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Introduction to the
Twigg-Smith Collection of THURSTON TWIGG-SMITH’S NAME IS SO CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH Hawaiian philately that this sale catalogue may come as a surprise to the collecting community. For seventy years, Mr. Twigg-Smith has ardently collected United States stamps. His fascination with every issue never waned during this long period of collecting. In fact, all of the stamped mail received at the offices of The Honolulu Advertiser newspaper, of which he was publisher for many years, was preserved so that the stamps could be soaked off. Although some 25 cartons of cancelled stamps burned in a house fire on Kona, there are still cartons of stamps waiting for his attention. Years ago, Mr. Twigg-Smith decided that bringing stamps with original gum to the tropical climate of Hawaii would put such artifacts at risk. Instead, he chose to collect cancelled stamps. Encompassing every issue from Postmasters’ Provisionals through Washington-Franklin coils and varieties, all the way to modern commemoratives, the collection is an outstanding accomplishment. As a collector and patron of Contemporary Art, Mr. Twigg-Smith has maintained an edge in recognizing talented artists before their work becomes widely known. In philately, he has also shown tremendous foresight by acquiring extremely rare used stamps before most dealers and collectors (as well as the Scott Catalogue) fully appreciated the elusiveness of these stamps. In particular, the used 1861 and 1869 Re-Issues, 4c Columbian error, Pan-American Inverts and Washington-Franklin coil line pairs and shade/perforation varieties are valued much more today than they were as recently as five years ago. In our opinion, certain issues are still gaining stature as collectors realize how few genuinely cancelled examples exist. Several years ago, Mr. Twigg-Smith expanded the scope of his collection to include used blocks. The result is one of the finest used block collections ever formed, featuring such rarities as the 1868 Grilled Issue, the 1869 Pictorial Issue, Columbian dollar-values and several very rare Washington-Franklin Issues. To make this catalogue more informative and useful as a reference to used United States stamps, we have included updated census data in the descriptions of many rare items. Compiling census data is a difficult and time-consuming task, and the efforts of John Zuckerman in this regard are acknowledged with gratitude. The Siegel firm maintains one of the world’s most comprehensive databases on United States stamps, and we hope that collectors will benefit from the information contained in this and every catalogue we publish. Somewhere I read that a cancelled stamp represents duty served and a journey completed, which earns it exalted status. I agree. —SCOTT R. TREPEL
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