SPECULATION ON STAMPS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28887, 6 May 1959, Page 8

SPECULATION ON STAMPS

Irish Firm’s Big Purchase

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 4. An Irish organisation has made the biggest stamp purchase in the history of philately, according to the “Star.” The newspaper said today that dealers in London and New York had been staggered to find the collection of Swiss tobacco millionaire, Mr Maurice Burrus, had been bought by Shanaghan’s Stamp Auctions, Ltd., of Dublin.

They had been staggered, because syndicates from Europe, America, and Japan had turned down flat the £3,500,000 valuation the 78-year-old millionaire had put on his world-famous collection. Informed international opinion had put the value at £2,000,000, said the newspaper. “Who then put up this kind of capital? It had been invested by the ordinary people of Ireland, taxi-drivers, hotel porters, hairdressers, and so on, in syndicates of £lO to £looo,’’ said the “Star.**

It said the collection would be split up into small lots and auctioned, mainly to American buyers. The syndicate would share the profits.

The “Star” said reaction in London sjtamp circles was cautious today. One leading auctioneer said: “If anywhere near £3,000,000 has been paid for the stamps, it is an unrealistic price. That is why no-one in London or New York would touch if’