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Sweet Vindication

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

It's the stuff stamp collectors dream of. Years ago, Las Vegas casino dealer Denny Moreau bought a large box of used stamps, all similar.

#1 "We call them 2-cent Reds. They're 2-cent George Washingtons. There were about 15- or 16-hundred of them in this box and so I asked the gentleman how much they were, and he said $7.50." :10

One day after he retired, he took out the box and went through it, and one caught his eye as a rarity.

#10: "It happens to be from a private perforation company called Schermack, who would buy stamps from the government, cut them into long strips and glue them together, and when they got about 3,000 in a row, they'd put them in their private vending machine." :14

Only 40 of them are known to still exist.

He sent it off for authentication; the company said it was a common variety, only worth about a quarter. Denny didn't agree.

#6: "I had been studying that particular stamp for 30 years. See, there's 9 different types of the 2-cent Reds, and 234 color varieties of red."

He sent it to ANOTHER authenticator...who eventually said, yes, it's the rare one... cataloguing for about 50-thousand dollars.

So Denny put it in an auction.

#3: "They sold it for $95,000." :03

It's not just the money, he says.

#7: "The fact that I was vindicated, that I stuck to my guns, and said 'No, these experts are wrong, they made a mistake this time.'" :07

It's nice to be right.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting, visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

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