Cherrystone is to hold its next auction on 7-8 May. There will be 1,642 lots of rare stamps and postal history of the World, featuring further selections from the David Mace collection and properties of numerous vendors and estates sold by their order. There will be a solid selection of United States, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Colonies, Liechtenstein, Spain and Scandinavian countries. One of the highlights of this sale is 1918 "2 DOLLARI Pechino" local handstamp type II on 5 Lire.
1918 "2 DOLLARI Pechino" local handstamp type II on 5 Lire is a phenomenal rarity of the Offices in Peking featuring this extremely rare type of surcharge with all capital letters in "DOLLARI". The most common type of Peking was made by adding a surcharge with "dollari" in lower case to an already overprinted stamp for Peking from the previous issue. In the same year of 1918 this extremely rare type with "DOLLARI" in all capital letters was produced. The stamp is the important rarity of the Italian Offices and is one of world class rarities of any of the foreign offices in China. Only 15 (both used and unused) examples of this surcharge are recorded, and the specimen that is being offered by Cherrystone certainly ranking among the finest known. It is being offered with a starting price of $47,500.
