Rare Brazilian stamps sell for $1.9M at auction

updated 5:47 p.m. ET June 5, 2008

NEW YORK - A rare Brazilian stamp series known as the “Pack Strip” has sold for $1.9 million at an auction of early South American postage stamps.

The Siegel Auction Galleries says the 1843 series of “Bull’s Eyes” stamps — considered the rarest among Brazilian collector stamps — was sold on Thursday to a buyer bidding by phone. It contains two 30-reis (ree-YAHS’) denomination stamps joined with one 60-reis.

The auction house will add a 15 percent commission to the $1.9 million hammer price.

The auctioneer says the entire collection — with other offerings from Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Peru — could fetch more than $5 million.

It’s being sold by an anonymous retired professor of economics.

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