The opening lot is a March 30, 1858, folded letter franked with a vertical bisect of the 2-real yellow green Hidalgo used as a 1r stamp that was mailed from Fresnillo to Zacatecas.
The joint meeting came one day before the opening of Great American Stamp Show, the nation’s biggest annual philatelic extravaganza, held Aug. 10-13 near the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland.
One of the more visually stunning items from the Statesman collection is a set of the so-called Atlanta trial color proofs of the 1869 issue, including all but the scarce green-and-black version of the 90¢ Abraham Lincoln.