The arrival in 1905 on the philatelic market of the Dawson cover circulated in 1852 is an event. In very good condition it wears for the expedition a 2c and a 5c from Hawaii and for the reception a pair of the US 3c. It was sold for $ 2.25M including premium by Siegel on June 25, 2013.
The Ferrari collection also known as Von Ferrary is the best philatelic collection of all time including the great treasures of this specialty : the British Guiana 1c, the yellow treskilling, the Bordeaux cover. In the auction of his deceased estate at Drouot the highest price, 156,000 francs, is recorded on June 23, 1921 on the best known example of the Hawaii 2c.
This stamp had not been described during Von Ferrary's lifetime. In 1921 a trace on the back of the stamp still left the doubt on a possible circulation. It was definitely determined as unused soon later.
Its extraordinary price turns the heads. L'Almanach Vermot 1922 includes a short story narrating that in 1892 the owner of a stamp of the same variety, perhaps the same as the Von Ferrary specimen, had been murdered by a "friend". The stamp had been found in ownership of the murderer by the investigator.
The Vermot almanach, highly appreciated in France at that time, is an annual publication that intertwines practical information, jokes and puns, not claiming to be a credible source for its fabulous stories. The name of the assassin left no other trace on the web. The victim is named Gaston Leroux, a perfect homonym to the first French writer of detective stories, inventor of the character Rouletabille, in full activity in 1922.
The Vermot anecdote is interesting because it reinforces the attention paid to this stamp. Insensitive to French humor, some philatelists have endorsed this fantasy, turning the joke into a hoax.
This stamp remains today the only unused copy of its denomination. It was sold for $ 660K including premium by Siegel on November 7, 1995 and bought by Gross two years later in another auction. It is estimated $ 500K for sale by Robert A. Siegel in New York on October 3, lot 106. Here is the link to the section devoted to the Gross collection on the website of the auction house.
SOLD for $ 620K including premium