Put stamp where money is

A local philanthropist and investor raised more than $3 million for the Smithsonian Institution by selling some of his prized collection of stamps at auction.

Bill Gross, co-founder of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), sold the stamps in New York earlier this month.

The $3.2 million in funds raised will go toward Gross’ $8-million pledge to expand the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. A new street-level, 12,000-square-foot gallery named after Gross is expected to open in 2012.

The two William H. Gross Collection sets were sold in pieces. They included “Confederate States of America: Postmasters’ Provisionals and the War Between the North & South,” which included provisional covers from Confederate postmasters, and “British North America: Important Postage Stamps and Postal History,” which contained some of the rarest and earliest Canadian stamps.

“With all sale proceeds being given to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, I hope that all collectors will aggressively participate in these two auctions, not only to add wonderful rarities to their collections, but to help ensure that future generations of collectors will be created and introduced to the hobby we all enjoy,” Gross said in a release before the auction.

“The Gross family is pleased with the results of the auction and is honored to be able to donate the proceeds to the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum to help fund the museum’s expansion,” PIMCO and Gross family spokesman Mark Porterfield said in a release.

“Since 2007, Gross has sold many foreign collections for the purpose of donating the sales proceeds to charity. It is the hope of the family that future generations of stamp collectors will be created and introduced to the hobby by visiting the museum.”

The new gallery will give the museum a much-needed ground-level face on Massachusetts Avenue. Gross will loan three rarities from his collection to the new gallery when it opens: a cover from the Pony Express service; an 1847 cover featuring the 10-cent George Washington stamp, and a block of four 1918 “Inverted Jennys.”

There were three lots in the Civil War collection and 133 lots of British North American rarities.

The auction house named one of the Canadian stamps, the 1851 Canadian 12 Pence Black on Laid Paper, as “one of the most important covers of the entire world.” The stamp’s value was estimated at $110,000; it sold for $260,000.

Another popular item was a Red Brown stamp, circa 1861, from Mount Lebanon, La. The 5-cent stamp features a mirror image of the intended design, as is the world’s only known mirror image stamp, the auction house said. It is considered to be the most valuable Confederate stamp.

Gross paid $385,000 for the stamp in 1999; it sold in November for $240,000.