NYC Stamp Auction Raises $3.2 Million for Museum

In this undated photo released by Spink Shreves Galleries, Civil War-era envelope postmarked...

In this undated photo released by Spink Shreves Galleries, Civil War-era envelope postmarked November 15, 1861 with a Confederate Postmaster's blue 5 cent Livingston, Alabama "provisional" postage stamp is shown. The stamp, the collection of Wall Street executive, William H. Gross, sold for a record $160 thousand in a public auction conducted by Spink Shreves Galleries in New York City, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Spink Shreves Galleries, Ho)

(AP)

A New York City gallery has auctioned over 200 rare postage stamps to raise $3.2 million for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.

Wall Street money manager William Gross' collection of Civil War-era Confederate states and early Canadian stamps sold Thursday at the Spink Shreves Galleries of New York and Dallas.

Gross recently pledged $8 million to build a new gallery at the museum. A $3.2 million check was presented to the museum's director after the auction as part of that donation.

A gallery spokesman says a record price of $260,000 was paid for a single Canadian stamp, a black 12 pence stamp of Queen Victoria from 1851.

The winning bids do not include an additional buyer's premium of fifteen percent.

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