

The press gathering will be held May 30 from noon to 4 p.m. Eastern Time at the Collectors Club, 58 W. 40th St., in New York City.

The plate block, which comes with a clean 2002 Professional Stamp Experts certificate, possesses fresh color, and all six stamps are well centered.

A standout item from the June 7 sale of the Erivan collection of worldwide rarities is described by Corinphila as the earliest recorded use of the Canada 1851 12-penny black Queen Victoria to the United States.

All told, the lots sold during the auction realized a total (with the 18 percent buyer’s premium) of $3,065,935.

Part 1 of the Evergreen sale will focus on stamps from Great Britain and the British Commonwealth.

Additional highlights in the Cherrystone sale include China Red Revenue stamps, extensive listings of flight and zeppelin covers, rare booklets and more.

One of the more eye-catching U.S. booklet items in the Larkin collection is a used pane of six of the U.S. 1907 1¢ Benjamin Franklin booklet stamp.

The sale emphasizes China and “offers a number of attractive Shanghai Large Dragons, solid Dowagers and Red Revenues, Coiling Dragons, Junks, etc.,” Kelleher and Rogers said.

Erivan Haub (1932-2018) was a billionaire and retail businessman whose prodigious collecting interests spanned the globe.

The four-day Westpex sale, which includes more than 2,300 lots, will offer an enormous array of U.S. stamps and postal history, Civil War postal history, Confederate States, U.S. possessions, British Commonwealth, general foreign issues, and U.S. and worldwide collections.

One of the philatelic crown jewels of the collection is an 1868 1¢ blue Benjamin Franklin stamp with a Z grill, known to collectors as the 1¢ Z grill.

The auction includes more than 1,500 lots and features United States material from the collections of David E. Bays, Gary A. Kosvic, Lady Connoisseur and William Rider.

In the introduction to the catalog prepared for each sale, Siegel president Scott Trepel revealed his 35-year friendship with the anonymous collector whom he calls “Dragonfly.”