A Tiny Stamp That May Sell for Millions

Good morning. It’s Monday. We’ll find out why a 1-cent postage stamp could become the most expensive U.S. stamp ever sold. We’ll also get details on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s order forbidding National Guard soldiers to carry long guns when they are on duty in the subway.

Credit…Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries

William Gross said to sell it all, a command that would have made Wall Street shudder if he had been talking about his huge portfolio of bonds.

But he was talking about his huge portfolio of postage stamps, and Charles Shreve — a stamp dealer who built Gross’s collection for him — has spent years carrying out the sell order.

The sell-off will conclude in New York with a sale that will feature a tiny 1-cent stamp from 1868 — a used stamp with a silhouette of Benjamin Franklin that is partly blocked by the curve of the postmark. It is known among collectors as the “Z-grill.”

The auction house that will sell it on June 14 is predicting that it will go for $4 million to $5 million. That would make it the most valuable U.S. postage stamp. It would still trail the 1-cent magenta from British Guiana, which sold for $8.3 million in 2021.